rakʿas, or for three rakʿas, he performs ʿIshāʾ as a resident’s prayer, for Maghrib is never shortened and thereby exhausts all that remained of the time. This follows the view—held by most of our jurists—that the tail end of the period belongs to the first of the two linked prayers.

We shall, Allah willing, discuss this point further in the present chapter and clarify the correct ruling.

If a person sets out on a journey during the day while he has forgotten both Zuhr and ʿAsr, and there is still daylight enough for three rakʿas, he offers them both in the shortened form. Should the remaining daylight suffice only for two rakʿas, or for a single rakʿa, he performs Zuhr in full and ʿAsr as two rakʿas.

Likewise, if he travels by night having forgotten Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ and there remains before dawn time for four rakʿas, he prays Maghrib as three—because it is never shortened—and ʿIshāʾ as two, for he will have caught one rakʿa of it within its appointed time.

If, however, he departs when the night holds only enough for three rakʿas, or even less than a single rakʿa, while still having forgotten Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ, and he remembers them then, Mālik’s statement is reported in two ways:

1. One narration says that he should perform the final prayer, ʿIshāʾ, in full, for Maghrib must precede it; once Maghrib is completed, the time for ʿIshāʾ has already expired, obliging him to pray it in its complete form. This is, in our judgment, the stronger and more cautious opinion.

2. Another narration has him offer it in the shortened form, by analogy with the menstruating woman who becomes pure or the one who regains consciousness, according to his general legal principle. Mālik’s companions also differed concerning a woman on a journey who regains purity when three rakʿas of the night remain: Ibn al-Qāsim, Ashhab, and Asbagh maintained that she need only pray ʿIshāʾ and that nothing is required of her for Maghrib.