Response to: Ayesha rejecting narration She narrated?

This is a response to the article written on Slave of Ahlubait’s blog, written on March 18^th 2012, which can be found here.

Slave of Ahlubait (who we’ll refer to from now as SoA) on this article criticizes A’isha for supposedly contradicting herself when narrating narrations of the Prophet (pbuh). Before quoting the narrations, it should be known that there is no difference of opinion that Sunnis don’t believe in the infallibility of the companions, and mistakes can occur. A companion is susceptible to forgetting narrations, even if they have narrated them in the past, which is the case with all of us today.

However, even with that in mind, this is not a narration in which A’isha contradicted herself.

SoA quotes:

There is a narration narrated by many Sahaba, which says

.

يَقْطَعُ الصَّلَاةَ الْمَرْأَةُ وَالْحِمَارُ وَالْكَلْبُ

A woman, an ass and a dog disrupt the prayer [2]

.

However, in the chapter of Sahih Muslim, Ayesha negates it strongly. We find

.

(512) وَحَدَّثَنِي عَمْرُو بْنُ عَلِيٍّ، حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ جَعْفَرٍ، حَدَّثَنَا شُعْبَةُ، عَنْ أَبِي بَكْرِ بْنِ حَفْصٍ، عَنْ عُرْوَةَ بْنِ الزُّبَيْرِ، قَالَ: قَالَتْ عَائِشَةُ: مَا يَقْطَعُ الصَّلَاةَ؟ قَالَ: فَقُلْنَا الْمَرْأَةُ وَالْحِمَارُ. فَقَالَتْ: «إِنَّ الْمَرْأَةَ لَدَابَّةُ سَوْءٍ لَقَدْ رَأَيْتُنِي بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَسُولِ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مُعْتَرِضَةً، كَاعْتِرَاضِ الْجَنَازَةِ وَهُوَ يُصَلِّي»  

‘Urwa b. Zubair reported: ‘A’isha asked: What disrupts the prayer? We said: The woman and the ass. Upon this she remarked: Is the woman an ugly animal? I lay in front of the Messenger of Allaah (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) like the bier of a corpse and he said prayer. [3]

.

But interestingly, We find her narrating in Musnad Ahmad

.

رقم الحديث: 23987
(حديث مرفوع) حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو الْمُغِيرَةِ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا صَفْوَانُ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا رَاشِدُ بْنُ سَعْدٍ ، عَنْ عَائِشَةَ زَوْجِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ، قَالَتْ : قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : ” لَا يَقْطَعُ صَلَاةَ الْمُسْلِمِ شَيْءٌ إِلَّا الْحِمَارُ ، وَالْكَافِرُ ، وَالْكَلْبُ ، وَالْمَرْأَةُ ” فَقَالَتْ عَائِشَةُ : يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ، لَقَدْ قُرِنَّا بِدَوَابِّ سُوءٍ .

Ayesha said that I heard Prophet (asws) saying that Prayer of a Muslim is not disrupted by anything except donkey, Non Muslim, Dog and Woman. She said: O Prophet! you counted us with ugly animals [4]

.

Sheikh Hamza Ahmad Zain coutned the narration Sahih/Authentic in Chain/sanad [5]

Shokani commented on the authenticity of this narration in his Neel ul Autar, and said

.

وَعَنْ عَائِشَةَ عِنْدَ أَحْمَدَ قَالَتْ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ – صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ -: «لَا يَقْطَعُ صَلَاةَ الْمُسْلِمِ شَيْءٌ إلَّا الْحِمَارُ وَالْكَافِرُ وَالْكَلْبُ وَالْمَرْأَةُ، لَقَدْ قُرِنَّا بِدَوَابِّ السُّوءِ» . قَالَ الْعِرَاقِيُّ: وَرِجَالُهُ ثِقَاتٌ

And Ayesha said in (Musnad) Ahmad: Holy Prophet (asws) said………I’raqi said that Narrators are all Thiqa [6]

The narration from Muslim is authentic, while the narration from Musnad Ahmad has a defect. Al-Iraqi correctly states that all the narrators are trustworthy, however, that is one of the conditions of an authentic narration. One of the most overlooked conditions is the connection of the narration, and in this case, the narration is disconnected.

In Al-Ikleel by Abi Ishaq (p.34) Al-Samnudi, we find under the biography of Rashid bin Sa’ad the following:

قال ابن رجب الحنبلي: راشد بن سعد لم يسمع من عائشة.

Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali said: Rashid bin Sa’ad didn’t hear from A’isha.

It seems as though Al-Iraqi may as well have been aware of the possibility of the disconnection, which is why he only commented on the reliability of the narrators, instead of commenting on the chains as a whole.