—namely the difference in wording: in Qatadah’s first report and in that of Ibn Jurayj the Prophet says la yahillu (“it is not lawful”) with regard to exposing half the forearm, whereas in Qatadah’s second report and in the narration of Khalid ibn Duraik he says lam yasluh (“it is not proper”) with respect to the wrist, the face, and the hands. Our reply is three-fold: First: A close reading of these texts shows beyond doubt that they are not four distinct hadiths but only two. 1. The first is Qatadah’s mursal tradition with the wording: “When a young girl begins to menstruate, it is not proper that anything be seen of her except her face and her hands up to the wrist.” Abu Dawud recorded it in his al-Marasil (no. 437), and he also included it in his Sunan from Qatadah, from Khalid ibn Duraik, from Aishah, with the wording: “When a woman reaches puberty, nothing should be seen of her except this and this,” and he pointed to his face and hands. This is unquestionably one and the same hadith centred on a single transmitter—Qatadah. Some narrated it from him as a mursal with one phrasing; others transmitted it from him with a connected chain and slightly different wording, yet the meaning is identical. I know of no hadith scholar who, when a single narrator reports a tradition sometimes as mursal and sometimes as musnad, treats them as two separate hadiths with different contents. 2. The other hadith is Qatadah’s balagh mursal together with Ibn Jurayj’s muʿdal version; both contain the phrase la yahillu / lam yahlil (“it is not lawful”) and both exempt half the forearm. This too is but one hadith conveyed by two narrators—one sending it as mursal, the other in muʿdal form. That alone is what the plain wording of these narrations indicates.