Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 19437 — Sa'id bin al-Musayyab, Urwah bin

Al-Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sa'id bin al-Musayyab, Urwah bin al-Zubayr, Alqamah bin Waqqas and Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utbah bin Mas'ud (may Allah have mercy on them) narrated to me the hadith of Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), the honoured wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), about the time when the people of the slander said about her what they said, and then Allah declared her innocent of it. Each of them narrated to me a part of this hadith, and some of them remembered the incident better than others and were firmer in relating it. I have preserved in my mind the hadith that each one of them narrated to me, and some of their narrations confirm others. They related that Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), the wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to set out on a journey, he would cast lots among his wives, and whichever of them drew the lot, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would take her with him. Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) cast lots among us for a military expedition that he (peace and blessings be upon him) undertook, and my lot came out. So I set out with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) after the command of the veil (hijab) had been revealed; I would be carried in my howdah and set down in it. We travelled on until, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had finished that expedition and set off back, and we drew near Madinah, the departure was announced one night. When the departure was announced, I got up and walked until I had gone beyond the army. When I had finished my need and came back towards my mount, I felt my throat, and found that my necklace of Zafar beads had broken and fallen. So I went back and searched for my necklace, and searching for it held me back. Meanwhile, the people who used to place me on my mount came, lifted my howdah and placed it on the camel I used to ride, thinking that I was in it. Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: In those days women were light; they did not grow fat or put on flesh, for they ate only a little food. So the people did not notice any difference in the weight of the howdah when they lifted it and saddled it, and I was a young girl. They drove the camel on and set off with it. I found my necklace after the army had moved on, and I came to their camp, but there was neither anyone calling nor anyone answering. So I went to the place where I had been before, thinking that the people would soon miss me and come back for me. While I was sitting in my place, sleep overcame me and I slept until morning. Safwan bin al-Mu'attal al-Sulami, then al-Dhakwani, had stayed behind the army; then, travelling in the last part of the night, he reached my place in the morning, and he saw the dark shape of a sleeping person. He came to me and recognised me as soon as he saw me, for he had seen me before the command of the veil was revealed. I woke from my sleep only at the sound of his saying 'Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un' (We belong to Allah and to Him we return), when he recognised me. So I covered my face with my outer sheet, and by Allah, he did not say a single word to me other than his istirja', until he made his mount kneel and put his foot on its foreleg, and I mounted it. Then he set off leading the mount, until we reached the army, when they had halted in the intense heat of midday. So whoever was to be ruined was ruined in my affair, and the one who took the greatest part in this slander was Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul. Then we reached Madinah, and after arriving there I was ill for a month. During this time people were busy with the talk of the slanderers, and I knew nothing of it, though in my illness it troubled me that I did not feel from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) the gentleness I used to see during my illnesses. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would just come in and say: "How is she?" This troubled me, but I did not sense the evil, until I went out after recovering, and I went with Umm Mistah towards al-Manasi', which was our place for relieving ourselves. We would only go out at night. This was before toilets were built near our houses, and our practice was like that of the early Arabs; we disliked building toilets near our houses. Umm Mistah and I set out. She was the daughter of Abu Ruhm bin al-Muttalib bin Abd Manaf, and her mother was the daughter of Sakhr bin Amir, the maternal aunt of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), and her son was Mistah bin Uthathah bin Abbad bin al-Muttalib. When the two of us had finished our need and were walking towards my house, Umm Mistah stumbled in her wrap and said: "May Mistah perish!" I said to her: "What an evil thing you have said! Do you revile a man who was present at Badr?" She said: "O simple one! Have you not heard what he said?" I said: "What did he say?" So she told me what the slanderers were saying, and my illness increased on top of my illness. When I returned to my house, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to me, greeted me with salam, and then said: "How is she?" I said: "Will you permit me to go to my parents?" (At that time I wanted to confirm the news from them.) The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave me permission. I came to my mother and asked: "Mother, what are people talking about?" She said: "My daughter, take it lightly. By Allah, it rarely happens that a beautiful woman is with a husband who loves her, and she has co-wives, without their talking much about her." I said: "Subhan Allah! Are people really talking about this?" She said: "Yes." So I wept that night until morning; my tears did not stop and no sleep came to me, and in the morning too I was weeping. Then, when the revelation was delayed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) called Ali bin Abi Talib and Usamah bin Zayd (may Allah be pleased with them both) to consult them about separating from his wife. Usamah advised the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) according to what he knew in his heart of the innocence of his (peace and blessings be upon him) family and of his love for them, and he said: "O Messenger of Allah, they are your family, and we know nothing about them but good." And Ali bin Abi Talib said: "Allah has not placed any restriction on you; there are many women besides her, and if you ask the slave girl, she will tell you the truth." So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) called Barirah and said: "O Barirah, have you seen anything about Aishah that would cause you doubt?" Barirah said: "By the One who sent you with the truth, I have never seen anything in her for which I would blame her, except that she is a young girl who falls asleep, leaving her family's dough, and the household goat comes and eats it." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up and sought (people's) support against Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said on the pulpit: "O Muslims, who will excuse me regarding a man whose harm has reached my family? By Allah, I have known nothing about my family but good, and about the man they have mentioned I also know nothing but good, and he never entered my house except with me." At this, Sa'd bin Mu'adh al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up and said: "O Messenger of Allah, Allah has excused you regarding him. If he is from al-Aws, I will strike his neck, and if he is from our brothers of al-Khazraj, you command us and we will carry it out." At this, Sa'd bin Ubadah stood up; he was then the chief of al-Khazraj and a righteous man, but tribal zeal overcame him, and he said to Sa'd bin Mu'adh: "You have lied! By Allah, you will not kill him, nor are you able to." At this, Usayd bin Hudayr, who was the cousin of Sa'd bin Mu'adh, stood up and said to Sa'd bin Ubadah: "You have lied! By Allah, we will certainly kill him; you are a hypocrite arguing on behalf of the hypocrites." At this, both tribes, al-Aws and al-Khazraj, became enraged, until they were about to fight, while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was standing on the pulpit. He (peace and blessings be upon him) kept calming them until they all fell silent, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) too fell silent. I wept that day; my tears did not stop and no sleep came to me, and my parents were also weeping, until I thought that this weeping would split my liver. While my parents were sitting with me and I was weeping, a woman of the Ansar asked permission to come in. I gave her permission, and she too sat weeping with me. Meanwhile the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came in, greeted us with salam and sat down. He (peace and blessings be upon him) had not sat with me since this thing had been said about me, and a month had passed without any revelation coming to him (peace and blessings be upon him) about my affair. As soon as he sat down, he (peace and blessings be upon him) recited the tashahhud and then said: "To proceed: O Aishah, such and such has reached me about you. If you are innocent, Allah will surely declare your innocence; and if you have committed a sin, then seek Allah's forgiveness and repent to Him, for when a servant confesses a sin and then repents, Allah accepts his repentance." When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had finished speaking, my tears dried up so completely that I could not feel a single drop. I said to my father: "Answer the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on my behalf regarding what he has said." He said: "By Allah, I do not know what to say to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." So I, though I was a young girl who had not read much of the Qur'an, said: "By Allah, I have come to know that you people have heard this thing until it has settled in your hearts and you have believed it. If I tell you that I am innocent of it, and Allah knows that I am innocent, you will not believe me; and if I confess to you some sin, though Allah knows that I am innocent of it, you will believe me. By Allah, I find no example for me and for you except what the father of Yusuf (peace be upon him) said: 'So patience is most fitting' (Yusuf: 18)." Then I turned over and lay down on my bed, and Allah is witness that at that time I was certain that I was innocent and that Allah would surely make my innocence known. But by Allah, I did not think that any revelation would be sent down about me that would be recited; I considered myself too insignificant for Allah to say anything about me that would be read. Rather, I hoped that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would see a dream through which Allah would make my innocence known. By Allah, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had not yet risen from his place, nor had anyone left the house, when Allah sent down revelation upon His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The state that used to come over him at the time of revelation came over him, until drops of sweat like pearls began to fall from him (peace and blessings be upon him) even on a winter day, because of the weight of the revelation that was sent down upon him (peace and blessings be upon him). When that state passed from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he (peace and blessings be upon him) was laughing, and the first words he (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke were: "Rejoice, O Aishah! By Allah, Allah has declared you innocent." My mother said to me: "Go to him." I said: "By Allah, I will not go to him, nor will I praise anyone but Allah; it is He who has sent down my innocence." So Allah sent down the ten verses beginning "Indeed, those who came with the slander"; Allah sent down these verses about my innocence. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), who used to spend on Mistah because of his kinship and his poverty, said: "By Allah, I will never spend anything on him again after what he said about Aishah." At this Allah revealed the verse: "And let not those of virtue among you swear" to the end of the verse. So Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "By Allah, I would love for Allah to forgive me." So he resumed the spending on Mistah that he used to make, and said: "By Allah, I will never withhold it from him." Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had also asked Zaynab bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her) about me: "What have you known and what have you seen?" She said: "O Messenger of Allah, I protect my hearing and my sight. By Allah, I have known nothing about her but good." And she was the one among the wives of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) who used to compete with me, but Allah protected her (from this trial) through her piety. Her sister Hamnah bint Jahsh began to fight on her behalf, and so she too was among those who were ruined in this slander. Al-Zuhri said: This is what has reached us about this group.