for the hadiths that declare a man’s prayer is nullified by the dog, the donkey, and the woman speak only of their passing in front of the worshipper, as will be shown shortly. ʿAʾishah’s report, however, never states that she actually walked between him ﷺ and the qiblah, so it cannot clash with those texts. In fact, one version cited by al-Nasaʾi—quoted in Fath (1/467) through the chain Shuʿbah → Mansur → Ibrahim → al-Aswad—contains her words: “…I disliked to rise and pass in front of him, so I slipped away quietly.” Ibn Hajar comments: “It is apparent that ʿAʾishah rejected the absolute claim that a woman breaks a man’s prayer in every circumstance, not the specific case of her passing directly before him.” Thus no contradiction exists between ʿAʾishah’s narration and the hadiths just mentioned. Their full documentation will follow, if Allah wills. (1) Meaning: her competitor; the form is mufaaʿalah from saʿy (to strive or race). (2) Reported by al-Tabarani, al-Kabir 3/140/3 (through ʿAmr ibn Hakkam); al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak 1/254 (through Musa ibn Ismaʿil); and Ibn Khuzaymah 1/95/1 = 2/20/827 (through al-Haytham ibn Jamil). All three chains pass through Jarir ibn Hazim, Yaʿla ibn Hakim, and al-Zubayr ibn al-Khirit, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbas: “The Prophet ﷺ was praying …” (wording of al-Tabarani). Al-Hakim judged it “sound according to the criteria of al-Bukhari,” and al-Dhahabi agreed, which is correct. A second chain is given by al-Bayhaqi, 2/268, from Yahya ibn Abi Bukayr → Shuʿbah → ʿAmr ibn Murrah → Yahya ibn al-Jazzar → Suhayb al-Basri → Ibn ʿAbbas with a similar wording.