(1) Reported by al-Bukhari, 4782 (Tafsir, chapter: “Call them after their fathers”); Muslim, 2425 (Virtues of the Companions, chapter: “Merits of Zayd”); al-Tirmidhi, 3207 (Tafsir, chapter on Surat al-Ahzab) who graded it Hasan Sahih, and again 3816 (Shamaʾil, chapter: “Virtues of Zayd”); and by al-Bayhaqi, Sunan, 7/161 (chapter: Abrogation of adoption). Zayd is the Companion about whom Allah said to His noble Prophet: “When you said to the one on whom Allah and you had bestowed favour, ‘Keep your wife and fear Allah,’ while concealing within yourself what Allah would later reveal and fearing people—yet Allah has a greater right that you fear Him—then, when Zayd had finished with her, We gave her to you in marriage so that believers would incur no blame regarding the wives of their adopted sons once they have finished with them. The command of Allah is ever fulfilled” (al-Ahzab 33:37). Numerous exegetes, following what al-Tabari relates in his Tafsir 22/63 through the chains Bishr – Yazid – Saʿid – Qatadah and Yunus – Ibn Wahb – Ibn Zayd, as well as what Ibn Saʿd 8/101 and al-Hakim, Mustadrak 4/23-24, transmit through al-Waqidi – ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAmir – Muhammad b. Yahya b. Hibban, claim that the matter the Prophet concealed was his affection for Zaynab while she was still with Zayd, and that she overheard him say: “Glory be to the Turner of hearts.” All these isnads are either interrupted or extremely weak: the third is very weak, for al-Waqidi is discarded and ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAmir al-Aslami is unreliable. Leading critics—such as Ibn Hajar (Fath al-Bari 8/403), Ibn al-ʿArabi (Ahkam al-Quran 3/1530, 1532), Ibn Kathir (Tafsir 5/466) and al-Alusi (22/24-25)—have all judged them unsound. Lady ʿAʾisha said: “Had the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concealed anything of the revelation, he would have concealed this verse.”