the narrators preserved the wording accurately, the reports can be reconciled. He said, “Without fear or rain,” and also said, “or travel.” The combining of prayers mentioned by Ibn ʿAbbās was occasioned by neither of these.

Ahmad therefore cited this report as evidence that combining prayers for these reasons is permissible all the more so. The wording indicates that combining prayers in these circumstances is even more warranted. This is an instance of an action indicating what applies with even greater force: if he combined prayers to remove hardship arising without fear, rain, or travel, then hardship arising from these circumstances has an even stronger claim to being removed, and combining prayers because of them is more warranted than combining them for other reasons.

Further evidence that Ibn ʿAbbās did not mean combining prayers because of rain—although combining them because of rain has an even stronger claim to permissibility—is what Muslim narrated through Hammād ibn Zayd, from al-Zubayr ibn al-Khirrīt, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, who said:

“One day Ibn ʿAbbās addressed us after the afternoon prayer until the sun had set and the stars appeared. People began saying, ‘The prayer! The prayer!’ Then a man from Banū Taym came, repeating incessantly, ‘The prayer! The prayer!’ Ibn ʿAbbās replied, ‘Do you presume to teach me the Sunnah? May you be bereft of your mother!’ Then he said, ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, combine the noon and afternoon prayers, and the sunset and night prayers.’”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq said: “Some doubt about this arose in my mind, so I went to Abū Hurayrah and asked him, and he confirmed what Ibn ʿAbbās had said.”

Muslim also narrated it through ʿImrān ibn Hudayr, from Ibn Shaqīq, who said:

“A man said to Ibn ʿAbbās, ‘The prayer!’ He remained silent. Then the man said, ‘The prayer!’