Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 7740

Nadlah bin Tarif narrates: There was a man among them called al-A'sha, whose name was Abdullah bin al-A'war. He had a wife named Mu'adhah. In the month of Rajab, that man went out to Hajar to bring provisions for his family. In his absence his wife ran away; she ran away in defiance of him. She sought the protection of a man from among them named Mutarrif bin Buhsul bin Ka'b bin Qumaysha' bin Dulaf bin Ahsam bin Abdullah bin al-Hirmaz, and that man put her behind his back (under his protection). When al-A'sha returned and did not find his wife in the house, and he learned that she had defied him and sought the protection of Mutarrif bin Buhsul, he came to Mutarrif and said: "My wife Mu'adhah is with you; hand her over to me." He said: "She is not with me, and even if she were with me, I would not hand her over to you." The narrator says: Mutarrif was of higher standing than him. That man left from there, came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), sought his protection, and recited these verses: "O chief of the people, and master of the Arabs, I wish to complain before you of a wrong (or of my wife), who is like a she-wolf, like a dark night in the shade of her lair. I went out in the month of Rajab to obtain grain, and she wronged me in my absence and ran away. She broke the covenant and went into hiding, and she left me in a state like the tree called 'Is whose leaves have fallen. (These women) are the worst thing to prevail over the one who is overcome." At that, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said (that is, he repeated these words): "(These women) are the worst thing to prevail over the one who is overcome." He complained to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about his wife and told him of her conduct, and also told him that she was with a man from among them named Mutarrif bin Buhsul. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote a letter on his behalf to Mutarrif: "This man's wife is Mu'adhah; hand that woman over to him." The letter of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) reached that man and was read out to him, and he said to the woman: "O Mu'adhah! This letter of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has come concerning you; now I will hand you over to that man." The woman said: "Then take a covenant and pledge from that man, and the guarantee of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that he will not punish me for what I have done." That man took that covenant from him on her behalf, and then Mutarrif handed the woman over to him. That man then recited these verses: "By your life, my love for Mu'adhah is not such that anyone, or the passing of time, or the wrong she has done could end (that love), even though misguided men had led her astray by whispering about her after I left."
Abdullah bin Ahmad and Tabarani recorded it, and its chain contains a group of narrators whom I do not know.