Musnad Ahmad 24317

Translation

✧ To proceed: Advise me concerning people who have slandered my family. By Allah, I have never known any evil from my family, and they have slandered them with whom? By Allah, I have never known any evil from him, and he never entered my house except when I was present, and I never went on a journey except that he went with me. Sa'd b. Mu'adh stood up and said: 'We think, O Messenger of Allah, that we should strike their necks.' A man from the Khazraj stood up — the mother of Hassan b. Thabit was from the clan of that man — and said: 'You lie. By Allah, if they had been from the Aws, you would not have loved to strike their necks.' This almost led to evil between the Aws and the Khazraj in the mosque, and I did not know about it. When it was evening of that day, I went out for some need of mine, and Umm Mistah was with me. She stumbled and said: 'May Mistah perish!' I said: 'Why do you insult your son?' She was silent. Then she stumbled a second time and said: 'May Mistah perish!' I said: 'Why do you insult your son?' Then she stumbled a third time and said: 'May Mistah perish!' I scolded her and said: 'Why do you insult your son?' She said: 'By Allah, I do not insult him except because of you.' I said: 'In what matter of mine?' She mentioned the affair to me. I said: 'And this has happened?' She said: 'Yes, by Allah.' I returned to my house as if the thing I had gone out for I had not gone out for, finding nothing of it, little or much. I fell ill and said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: 'Send me to my father's house.' So he sent a servant with me. I entered the house and found Umm Ruman. She said: 'What has brought you, my daughter?' I told her. She said: 'Take it lightly, for by Allah, rarely is a beautiful woman with a husband who loves her and has co-wives except that they envy her and say things about her.' I said: 'And has my father come to know of it?' She said: 'Yes.' I said: 'And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?' She said: 'And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.' I wept and cried. Abu Bakr heard my voice while he was on the upper part of the house reading. He came down and said to my mother: 'What is wrong with her?' She said: 'The news of what was said about her has reached her.' His eyes overflowed. He said: 'I adjure you, my daughter, to return to your house.' So I returned. My parents came to me in the morning and remained with me until the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered upon me after 'Asr, while my parents were on my right and my left. The Prophet ﷺ recited the tashahhud, praised Allah, and extolled Him as He deserves. Then he said: 'To proceed, O 'Aishah: If you have committed an evil deed and wronged, repent to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, for Allah, Mighty and Majestic, accepts repentance from His servants.' A woman of the Ansar had come and was sitting at the door. I said: 'Are you not ashamed before this woman to say something?' I said to my father: 'Answer him.' He said: 'What should I say?' I said to my mother: 'Answer him.' She said: 'What should I say?' When they did not answer him, I recited the tashahhud, praised Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and extolled Him as He deserves. Then I said: 'To proceed: By Allah, if I tell you that I did not do it — and Allah, glorified be His majesty, bears witness that I am truthful — that will not benefit me with you. You have spoken of it and your hearts have absorbed it. And if I tell you that I did it — and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, knows that I did not do it — you will say: She has confessed it against herself. By Allah, I find no likeness for me and you except the father of Yusuf — and I do not remember his name —: "So patience is most fitting, and Allah is the one sought for help against what you describe."' Then revelation came down upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at that moment. When it was lifted from him, I could discern joy on his face while he wiped his forehead and said: 'Rejoice, O 'Aishah, for Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has sent down your innocence.' I was as angry as I had ever been. My parents said to me: 'Get up and go to him.' I said: 'By Allah, I will not get up to him, nor praise him, nor praise you two. You heard it and did not reject it or change it. But I praise Allah who sent down my innocence.' The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to my house and asked the slave girl about me. She said: 'No, by Allah, I know no fault in her except that she would sleep until the sheep came in and ate her dough or her leaven — Hisham was uncertain —.' One of his companions scolded her and said: 'Tell the truth to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,' until they made her slip about it. 'Urwah said: 'That was considered a fault on the one who said it.' She said: 'No, by Allah, I know nothing of her except what the goldsmith knows of pure red gold.' That reached the man who had been told, and he said: 'Glory be to Allah! By Allah, I have never uncovered the side of any female.' He was later killed as a martyr in the path of Allah. 'Aishah said: 'As for Zaynab bt. Jahsh, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, protected her through her religion, and she said nothing but good. As for her sister Hamnah, she perished among those who perished. Those who spoke about it were the hypocrite 'Abd Allah b. Ubayy, who sought it out and spread it, and he was the one who took the greater part of it, and Mistah and Hassan b. Thabit. Abu Bakr swore that he would never benefit Mistah with any benefit again. Then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, sent down: "And let not those of virtue and wealth among you swear not to give to the near of kin and the needy" — meaning Abu Bakr — "that they should give to the near of kin and the needy" — meaning Mistah — "Do you not love that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." Abu Bakr said: 'Yes, by Allah, we love that He should forgive us.' And Abu Bakr returned to Mistah the kindness he used to show him.' [The matn includes notes about variant readings in different editions, which are not part of the narration.]

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