the rain, before twilight had disappeared.

[He also mentioned what Abū al-Shaykh al-Asbahānī related through an established chain of transmission from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib and Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn al-Hārith ibn Hishām: They would combine the sunset and night prayers on rainy nights when the two prayers were combined, and no objection was raised to this] (*).

Through his chain of transmission, he also related from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah that ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz would combine the sunset and night prayers when it rained, and that Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Rahmān and the elders of that time would pray with them without objecting to this.

These reports show that combining prayers because of rain was an established practice in Medina during the time of the Companions and the Successors. Moreover, no objection to it has been reported from any Companion or Successor. It is therefore clear that its permissibility had been conveyed among them through mass transmission. This does not, however, indicate that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, combined prayers only because of rain. Rather, if he combined them for a reason less compelling than rain, as well as combining them because of rain, then he did combine them without fear or rain. Likewise, if he combined prayers while travelling and also combined them in Medina, then he did combine them in Medina without fear or travel.

Thus, Ibn ʿAbbās’s statement, “He combined prayers without such-and-such or such-and-such,” does not deny that he combined them for those reasons. Rather, it affirms that he combined them in their absence, even though he also combined them when those reasons were present. Even if it had not been reported that he combined them for those reasons, his combining them for a lesser reason would establish, with even greater force, the permissibility of combining them for those reasons. This therefore indicates the permissibility of combining prayers because of fear and rain. He also combined prayers at ʿArafah