saw ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan at al-ʿArj with his face covered by a crimson velvet cloth, on a summer day while he was in a state of ihram.

I say: There is no contradiction between the report attributed to the Prophet and this Companion report, particularly since their chains of transmission differ. The former is also authentic: all of its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of al-Bukhari and Muslim, except for Abu Bakr al-Shafiʿi’s shaykh, Musa ibn al-Hasan. The annotator of al-ʿIlal did not know him, though he was a trustworthy hadith scholar known as al-Jalajili because of his beautiful voice. Muhammad ibn Abi al-Fawaris declared him trustworthy, and al-Khatib followed him in that judgment. It is also related from al-Daraqutni that he said: “There is no harm in him.” His biography appears in Tarikh Baghdad (13/49), Tarikh Dimashq (17/264–265), and Siyar al-Nubalaʾ (13/378).

Thus, the chain meets al-Diyaʾ’s criteria for al-Ahadith al-Mukhtarah, yet he did not include it. It is far stronger than some of the reports he did include, so apparently it did not reach him with its chain leading to al-Shafiʿi or al-Daraqutni. Once you know that its chain is authentic, it is evident that there is no contradiction between it and the Companion report from ʿUthman. Nothing prevents us from saying that ʿUthman did something that the Prophet may also have done. This is preferable to attributing an error to a trustworthy narrator merely because ʿUthman acted in accordance with what he related from the Prophet.

Do you not see that there is no difference between al-Daraqutni’s judging the Companion report to be correct rather than the Prophetic report, and someone else reversing the matter and judging the Prophetic report to be correct rather than the Companion report? The truth is that both are authentic, and neither contradicts the other.

Many reports have come from the Companions, the Successors, and the imams who exercised independent legal reasoning, permitting a pilgrim in ihram to cover his face when needed. Ibn Hazm cited them in al-Muhalla (7/91–93) in support of the underlying principle, and I have traced some of them to al-Bayhaqi (5/54). This does not conflict with the Prophet’s saying concerning one who dies in ihram: “Wash him with water and lotus leaves, shroud him in his two garments, and do not cover his face or his head.”