One of them was Muhammad ibn ʿAbbād al-Makkī, who was truthful but prone to error. He was among the narrators of the two Shaykhs—indeed, among their teachers. The other was Suwayd ibn Sakīn, whom I have not been able to identify.

2884 — “Whichever of the two is easier for you, do it”—that is, fasting Ramadan or not fasting while travelling.

Tamām narrated it in al-Fawāʾid (folio 161/1): Abu ʿAlī Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Faḍālah ibn Ghaylān ibn al-Husayn al-Sūsī al-Himsī al-Ṣaffār informed us; Abu ʿAbd Allāh Bahr ibn Naṣr narrated to us; Ibn Wahb narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us from Yazīd ibn Abī Habīb, that ʿImrān ibn Abī Anas related to him from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahmān, from Hamzah ibn ʿAmr, who asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, about fasting while travelling. He then gave the response quoted above.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among those included in al-Tahdhīb, apart from this al-Sūsī. Ibn ʿAsākir profiled him in Tārīkh Dimashq (2/213), citing a number of people who narrated from him, and he related from Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus that he said of him: “He died in 339 AH. He was trustworthy, and his books were of good quality.” Ibn Lahīʿah was weak in his retention, except when narrated from by the ʿAbādilah, for such narrations are authentic; and this is one of them, as you can see.

The hadith has other chains from Hamzah ibn ʿAmr, may Allah be pleased with him, with different wordings. One of them is in Sahih Muslim, and its sources have been documented in al-Irwāʾ (926). I have chosen to cite this wording here, firstly because its source is rare, and secondly because it includes the reason for the Prophet’s granting this concession, peace and blessings be upon him, and for allowing the traveller to choose between fasting and not fasting: namely, ease. People differ in