❖ Compilation: Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad Anwar Zāhid ḥafiẓahullāh
✦ Narration of the Incident
ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd ibn Aslam narrates from his father and grandfather:We were with ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (RA) as he was making rounds in Madīnah during the night. Feeling tired, he leaned against a wall and sat down. It was past midnight.
At that moment, he heard a woman’s voice instructing her daughter:
"My daughter, get up and mix some water with the milk."
The daughter replied:
"Mother, did you not hear the announcement made by the Amīr al-Muʾminīn today?"
The mother asked:
"What was it?"
The girl responded:
"He instructed that someone announce in a loud voice that no one should mix water with milk."
The mother said:
"Get up and mix it anyway; you are in a place where ʿUmar cannot see you."
The daughter answered:
"I cannot obey him in public and disobey him in private."
ʿUmar (RA) was listening to this entire conversation. He turned to me and said:
"Go and find out who this girl is and with whom she was speaking, and whether she is married."
I went and investigated, and found that the girl was unmarried, and the woman was her mother, also unmarried.
I returned to ʿUmar and reported what I had found. Then ʿUmar (RA) called his sons and said:
"If any one of you wishes to marry, I will arrange your marriage. Had I desired to marry, I would have proposed to this girl myself."
ʿAbdullāh said:
"I have no wife—marry me to her."
So, ʿUmar (RA) arranged the marriage of his son ʿĀṣim to the girl. From this union, a daughter was born who later became the mother of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.
✦ Ḥadīth Authentication:
➤ Chain of Narration: Weak (ضعیف)This report is recorded in:
- Akhbār ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz by al-Ājurī, pp. 48–49.
However, the narrator ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd ibn Aslam is weak.
- Al-Nasāʾī says: "He is not strong."
Further references indicate his weakness in:
- Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (Vol. 4, p. 103)
- Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (2/664)
- Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (5/222)
- Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb (1/417, 316)
- Al-Kāshif (2/88)
- Tārīkh al-Bukhārī al-Kabīr (5/94)
- Al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (5/275)
- Al-Ḍuʿafāʾ wa al-Matrūkīn by al-Nasāʾī, no. 340
- Al-Majrūḥīn by Ibn Ḥibbān (2/10)
- Dīwān al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, no. 2175
Therefore, this narration is not valid as reliable evidence due to the weakness of its chain.
⚠ Note: Despite its popularity in sermons and moral lessons, this story is based on a weak narration and should not be cited as an authentic historical or religious account.
