pray a single unit to make the number odd,” that wording would not have been valid. It is valid only when night prayer is mentioned on its own, as established in the two Sahīhs. The questioner had asked him only about night prayer. Although the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sometimes gave an answer broader than the question—as in the hadith about the sea, when he was told:

“We travel by sea and carry only a little water with us. If we use it for ablution, we will go thirsty. May we perform ablution with seawater?”

He replied:

“Its water is purifying, and its dead creatures are lawful to eat.”

—his answer would nevertheless be coherent, as it is in this hadith. In the other report, however, mentioning daytime prayer would make the answer incoherent, because it includes his words:

“If you fear that dawn is near, pray a single unit to make the number odd.”

These words are unquestionably established as part of the hadith.

If it is said, “Perhaps the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said this in another gathering as a fresh statement addressed to someone—either this questioner or someone else,” the answer is:

Everyone who narrated it from Ibn ʿUmar related it in this manner: they mentioned the question at the beginning and the witr prayer at the end, and their reports mention only night prayer. This narrator, however, contradicted them: he omitted both the beginning and the ending and added something in the middle. Moreover, he is not among those known for accurate retention and precision. For this reason, al-Bukhārī and Muslim, the compilers of the two Sahīhs, did not include his hadith.

Whenever a discerning person considers these matters and others like them, he recognizes that this narrator made an error in the hadith