from Humayd, from Anas, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, swore to stay away from his wives. His leg had been dislocated, so he remained in an upper room for twenty-nine nights, then came down. They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, you swore to stay away for a month.’ He replied, ‘A month may have twenty-nine days.’”

As for a particular month, al-Nasā’ī narrated through Shu‘ba, from Salama, from Abū al-Hakam, from Ibn ‘Abbās, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Gabriel came to me and said, ‘The month is complete after twenty-nine days.’”

This is how Bahz narrated it from him. He also transmitted it through Ghundar. He transmitted it through Ghundar from him with the wording:

“The month is twenty-nine days.”

This narration shows that the Prophet’s oath to stay away from his wives was taken between two new moons. When twenty-nine days had passed, Gabriel informed him that the month was complete after twenty-nine days, because the month in which he had taken the oath had twenty-nine days. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had thought that he was required to complete thirty days. Gabriel therefore informed him that the month of his oath was complete after twenty-nine days.

Had the oath been taken at the first appearance of the crescent, he would not have needed Gabriel to inform him of this. For when the crescent is sighted after twenty-nine days, it is known that the month is complete. This is plainly evident, with no uncertainty requiring Gabriel to inform him of it. Moreover, had the oath covered the interval between two new moons, the Companions would have known that this