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What is the interpretation of the existence of two narrations for the hadith, "The prayer is cut off by a woman, a donkey, and a dog," in Sahih Muslim: one with Aisha's commentary and the other without it, despite both being authentic? And is the hadith Marfu' and does it have the ruling of being Marfu'?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The two aforementioned hadiths are marfu' (traced back to the Prophet) and are found in the Two Sahihs (Bukhari and Muslim). The first hadith is narrated by Aisha, in response to the saying that the passing of a woman, a donkey, or a dog invalidates the prayer. She said: "You have likened us to donkeys and dogs! By Allah! I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, praying while I was lying on the bed between him and the Qiblah." And she mentioned that she would slip away from his feet, disliking to disturb him. The scholars have reconciled the two hadiths by explaining that "cutting" the prayer means diminishing it due to distraction, not invalidating it.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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