Ramadan. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, refrained from fasting while I fasted, and he shortened his prayers while I prayed them in full. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you! You refrained from fasting while I fasted, and you shortened your prayers while I prayed them in full.’ He said, ‘You have done well, ‘Ā’ishah.’”

Al-Bayhaqī also narrated it through another route, from al-Qāsim ibn al-Hakam, who said: Al-‘Alā’ ibn Zuhayr narrated to us, from ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn al-Aswad, from ‘Ā’ishah, without mentioning his father. Al-Dāraqutnī said: “The first chain is connected and is a sound chain of transmission. ‘Abd al-Rahmān lived during ‘Ā’ishah’s lifetime and visited her when he was approaching puberty.”

Al-Bayhaqī narrated it through a third route, from Abū Bakr al-Naysābūrī, who said: ‘Abbās al-Dūrī narrated to us: Abū Nu‘aym narrated to us: Al-‘Alā’ ibn Zuhayr narrated to us: ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn al-Aswad narrated to us, from ‘Ā’ishah, who reported that she travelled with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, from Medina to Mecca to perform ‘umrah. Upon arriving, she said: “O Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you! You shortened your prayers while I prayed them in full, and you refrained from fasting while I fasted.” He replied, “You have done well, ‘Ā’ishah.” She said, “He did not reproach me.”

Abū Bakr al-Naysābūrī said: “This is how Abū Nu‘aym narrated it: from ‘Abd al-Rahmān, from ‘Ā’ishah. Whoever included ‘from his father’ in this hadith was mistaken.”

I say: Abū Bakr al-Naysābūrī was a leading authority in jurisprudence and hadith. He devoted particular attention to hadiths concerning jurisprudence and their variant wordings. Like the renowned imams of hadith, he was closer to the approach of the scholars of hadith and religious learning, which is free of partisan attachment to any jurist’s opinion. For this reason, he preferred this route of transmission. Similarly, among the compilers of