Wa ʿalaykum as-salām wa raḥmatullāh
The only number of wives in Paradise that is authentically established in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections is
two, as mentioned in al-Bukhārī (3245) and Muslim (2834) from Abū Hurayrah (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhu):
“Each of them will have two wives.”
Some narrations add that these two are from among al-ḥūr al-ʿīn, while others leave it general.
As for the report in
Musnad Aḥmad from Abū Hurayrah stating that the lowest person in Paradise will have
seventy-two wives and
three hundred servants, the scholars have not judged it authentic. Its chain contains
Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, a narrator criticised by the ḥadīth critics:
- Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn: “Ḍaʿīf” (weak)
- Ibn Ḥibbān: prone to sending mursal reports and making mistakes
- al-Bukhārī: “fīhi naẓar” (there is a problem with him)
All known routes for this wording either pass through Shahr or through other even weaker narrators, so it does not reach the level of ṣaḥīḥ.
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī noted in
Fatḥ al-Bārī (6/325) that Aḥmad’s isnād for the 72-wives narration includes Shahr “about whom there is criticism,” and Ibn al-Qayyim stated in
Ḥādī al-Arwāḥ (p. 157) that no sound report fixes a number greater than two wives.
In summary:
- Authentic ḥadīth: minimum of two wives in Paradise.
- The Musnad Aḥmad narration of 72 wives & 300 servants is weak due to Shahr ibn Ḥawshab and other issues in the chain, and cannot be used as proof.
