and twenty days, and ‘Alī instructed us to complete it by fasting one more day.”

Abū ‘Abd Allāh, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

“The ruling is based on this length of month, for ‘like this, like this, and like this’ amounts to twenty-nine. Whoever has fasted in this manner must make up one day, but owes no expiation.”

What we have explained also clarifies the answer to the report from ‘Ā’ishah concerning this matter. She said:

“May Allah have mercy on Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān. Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, withdrew for a month, then came down after twenty-nine days. When questioned about this, he replied, ‘A month may be twenty-nine days.’”

‘Ā’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, was rejecting what others had conveyed to her from Ibn ‘Umar, or what she herself had understood: that a month can only be twenty-nine days. Ibn ‘Umar did not mean this. Rather, we have already cited authentic reports from him stating that a month is sometimes twenty-nine days and sometimes thirty. This establishes that Ibn ‘Umar reported that a month may be either length.

What he narrated either agrees with what ‘Ā’ishah also narrated—that a month may be twenty-nine days—or means that what is invariably required and obligatory for a month is twenty-nine days.

In Arabic and other languages, people negate something, whether through expressions of exclusivity or otherwise, sometimes because the thing itself is absent, and sometimes because its benefit and intended purpose are absent. Likewise, they restrict one thing to another sometimes because every instance of that category is confined to it, and sometimes because only its beneficial or complete instances are confined to it. Furthermore, they sometimes