He—may Allah have mercy on him—also said:

Section

‘Ā’ishah’s statement,

“The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, continued to observe devotional retreat during the last ten days until Allah took him in death,”

refers to his time in Medina and indicates that he would observe this retreat either at its appointed time or by making it up later. It is authentically reported that he once intended to observe a retreat, and his wives asked to join him. Seeing that some of them were motivated by rivalry, he ordered the tents to be taken down and did not observe the retreat that year until he made it up in Shawwāl.

He, peace and blessings be upon him, fasted Ramadan only nine times, for fasting it was made obligatory in the second year after the Hijrah, after he had fasted the day of ‘Āshūrā’ and commanded the people to fast it on one occasion. He arrived in Medina in Rabī‘ al-Awwal of the first year, when ‘Āshūrā’ had already passed, so he did not command its observance that year. When the second year began, he commanded the people to fast it. Was this a command imposing an obligation, or