Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 19439 — from Urwah bin al-Zubayr, Sa'id bin

Al-Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates from Urwah bin al-Zubayr, Sa'id bin al-Musayyab, Alqamah bin Waqqas and Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utbah (may Allah have mercy on them) the hadith of Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), the honoured wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Each of them narrated to me a part of this hadith, and some of them remembered it better than others and were firmer in relating it. I have preserved the hadith that each one of them narrated to me, and their narrations confirm one another. 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 go on a journey, he would cast lots among his wives, and whichever of them drew the lot, he (peace and blessings be upon him) would take her with him. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) cast lots among us for a military expedition, and my lot came out. So I set out with him (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. Until, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had finished that expedition 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 chest, 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. In those days women were light; they did not grow fat or put on flesh, for they ate only a little food, so they lifted the howdah. And I was a young girl. So 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 no one there. So I went straight to the place where I had been before and stayed there, thinking that they would miss me and come back. While I was sitting in my place, sleep overcame me and I slept. Safwan bin al-Mu'attal al-Sulami, then al-Dhakwani, was behind the army. He reached my place in the morning and saw the dark shape of a sleeping person. He came to me, and he used to see me before the command of the veil was revealed. When he made his mount kneel, I woke at his saying 'Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un' (We belong to Allah and to Him we return). He put his foot on the mount's foreleg and I mounted it. Then he set off leading the mount, until we reached the army after they had halted in the intense heat of midday. So whoever was to be ruined was ruined, and the one who took the greatest part in this slander was Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul. Then I reached Madinah and was ill there for a month, while people were busy with the talk of the slanderers, and I knew nothing of it. However, 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 from him (peace and blessings be upon him) when I was ill. He (peace and blessings be upon him) would only come in, greet me with salam, and then say: "How is she?" This troubled me, but I had no sense (of the real matter), until I recovered. Then Umm Mistah and I went out towards al-Manasi', which was our place for relieving ourselves. We would only go out at night, and this was before toilets were built near our houses, and in the open country, or in relieving ourselves, our practice was like that of the early Arabs. Then Umm Mistah bint Abi Ruhm and I were walking (back) when she tripped in her wrap and stumbled, and she 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 people have said?" I said: "What have they said?" So she told me what the slanderers were saying, and my illness increased on top of my illness. When I returned to my house and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to me and said: "How is she?" I said: "Permit me to go to my parents." She said: At that time I wanted to confirm the news from them. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave me permission, so I came to my parents and said to my mother: "What are people talking about?" She said: "My daughter, take this matter lightly. By Allah, it has rarely happened that a beautiful woman is with a man who loves her, and she has co-wives, without their talking much about her." I said: "Subhan Allah! Are people talking about this?" She said: Then I spent that night in such a way that until morning my tears did not stop and no sleep came to me. 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); he (peace and blessings be upon him) was consulting them about separating from his wife. She said: As for Usamah, he advised the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) according to what he knew of the innocence of his (peace and blessings be upon him) family and the love for them in his heart, and Usamah said: "O Messenger of Allah, she is your wife, and we know nothing but good." As for Ali, he said: "O Messenger of Allah, Allah has not restricted you; there are many women besides her, and ask the slave girl, she will tell you the truth." She said: So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) called Barirah and said to her: "Have you seen anything in her that would cause you doubt?" Barirah said: "No, by the One who sent you with the truth, I have not seen anything in her for which I would blame her, more than that she is a young girl who falls asleep, neglecting the dough, until the household goat comes and eats it." She said: So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up that same day and sought (people's) support against Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Who will excuse me regarding a man whose harm has reached me concerning my family? By Allah" (he (peace and blessings be upon him) said this three times) "I have known nothing about my family but good, and they have mentioned a man about whom I have also known nothing but good, and he only used to come to my family with me." She said: At this, Sa'd bin Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up and said: "O Messenger of Allah, by Allah, I will take redress for you from him. If he is from al-Aws, we will strike his neck, and if he is from our brothers of al-Khazraj, you command us and we will carry out your command." At this, Sa'd bin Ubadah (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up; he was the chief of al-Khazraj, and before that he had been a righteous man, but (tribal) zeal provoked him, and he said: "You have lied! By Allah, you will not kill him, nor are you able to." At this, Usayd bin Hudayr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "You have lied! By Allah, we will certainly kill him; you are a hypocrite arguing on behalf of the hypocrites." So both tribes, al-Aws and al-Khazraj, flared up until they were intent (on fighting), while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was standing on the pulpit. He (peace and blessings be upon him) came down and kept calming them until they fell silent, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) too fell silent. And I wept that day; my tears did not stop and no sleep came to me. In the morning my parents were with me, and I had wept for a day and a night, until I thought that the weeping would split my eye. She said: The two of them were sitting with me and I was weeping when a woman of the Ansar asked permission. I gave her permission, and she sat down and began weeping with me. We were in this state when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came in and sat down. He (peace and blessings be upon him) had not sat with me since this thing had been said, and a month had passed without any revelation coming to him (peace and blessings be upon him) about my affair. 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 you innocent; 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 on my behalf what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has said." He said: "By Allah, I do not know what to say to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." Then I said it to my mother, and she said the same. So I, while I was a young girl and did not read much of the Qur'an, said: "By Allah, I have come to know that you people have heard what is being said, and it has settled in your hearts and you have believed it. If I say that I am innocent, and Allah knows that I am innocent, you will not believe me; and if I confess to you something of which Allah knows I am innocent, you will surely believe me. By Allah, I find no example for me and for you except the father of Yusuf (peace be upon him), when he said: 'Beautiful patience (is best)' (Yusuf: 18)." She said: Then I turned over on my bed, and I hoped that Allah would declare me innocent because of my innocence. But by Allah, I did not think that any revelation would be sent down about my affair that would be recited; in my own eyes I was far too insignificant for the Qur'an to speak about my affair. Rather, I hoped that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would see a dream that would declare me innocent. She said: By Allah, he (peace and blessings be upon him) had not yet moved from his place, nor had anyone left the house, when revelation came down upon him (peace and blessings be upon him). The same intense state that used to come over him (at the time of revelation) came over him, until sweat like pearls began to drip from him (peace and blessings be upon him) even on a winter day. She said: Then that state passed from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) was laughing, and the first thing he (peace and blessings be upon him) said was: "O Aishah, praise Allah, for Allah has declared you innocent." My mother said to me: "Get up and go to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." I said: "By Allah, I will not get up and go to him, nor will I praise anyone but Allah." And Allah sent down all the verses beginning "Indeed, those who came with the slander". When Allah sent this down about my innocence, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), who used to spend on Mistah bin Uthathah because of his kinship with him, said: "By Allah, I will never spend anything on Mistah after what he said about Aishah." So Allah revealed this verse: "And let not those of virtue among you swear" to the end of the verse. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Yes indeed, I certainly would love for Allah to forgive me." So he resumed what he used to give Mistah. She said: And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had asked Zaynab bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her) about my affair, saying: "O Zaynab, what have you known and what have you seen?" She said: "I protect my hearing and my sight. By Allah, I have known nothing about her but good." Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: She was the one who used to compete with me (among the wives), but Allah protected her through her piety.