we reached a narrow pass with the Prophet ﷺ: the sky was above us and the ground beneath us was water-logged. When the time for prayer came, he ordered the muadhdhin to give the call—so he gave the adhan and the iqama, or perhaps only the iqama—then the Prophet ﷺ stepped forward, led us in prayer on his riding-beast, and we followed him on our mounts, lowering our prostration more than our bowing. Yet this report is weak. It is transmitted by al-Tirmidhi (2/266–267), al-Daraqutni (no. 146), al-Bayhaqi (2/7), and Ahmad (4/173–174) through the chain of Amr b. Uthman b. Ya‘la b. Murra, from his father, from his grandfather Ya‘la b. Murra. The defect lies in Amr b. Uthman and his father, for both are unknown. Hence al-Tirmidhi remarked, “a gharib hadith,” i.e., weak. Al-Bayhaqi adds: “Its chain is weak; the reliability of some narrators is unproven, and it may pertain to a situation of extreme fear.” Al-San‘ani (1/189) notes: “The practice is soundly established from Anas. Some scholars therefore held that an obligatory prayer is valid on a mount if the rider faces the qibla inside a howdah, even while the animal is moving, just as prayer aboard a ship is unanimously accepted.” Al-San‘ani comments: “One might distinguish the ship, for at sea it can be impossible to find land, so the concession is granted, unlike the rider in a howdah.” If, however, the animal is stationary, the Shafi‘i position is that the obligatory prayer is valid, just as they allow it in a swing suspended by ropes or on a litter carried by men who are standing. I conclude: when praying on the ground is impossible—because it is muddy, as in Ya‘la’s narration, or because one is confined to a train or an aircraft in flight and cannot disembark, and fears the prayer time will expire—the ruling that the prayer is permissible in that state is the sound one, for Allah says: “Allah does not burden any soul beyond