‘I saw him praying on a mat and prostrating on it.’”

In the two Sahīh collections, Abū Salamah reported that ‘Ā’ishah said:

“I used to sleep in front of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with my feet in the direction he faced in prayer. When he prostrated, he would nudge me and I would draw my feet back; when he stood up, I would stretch them out again.” She added: “In those days, the houses had no lamps.”

‘Urwah reported from ‘Ā’ishah:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to pray while she lay crosswise between him and the qiblah on his household’s bedding, as a funeral bier is laid.”

In another wording, ‘Irāk reported from ‘Urwah:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to pray while ‘Ā’ishah lay crosswise between him and the qiblah on the bedding on which they both slept.”

All these wordings are from al-Bukhārī. They were cited as evidence in the chapter on praying on bedding. The last wording was cited with a disconnected chain because it serves to explain the report with the connected chain: ‘Urwah had heard it only from ‘Ā’ishah, and he knew best what he had heard from her.

There is no disagreement among scholars that it is permissible to pray and prostrate on floor coverings made from materials of the earth, such as small prayer mats, woven mats and the like. They differed only over whether it is disliked to do so on materials other than those of the earth, such as leather sheets spread out on the ground, made from the hides of livestock, and rugs and dyed woollen carpets. Most scholars permit this as well. This is the position of the scholars of hadith, such as al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad, and of the scholars of Kufa, such as Abū Hanīfah and others. They also cited the hadith of ‘Ā’ishah as evidence for its permissibility, for the bedding was not of the same nature as