during his night prayer I would keep my legs stretched out; but when he went down in prostration he would tap me and I would draw them in so that he could prostrate. Had I been able to see him when he prostrated I would have withdrawn them without a nudge, yet our houses had no lamps. So how can you, people who group us women with donkeys and dogs, claim that we break the prayer, when this is my own story with the Prophet ﷺ?

Points derived from the hadith

1. It is permissible for someone who is asleep to lie in front of a person who is praying when there is a need, such as limited space.
2. A woman’s presence directly in front of the worshipper neither invalidates the prayer nor diminishes it.
3. Touching a woman—even without a barrier—does not nullify ablution, for the Prophet ﷺ would nudge ʿĀʾishah in the dark and it is unknown whether he touched her through a covering or directly. Had such contact required a new ablution he would not have risked invalidating his prayer. The jurists, however, restrict this ruling to touch that is free of desire.
4. The Prophet ﷺ and his family lived in straitened circumstances, preferring what is with Allah and shunning this fleeting world.
5. Movements of this sort within the prayer are permissible and do not impair its validity.

Scholarly disagreement
The scholars disagreed about whether a woman, a donkey, or a black dog breaks the prayer. The three imams—Abu Ḥanīfah, Mālik, and al-Shāfiʿī—held that the prayer is not broken and interpreted the hadith of Abū Dharr recorded by Muslim—“A Muslim man’s prayer is cut off if nothing like the back of a saddle is in front of him: a woman, a donkey, or a black dog”—to mean that these things distract the heart and thereby reduce the prayer’s perfection rather than nullify it outright.

Imam Aḥmad has two reported positions. The more widespread view in his school is that only a completely black dog breaks the prayer. He said, “I still have some reservation concerning the woman and the donkey.”
• As for the woman, he relied on the hadith of ʿĀʾishah cited above.
• As for the donkey, he relied on the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās mentioned earlier. These two reports stand in opposition to the hadith of Abū Dharr.
• Concerning the dog he had no hesitation, because there is no contrary evidence to offset that report.