(2) Shuʿbah also corroborated Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, but with the wording: “When dawn broke, he would pray two brief rakʿahs.” I ask: did he recite in them only Fatiḥat al-Kitab (the Opening chapter)? This version is related by al-Tahāwī and by Ahmad (6/49, 100, 172), and likewise by al-Tayālisī (221) through Shuʿbah. It is probable that an interrogative particle is implied in this report so that it accords with the narration of Yahyá ibn Saʿīd. This is strengthened by Muslim’s transmission through Shuʿbah, which explicitly reads: “Did he recite in them Fatiḥat al-Kitab?” Al-Bukhari also cites it, though without quoting the wording, apparently referring the reader to the previous report. The hadith has a second chain: al-Tayālisī (217) narrated it from Yazid ibn Ibrāhīm, and Ahmad (6/217) from Khalid al-Haddaʾ—both from Muhammad ibn S̲īrīn—who said that ʿAʾishah reported: “The standing of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the two rakʿahs before the dawn prayer was only as long as it takes to recite Fatiḥat al-Kitab.” Ahmad and others transmit it with an additional wording, to be cited below. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr declared this chain sound, as noted in Fath al-Bārī, yet al-Tahāwī judged it broken (munqatiʿ), because—according to Abū Hātim—Ibn S̲īrīn did not hear directly from ʿAʾishah. (3) Al-Qurtubi remarked: “This does not mean that she doubted whether the Prophet ﷺ recited al-Fatiha; rather, because he normally lengthened his voluntary prayers, when he shortened his recitation in the two rakʿahs of Fajr it was, by comparison with his other prayers, as though he had not recited at all.” So in Fath al-Bārī. Al-Nawawi expressed the same idea in his commentary on Sahih Muslim, and then added: