and if it is obscured from you, make your reckoning.” He mentioned that Muhammad ibn Bishr narrated from ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn ‘Amr, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-A‘raj, from Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, mentioned the crescent and said: ‘When you see it, begin fasting, and when you see it, end your fasting. If it is obscured from you, count thirty days.’”

He regarded this as a discrepancy in the transmissions from ‘Ubayd Allāh. Such a discrepancy does not undermine a report unless there is some further indication warranting this. Masters of hadith such as al-Zuhrī, ‘Ubayd Allāh, and others may possess a hadith through two, three, or more routes. Sometimes they narrate it through one route, and sometimes through another. This occurs frequently in the two Sahīh collections and elsewhere. It becomes evident when a narrator distinguishes between two teachers or relates both reports together.

Al-Bukhārī narrated it through Nāfi‘, from Mālik ibn Anas’s narration from him, with the following wording:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, mentioned the month of Ramadan and said: ‘Do not begin fasting until you see the crescent, and do not end your fasting until you see it. If it is obscured from you, make your reckoning.’”

He did not mention at its beginning the words:

“The month is twenty-nine days.”

Nor did he mention the additional passage, in keeping with his practice of frequently refraining from narrating what he himself did not act upon.

As for the words:

“The month is twenty-nine days,”

Mālik narrated them through ‘Abd Allāh ibn Dīnār, from Ibn ‘Umar. Al-Bukhārī also narrated them through Mālik