not on what has not been reliably established from him.

He said:

“I have learned that some people go out for trade, to collect revenue, or to harvest dates, and shorten their prayers. Only someone who is travelling or facing an enemy may shorten his prayers.”

In this statement, he clarified his position: someone staying in a village or town may not shorten his prayers unless he fears an enemy nearby. Only someone who is travelling may shorten them—that is, a traveller carrying provisions and waterskins, meaning food and drink; a waterskin is a vessel for water. His point is that someone staying somewhere where food and drink are available enjoys comforts like those of a resident and therefore may not shorten his prayers. Shortening was prescribed only because of the hardship a person encounters, whereas this person encounters no hardship. In his view, therefore, shortening is for the traveller carrying provisions and waterskins, and for someone in fear.

When Minā became built up and provisions and water became available there, he no longer considered shortening appropriate there, either for himself or for the pilgrims accompanying him. As for his statement in that report, “But something has happened this year,” he did not specify what had happened; this may have been the new circumstance. If ignorant Bedouins and others had come, believing that the prayer consisted of four units, then he feared that they would think it could be performed as four units in a place where provisions and water were available, which he regarded as impermissible. And if he had married in Mecca, this too would be consistent with his position, for he had married in a place where provisions and water were available, and he did not consider shortening appropriate for someone staying with his family in such a place. On this understanding, all the reliably established explanations he gave concerning this matter corroborate one another.