Response to: Asma bint Abu Bakar did Mutah

The following is a response to SlaveOfAhlubait’s article entitled: “Asma bint Abu Bakar did Mutah”. The article can be found here. 

SoA quotes the following tradition to make his case:

we find in masnad abu daood tayalsi
حدثنا يونس قال حدثنا أبو داود قال حدثنا شعبة عن مسلم القرشي
قال دخلنا على أسماء بنت أبى بكر فسألناها عن متعة النساء فقالت فعلناها على عهد رسول
الله صلى الله عليه و سلم
we went to ask asmaa bint abi bakr about muta of women so she said: we did it during rasool allah’s time

Before we continue we’d like to correct his spelling, it’s called Musnad not “Masnad”, a Masnad is a pillow in Arabic. SoA then responds to the editor of Musnad Abi Dawud:

and this can be see in the scan given below where mohammad bin hassan at-turkey says it; however, he tries to confuse people by saying that there is a confusion if it is mutah of women or mutah of haj; though the clear wordings of hadeeth say,
MUTAH OF WOMEN

The confusion over the report exists because there are three versions of this narration. The first does not specify which form of muta’a they were talking about. The second suggest that it was the muta’a of hajj. The last is that it was the muta’a of women.

It is difficult to determine which is the intended meaning, since all of these narrations come through the path of Shu’ba from Muslim Al-Qarri. The muta’a of women can only be found in the narrations of Abu Dawud, while the muta’a of hajj can only be found in the narrations of Rawh bin Ubada. The latter can be found in Saheeh Muslim #2176 and Mu’jam Al-Tabarani 17/5656. However, it seems as though the narrations of Rawh are more consistent when defining it as hajj, while the narrations of Abu Dawud, has referred to it as simply muta’a without determining which kind. See Al-Mu’jam Al-Kabeer 17/5675. With this in mind, it seems as though the addition in the narration that this is the muta’a of women is an addition made by Abu Dawud Al-Tayalsi himself.

Furthermore, it simply does not make sense that Asma’a bint Abi Bakr practiced muta’a for two reasons. Firstly, she was a married woman even before leaving Makkah, and therefore, it is haram for her to perform muta’a. Secondly, muta’a was made permissible for men during military expeditions. See Saheeh Muslim 2493 from the hadith of Ibn Mas’ud. Also it is authentically reported by ibn `Abbas that muta`a is only done in extreme cases during Jihad. Madinah wasn’t the alternative “halal” orgy town that some cities in modern day Iran have sadly become. So, therefore, it is not logical for Asma’a for have practiced this.