And in the hadith concerning Muʿādh, when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent him to Yemen, he mentioned only prayer and zakah. The fact that some hadiths mention certain pillars but not others has puzzled some people. Some have explained this by saying that certain narrators abridged the hadiths they transmitted. But this is not so, for such an explanation impugns the narrators and accuses them of lying. What this explanation describes applies only to different accounts of the same hadith: for example, the hadith of the delegation of ʿAbd al-Qays, in which some narrators mentioned fasting while others did not; the hadith of Dimām, in which some mentioned all five while others did not; and the hadith of al-Nuʿmān ibn Qawqal, in which some mentioned fasting while others did not. In such cases, we know that one of the two narrators either omitted part of the report or mistakenly added something.

With two separate hadiths, however, the matter is different, especially since the reports establishing that the answers differed have been transmitted through so many channels as to yield certainty. They also contain conclusive evidence that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said one thing on one occasion and another on another occasion. The Quran confirms this, for in some verses Allah made brotherhood in faith conditional only upon prayer and zakah, as in His words, Most High:

“But if they repent, establish prayer, and pay zakah, then they are your brothers in religion.”

Likewise, He made the cessation of fighting conditional upon this in His words, Most High:

“But if they repent, establish prayer, and pay zakah, then let them go their way.”

The hadith of Ibn ʿUmar in the two Sahīh collections, which agrees with this verse, has already been cited.

Furthermore, in the hadith of the delegation of ʿAbd al-Qays, he mentioned the fifth of the spoils because they were a community capable of defending itself and engaged in fighting.