and refrain from fasting and fast,” it has been said that its wording contains a scribal error and actually reads: “He used to shorten the prayer while she prayed it in full”—with the feminine prefix tā—“and he would refrain from fasting while she fasted.” This would give it the same meaning as the other hadith, whose chain of transmission is stronger. That report is well known from ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn al-Aswad, but it has not been reliably preserved from ʿĀ’ishah. As for attributing this other report to ʿAtā’, that is certainly an erroneous attribution. What is established from ʿAtā’ is that “ʿĀ’ishah used to pray four rakʿahs when travelling,” as others have also narrated.

Had ʿĀ’ishah known of a sunnah from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, concerning this, she would have cited it as evidence. Had this been a known practice of his, she would not have known more about it than his male Companions, who regularly prayed behind him when travelling. This is not something about which ʿĀ’ishah would have known more than the men—as she would about his night prayers or his ritual bathing after intercourse without ejaculation—let alone something known to her alone. Rather, his Companions knew more than ʿĀ’ishah about his conduct when travelling, since she did not accompany him on every journey. For it is authentically reported that she said:

“Whenever the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, intended to travel, he would draw lots among his wives and take with him whichever wife’s lot was drawn.”

Thus, he took her on his journeys only occasionally, and she would remain secluded in her screened compartment. It is also authentically reported that when Shurayh ibn Hāni’ asked her about “wiping over leather socks,” she said: “Ask ʿAlī, for he used to travel with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.” Yet wiping over leather socks is something the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, might do