Ahmad:

Hasan ibn Mūsā narrated to us: Shaybān narrated to us, from Yahyā, who said: Abū Salamah informed me, saying: I heard Ibn ‘Umar say: I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say:

“The month is twenty-nine days.”

Al-Nasā’ī also narrated it with this wording through Mu‘āwiyah, from Yahyā.

He also related it through ‘Alī, from Yahyā, from Abū Salamah, who reported that Abū Hurayrah said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The month may be twenty-nine days or thirty. When you see the crescent, end your fasting; if it is obscured from you, complete the count.”

Al-Nasā’ī regarded this as a discrepancy in the reports transmitted from Yahyā, from Abū Salamah. The correct view, however, is that both reports are reliably preserved from Yahyā, from Abū Salamah; there is no discrepancy in the wording.

Ahmad said: Muhammad ibn Ja‘far narrated to us: Shu‘bah narrated to us, from ‘Uqbah ibn Hurayth, who said: I heard Ibn ‘Umar say: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The month is twenty-nine days.”

Shu‘bah brought his hands together three times, folding his thumb on the third. ‘Uqbah said: I think he also said, “The month is thirty days,” bringing his palms together three times.

Al-Nasā’ī narrated it through Ibn al-Muthannā, from Ghundar, but his wording was only:

“The month is twenty-nine days.”

He added nothing further. Ahmad’s narration is therefore more complete and better presented, as noted earlier. The explanatory narration makes clear that all the other reports from Ibn ‘Umar containing the words “The month is twenty-nine days” mean one of two things: either that the month