“I asked Muḥammad—meaning al-Bukhārī—‘Did Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir hear from ʿĀʾishah?’ He replied, ‘Yes; in his report he actually says, “I heard ʿĀʾishah.”’ Al-Tirmidhī then remarked, ‘This ḥadīth is ḥasan (good) and gharīb (singular) through this particular route.’

I say: That is al-Tirmidhī’s judgement, but in my view the report is weak through this chain because Yaḥyā ibn al-Yamān is weak in his memory. In al-Taqrīb Ibn Ḥajar describes him as: “truthful, devout in worship, yet he makes many mistakes and his memory deteriorated.”

Even so, he was contradicted by Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ—who is reliable and firmly established—who related it from Maʿmar, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Abū Hurayrah. This, beyond doubt, is the correct version: it belongs to the musnad of Abū Hurayrah, not to that of ʿĀʾishah. On that basis the chain is interrupted, for Ibn al-Munkadir never heard from Abū Hurayrah, as al-Bazzār and others have stated; and if he did not hear from Abū Hurayrah, then certainly he did not hear from ʿĀʾishah, who died before Abū Hurayrah. Al-Ḥāfiẓ affirms this categorically in Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb. Therefore the isnād is broken in any case.

As for the narration of ʿĀʾishah, it has been transmitted as attributed to her alone (mawqūf). Al-Bayhaqī records it through the route of Abū Ḥanīfah, who said: “ʿAlī ibn al-Aqmar narrated to me from Masrūq, who said:

‘I entered upon ʿĀʾishah on the Day of ʿArafah, and she said, “Give Masrūq some saweeq and add plenty of sweetener to it.” I said, “The only reason I have refrained from fasting today is that I feared it might actually be the Day of Sacrifice.” ʿĀʾishah replied, “The Sacrifice is on the day when the people sacrifice, and breaking the fast is on the day when the people break their fast.”’

I say: This chain is sound and on a par with the one that preceded it.