inside a cooking pot beneath a saddle-cloth, in such-and-such a place. He also charged him with several directives. They searched, found the coat of mail exactly where he had indicated, and carried out his instructions. (1)
Suhayl related—through his father—from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said, “What an excellent man Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammās is.” (2)
Al-Zuhri likewise reported that when the delegation of the Banū Tamīm arrived and their spokesman boasted of various accomplishments, the Prophet ﷺ said to Thabit ibn Qays, “Stand and answer their spokesman.” Thabit rose, praised Allah, spoke with consummate eloquence, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ together with the Muslims were delighted by his address. (3)
He is the same companion whose wife, Jamilah, once came complaining and said, “Messenger of Allah, I can no longer live with Thabit ibn Qays!” He asked her, “Will you return his orchard to him?” She replied, “Yes.” Accordingly, she obtained a khulʿ (compensatory divorce) from him. (4)
(1) Al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 3/234–235, declared it sound; al-Dhahabi concurred. Al-Haythami, Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 9/322, notes that the report is in the Sahih minus the episode of the coat of mail. Al-Tabarani also transmitted it, with a chain meeting the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim.
(2) Al-Tirmidhi, Sunan, no. 3797 (section: Merits). He judged it “hasan,” and this is correct. Al-Hakim, Mustadrak, 3/233, graded it sahih; al-Dhahabi agreed.
(3) See Ibn Hisham, al-Sira, 2/562, especially the two reciprocal sermons cited there.
(4) Al-Bukhari, Sahih, nos. 5273–5277, Book of Divorce, chapter: Khulʿ and how divorce applies; Ibn Majah, Sunan, no. 2056, same book and chapter—both explicitly name Thabit’s wife as Jamila. Al-Nasaʾi, 6/169, through al-Bukhari’s chain, omits the name. Also related by Malik, al-Muwattaʾ, p. 348, no. 31; Abu Dawud, Sunan, no. 2227; al-Nasaʾi, 6/169; and Ibn Majah, no. 2057, all of whom call her Habiba bint Sahl. Ahmad, Musnad, 4/3, likewise names her Habiba via additional chains. Reconciling the reports, Ibn Hajar quotes Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr: Basran authorities say she was Jamila bint Ubayy, while Medinan authorities say she was Habiba bint Sahl. Ibn Hajar concludes that the evidence points to two separate incidents involving two different wives, given the fame of both reports, the soundness of their chains, and the divergent contexts. See Fath al-Bari, 9/399.