Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 19468 — When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ intended

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) 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 in threes, and those whose lot came out he would take with him; those wives would give water to drink and treat the wounded. When he (peace and blessings be upon him) marched against Banu al-Mustaliq, he cast lots among them, and the lot came out for Sayyidah Aishah and Sayyidah Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with them both), so he (peace and blessings be upon him) took them both with him. When they were somewhere along the way, the saddle of Sayyidah Umm Salamah tilted, so the people made her camel kneel in order to set her saddle right, and Sayyidah Aishah needed to relieve herself. When the people had made their camels kneel, Sayyidah Aishah said: I said to myself: "While they set right the saddle of Sayyidah Umm Salamah, I will finish my need." She said: So I got down from the howdah, took water in a jug and went to a deserted spot, and they did not know that I had got down. There my necklace broke, and I was held up re-stringing it. Meanwhile, the people set off with their camels, thinking that I was in the howdah and had not got down. Sayyidah Aishah said: I came back and found no one. She said: I followed them until I was exhausted, and I said to myself: "The people will surely miss me and come back looking for me." She said: So I stood by the way. Then Safwan bin al-Mu'attal al-Sulami (may Allah be pleased with him) passed by me. He was a companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he had asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to appoint him to the rear of the army (the saqah), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) had appointed him. So whenever the people departed, he would stay behind and pray, then follow them, and whatever of the people's belongings had fallen, he would pick up and deliver to their owners. Sayyidah Aishah said: When he passed by me, he thought I was a man and said: "O sleeper! Get up, for the people have gone." She said: I said: "I am not a man; I am Aishah." He said: "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un (We belong to Allah and to Him we return)." Then he made his camel kneel, hobbled its two forelegs, turned his back to me and said: "Mother, get up and mount, and when you have mounted, let me know." She said: I mounted, and he came and untied the rope, then raised the camel and took hold of its halter. Ibn Umar said: He did not say a word to her until he brought her to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). At this, the hypocrite Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul said: "By the Lord of the Ka'bah, he has committed indecency with her!" Hassan bin Thabit al-Ansari, Mistah bin Uthathah and Hamnah helped him in this, and the talk spread through the army. It reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and what they had said had some effect on the heart of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), until they returned to Madinah. Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul spread this talk in Madinah, and it weighed very heavily on the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Sayyidah Aishah said: One day the mother of Mistah came in and saw me as I was about to go out to relieve myself, so she carried the water jug with me, and the jug fell from her hand, and she said: "May Mistah perish!" Sayyidah Aishah said to her: "Subhan Allah! Are you cursing a man who took part in Badr, when he is your own son?" The mother of Mistah said to her: "The flood has swept over you and you do not even know," and she told her the whole thing. She said: When she told me this, a fever came over me, and the need I had went away, and I had not gone far from the place of relief. Sayyidah Aishah said: Before this I used to feel some coldness from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and I did not know what it was due to. When the mother of Mistah told me, I realised that the coldness of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was because of what the mother of Mistah had told me. Sayyidah Aishah said: I said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "O Messenger of Allah, will you permit me to go to my family?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Go." Sayyidah Aishah went out until she reached her father, Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr asked her: "What has happened to you?" She said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has put me out of his house." Abu Bakr said to her: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) has put you out, and I should give you shelter? By Allah, I will not give you shelter until the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) himself commands it." So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded him to give her shelter. Abu Bakr said to her: "By Allah, such a thing was never said about us even in the days of Ignorance (Jahiliyyah), so how can it be said now that Allah has honoured us with Islam?" Sayyidah Aishah, her mother Umm Ruman, Abu Bakr and Abd al-Rahman all wept, and the household wept with them. This reached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so he (peace and blessings be upon him) ascended the pulpit, praised and extolled Allah, and then said: "O people, who will excuse me regarding one who hurts me?" Sa'd bin Mu'adh rose towards him (peace and blessings be upon him), drew his sword and said: "O Messenger of Allah, I will excuse you regarding him. If he is from al-Aws, I will bring you his head, and if he is from al-Khazraj, give us your command." At this, Sa'd bin Ubadah stood up and said: "You have lied! By Allah, you do not have the power to kill him; you have only sought us out because of the (old) blood feuds that existed between us and you in the days of Ignorance." One said: "O Aws!" and the other said: "O Khazraj!" The people fell upon one another with sandals and stones and began striking one another. Usayd bin Hudayr stood up and said: "What is this talk? Here is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) giving us his command; let whoever is displeased be displeased." At that moment Jibril (peace be upon him) came down while he (peace and blessings be upon him) was on the pulpit. Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah climbed up to him (peace and blessings be upon him) and held him. When the state of revelation passed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gestured to all the people and then recited to them the verses that Jibril (peace be upon him) had brought down: "And if two groups of the believers fight each other, then make peace between them; but if one of them transgresses against the other, then fight the one that transgresses" [Surah al-Hujurat: 9] (with the sword) to the end of the verses. The people cried out: "We are content, O Messenger of Allah, with what Allah has sent down in the Qur'an." Then they went to one another, embraced and made peace. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came down from the pulpit and waited for revelation about Sayyidah Aishah, and he sent for Ali, Usamah and Barirah. Whenever he (peace and blessings be upon him) wanted to consult anyone, after the death of Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) he would not go beyond Ali and Usamah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Ali: "What is your view about Aishah? What people have said about her has troubled me." He said: "O Messenger of Allah, people have said it, and it has become lawful for you to divorce her." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Usamah: "What is your view?" He said: "Subhan Allah! It is not permissible for us to speak of this. Glory be to You! This is a tremendous slander." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Barirah: "Barirah, what do you say?" She said: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I have known nothing about your wife but good, except that she is a woman who sleeps a great deal; she sleeps until the goat comes and eats her dough. And if there were anything (more) in this, Allah would surely inform you." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) went out until he reached the house of Abu Bakr, went in to her and said: "O Aishah, if you have done this thing, then say so, so that I may seek Allah's forgiveness for you." She said: "By Allah, I will never seek forgiveness for it; if I have done it, may Allah never forgive me. And I find no example for me and for you except the example of the father of Yusuf" (and out of grief she forgot the name of Ya'qub) "'I only complain of my anguish and my grief to Allah, and I know from Allah what you do not know' [Surah Yusuf: 86]." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was still speaking to her when Jibril (peace be upon him) came down with revelation upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and a drowsiness came over him (peace and blessings be upon him). Abu Bakr said to Sayyidah Aishah: "Get up and support the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." She said: "No, by Allah, I will not go near him." So Abu Bakr himself got up and supported the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). That state passed while he (peace and blessings be upon him) was smiling, and he said: "Aishah, Allah has sent down your vindication." She said: "With the praise of Allah, not with praise of you." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) recited Surah al-Nur to her up to the point where the account of her, her vindication and her innocence ends. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Get up and go to the house." She got up, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) went out to the mosque, called Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah, gathered the people, and then recited to them the (verses) that Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, had sent down in vindication of Sayyidah Aishah. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came down from the pulpit and sent for the hypocrite Abdullah bin Ubayy. He was brought, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had the prescribed punishment (hadd) applied to him twice. He sent for Hassan bin Thabit, Mistah bin Uthathah and Hamnah bint Jahsh, and they were given a painful beating and struck on their necks (as punishment). Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) applied the hadd to Abdullah bin Ubayy twice because whoever slanders the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is liable to two hadd punishments. Abu Bakr sent for Mistah bin Uthathah and said: "Tell me, you are the son of my maternal aunt; what led you to say what you said about Aishah? As for Hassan, he is a man of the Ansar, not of my people; as for Hamnah, she is a weak woman with no sense; and as for Abdullah bin Ubayy, he is a hypocrite. But you have been under my care since your father died when you were four years old. I spent on you and clothed you until you reached maturity, and to this very day I have not cut off your allowance. By Allah, you are a man to whom I will never again give even a dirham, nor ever show you any kindness." Then Abu Bakr drove him away and put him out of his house. At this the Qur'an came down: "And let not those of virtue and means among you swear" to the end of the verse. When it said: "Do you not love that Allah should forgive you?" [Surah al-Nur: 22], Abu Bakr wept and said: "Since the Qur'an has come down concerning me in your favour, I will double your allowance, and I have forgiven you, for Allah has commanded me to forgive you." The wife of Abdullah bin Ubayy was a hypocrite like him, and the Qur'an came down: "Evil women" [Surah al-Nur: 26] (meaning the wife of Abdullah) "are for evil men" [Surah al-Nur: 26] (meaning Abdullah) "and evil men are for evil women" [Surah al-Nur: 26] (meaning Abdullah for his wife) "and good women are for good men" [Surah al-Nur: 26] (meaning Sayyidah Aishah and the other wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)) "and good men" [Surah al-Nur: 26] (meaning the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)) "are for good women" [Surah al-Nur: 26] (meaning for Sayyidah Aishah and the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)) "those are declared innocent of what they say" to the end of the verses.