and did not mention how he combined them; this report mentions delaying the prayer only as Ibn ‘Umar’s own practice, not as part of what he narrated from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

Those who affirm combining prayers then cited the report narrated by Muhammad ibn Yahyā al-Dhuhlī: Hammād ibn Mas‘adah narrated to us, from ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn ‘Umar, from Nāfi‘:

“‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar hastened his journey and combined Maghrib and ‘Ishā’. I asked Nāfi‘, and he replied: ‘An hour after the twilight had disappeared.’ Ibn ‘Umar said: ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, do that when he needed to press on with his journey.’”

Sulaymān ibn Harb also narrated it: Hammād ibn Zayd narrated to us, from Ayyūb, from Nāfi‘, that Ibn ‘Umar received an urgent summons concerning Safiyyah bint Abī ‘Ubayd while he was in Mecca and she was in Medina. He set out and continued travelling until the sun had set and the stars appeared. A man accompanying him said: “The prayer! The prayer!” But Ibn ‘Umar continued travelling. Sālim then said to him: “The prayer!” He replied:

“When some matter required the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to hasten during a journey, he would combine these two prayers.”

He continued travelling until the twilight had disappeared, then combined them. He covered the distance between Mecca and Medina in three days.

Al-Bayhaqī narrated these two reports with a well-known, authentic chain of transmission. He stated that Ma‘mar also narrated it from Ayyūb and Mūsā ibn ‘Uqbah, from Nāfi‘, with the following wording in the hadith:

“He delayed Maghrib beyond that twilight until a considerable part of the night had passed. Then he dismounted and prayed Maghrib and ‘Ishā’. He said: ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would do that when he needed to press on with his journey or when some pressing matter arose.’”

He also stated that Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated it from Yahyā