and performed ʿumrah, and he would pray two rakʿahs. I also performed Hajj with ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, and he would pray two rakʿahs.”

Thus, he mentioned this statement only in connection with the year of the Conquest, before the campaign of Hunayn and al-Tā’if, and did not attribute it to Abū Bakr or ʿUmar. Abū Dāwūd also related it explicitly in his Sunan through Ibn ʿUlayyah:

ʿAlī ibn Zayd narrated to us, from Abū Nadrah, from ʿImrān ibn Husayn, who said:

“I attended ʿArafah with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and witnessed the Conquest with him. He stayed in Mecca for eighteen nights, praying two rakʿahs and saying: ‘People of this city, pray four rakʿahs, for we are travellers.’”

This occurred during the campaign of the Conquest, in Mecca itself, not at Minā.

Likewise, it is established that during Hajj, ʿUmar led the people of Mecca in two rakʿahs. After concluding the prayer with the salām, he said:

“Complete your prayers, people of Mecca, for we are travellers.”

Further evidence clarifying this is that none of the Companions reported this statement from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him—neither those who described his prayer nor those who described his pilgrimage rites and Hajj—despite the abundant reasons and incentives to transmit it. Moreover, the leading jurists of the two Sacred Cities held that the people of Mecca should shorten their prayers at ʿArafah, Muzdalifah and Minā. Could they have known that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had taught otherwise? Or could they have been ignorant of something so widely known that no one who performed Hajj with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would have been unaware of it?

In the two Sahīh collections, Hārithah ibn Khuzāʿah is reported to have said:

“We prayed two rakʿahs with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, at Minā, when we were at our most numerous and most secure.”

This Hārithah