I say: Al-Bayhaqī has supplied a fully connected chain through Yazīd ibn Hārūn, who reported from Dāwūd, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd, who said: “Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and Ibn Masʿūd differed over the permissibility of praying in a single garment …” and he narrated the tradition with wording to that effect. This isnād is sound.

Al-Bayhaqī comments: “This shows that Ibn Masʿūd’s instruction to pray in two garments is a recommendation, not an obligation.”

That praying in two garments is purer and more meritorious is a matter of unanimous agreement, as al-Nawawī states in his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. The earlier directive to wear both a mantle and a waist-wrapper likewise supports this.

In short, the consensus claimed by al-Nawawī concerns the single garment that is able to cover the upper body; otherwise, you already know Aḥmad’s view and that of others who hold that complete covering is obligatory. Allah knows best.

4 – Furthermore, anyone who prays in a shirt with a wide opening and has no other garment must fasten it, even with a thorn, lest his private parts become exposed. Salama ibn al-Akwaʿ said: “O Messenger of Allah, I am sometimes out hunting and wish to pray while wearing nothing but a single shirt.” He replied, “Fasten it, even if all you can find is a thorn,” and in another wording, “Button it up, even with a thorn.”

Imām Aḥmad recorded it, saying: Ḥāshim ibn al-Qāsim narrated to us: ʿAṭṭāf related from