Sahih al-Bukhari 2661

Translation

✧ when the people of the slander said what they said and Allah exonerated her from them. Zuhri said: All of them narrated to me portions of her account. Some of them had a better memory than others and were more precise in relating it. I retained from each of them the part of the narration that he conveyed to me from Aishah, and the reports of some corroborate those of others. They related that Aishah said: Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ intended to set out on a journey, he would cast lots among his wives, and whichever of them had her lot drawn would go with him. He cast lots among us for one of his campaigns, and my lot was drawn, so I went out with him after the hijab had been revealed. I would be carried in a howdah and lowered in it. We traveled until, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finished that campaign and was returning, and we had drawn near to Madinah, he announced one night that we would depart. When they announced departure, I got up and walked until I had gone beyond the army. When I had finished my need, I came back to the camp and touched my chest, and my necklace of beads from Zafar had broken. I went back to look for my necklace, and searching for it delayed me. Those who used to prepare my mount came and lifted my howdah, then placed it on the camel I used to ride, thinking that I was inside it. Women at that time were light and had not become heavy, and flesh had not covered them; they only ate a small amount of food. So the people did not notice, when they lifted it, any unusual lightness in the howdah. They carried it, and I was a young girl of tender age. They sent the camel on and traveled. I found my necklace after the army had already gone on. I came to their stopping place, but there was no one there, so I went to the place where I had been staying. I thought they would miss me and return to me. While I was sitting there, my eyes overcame me and I slept. Safwan ibn al-Muattal al-Sulami, then al-Dhakwani, had been behind the army. In the morning he reached my place and saw the dark outline of a sleeping person, so he came to me. He had seen me before the hijab, and I woke up when he said the words of return to Allah as he made his mount kneel. He put his foot on its foreleg, and I mounted it. Then he set off leading the mount with me on it until we reached the army after they had halted to rest in the heat of midday. Then those who were ruined were ruined, and the one who took the leading role in the slander was Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. We arrived in Madinah, and there I fell ill for a month while they were spreading the talk of the people of slander. What troubled me during my illness was that I did not see from the Prophet ﷺ the tenderness I used to see from him when I was ill; he would only come in, give salam, and then say, "How is that one?" I knew nothing of that until I recovered somewhat. Then I went out with Umm Mistah toward al-Manasi, our place for relieving ourselves. We would not go out except from night to night, and that was before we made lavatories near our houses. Our custom was the custom of the early Arabs in going out into the open or to a distant place. Umm Mistah bint Abi Ruhm and I came walking, and she stumbled in her cloak, so she said, "May Mistah perish." I said to her, "How bad is what you have said! Do you revile a man who witnessed Badr?" She said, "O you there, have you not heard what they have said?" Then she told me what the people of slander were saying, and my illness increased upon my illness. When I returned to my house, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered upon me, gave salam, and said, "How is that one?" I said, "Permit me to go to my parents." She said: At that time I wanted to verify the news from them, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ permitted me. I came to my parents and said to my mother, "What are the people talking about?" She said, "My dear daughter, take the matter lightly for yourself. By Allah, rarely has there ever been a beautiful woman loved by a man who has co-wives except that they speak much against her." I said, "Subhan Allah! Have people really been talking about this?" She said: I spent that night until morning with my tears not ceasing and without tasting sleep. Then morning came, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called Ali ibn Abi Talib and Usamah ibn Zayd when the revelation had been delayed, consulting them about separating from his wife. As for Usamah, he advised him according to what he knew in himself of affection for them. Usamah said, "Your family, O Messenger of Allah; by Allah, we know nothing but good." As for Ali ibn Abi Talib, he said, "O Messenger of Allah, Allah has not constrained you, and there are many women besides her. Ask the servant girl; she will tell you the truth." So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called Barirah and said, "O Barirah, have you seen anything in her that makes you suspicious?" Barirah said, "No, by the One who sent you with the truth. I have not seen in her anything I could fault her for, except that she is a young girl of tender age who sleeps while the dough is left unattended, and the domestic animal comes and eats it." On that very day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood up and sought someone to excuse him against Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Who will excuse me regarding a man whose harm toward my family has reached me? By Allah, I know nothing about my family except good, and they have mentioned a man about whom I know nothing except good, and he would not enter upon my family except with me." Saad ibn Muadh stood and said, "O Messenger of Allah, by Allah, I will excuse you regarding him. If he is from the Aws, we will strike his neck; and if he is from our brothers of the Khazraj, then command us and we will carry out your command concerning him." Saad ibn Ubadah stood up, and he was the chief of the Khazraj. Before that he had been a righteous man, but tribal zeal overtook him, so he said, "You have lied, by the life of Allah. You will not kill him, nor are you able to do that." Usayd ibn al-Hudayr stood and said, "You have lied, by the life of Allah. By Allah, we will surely kill him, for you are a hypocrite arguing on behalf of the hypocrites." The two clans, Aws and Khazraj, became stirred up until they nearly clashed while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was on the pulpit. He came down and calmed them until they were silent, and he remained silent. I wept that whole day; my tears did not cease, and I did not taste sleep. By morning my parents were with me. I had wept for two nights and a day until I thought that weeping would split my liver. She said: While they were sitting with me and I was weeping, a woman from the Ansar asked permission to enter, and I gave her permission. She sat and wept with me. While we were like that, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered and sat down; he had not sat with me since the day what was said about me had been said, and a month had passed without anything being revealed to him concerning my affair. She said: He recited the tashahhud and then said, "O Aisha, such-and-such has reached me about you. If you are innocent, Allah will exonerate you; but if you have committed something, then ask Allah for forgiveness and repent to Him, for when a servant acknowledges his sin and then repents, Allah accepts his repentance." When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished his words, my tears stopped until I did not feel a single drop. I said to my father, "Answer the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on my behalf." He said, "By Allah, I do not know what to say to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." I said to my mother, "Answer the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on my behalf regarding what he said." She said, "By Allah, I do not know what to say to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." She said: I was a young girl of tender age and did not recite much of the Quran. I said, "By Allah, I know that you have heard what people are saying, that it has settled in your hearts, and that you have believed it. If I say to you that I am innocent—and Allah knows that I am innocent—you will not believe me in that. But if I admit to you something—and Allah knows that I am innocent—you would believe me. By Allah, I find no example for myself and you except the father of Yusuf when he said: "So patience is beautiful, and Allah is the One whose help is sought against what you describe."" Then I turned over on my bed, hoping that Allah would exonerate me. But by Allah, I did not think that any revelation would be sent down concerning me, for I considered myself too insignificant for Quran to be spoken about my affair. Rather, I hoped that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would see a dream in which Allah would exonerate me. By Allah, he had not moved from his seat, nor had anyone from the household gone out, until revelation was sent down upon him. The distress that used to seize him seized him, until sweat like pearls was dripping from him on a cold day. When it was lifted from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he was smiling, and the first words he spoke were that he said to me, "O Aisha, praise Allah, for Allah has exonerated you." My mother said to me, "Get up and go to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." I said, "No, by Allah, I will not get up to him, and I will praise none but Allah." Then Allah revealed: "Indeed, those who came with the slander are a group among you," and the verses. When Allah sent this down concerning my exoneration, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq ᴿᴬ, who used to spend on Mistah ibn Uthathah because of his kinship to him, said, "By Allah, I will never spend anything on Mistah after what he said about Aisha." Then Allah revealed: "And let not those of virtue among you and wealth swear off," up to His saying: "Forgiving, Merciful." Abu Bakr said, "Yes, by Allah, I love that Allah should forgive me." So he returned to giving Mistah what he used to provide for him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to ask Zaynab bint Jahsh about my affair, and he said, "O Zaynab, what do you know? What have you seen?" She said, "O Messenger of Allah, I guard my hearing and my sight. By Allah, I know nothing about her except good." She said: She was the one who used to rival me, but Allah protected her through piety.

Grades by grader

Narrators

1. سليمان بن داود العتكي
2. أحمد بن النضر النيسابوري
3. فليح بن سليمان الأسلمي
4. محمد بن شهاب الزهري
5. عروة بن الزبير الأسدي
6. سعيد بن المسيب القرشي
7. علقمة بن وقاص العتواري
8. عبيد الله بن عبد الله الهذلي
9. عائشة بنت أبي بكر الصديق
10. فليح بن سليمان الأسلمي
11. هشام بن عروة الأسدي
12. عروة بن الزبير الأسدي
13. عائشة بنت أبي بكر الصديق
14. عبد الله بن الزبير الأسدي
15. فليح بن سليمان الأسلمي
16. ربيعة الرأي
17. يحيى بن سعيد الأنصاري
18. القاسم بن محمد التيمي