the claim about exposing water to the sun and the Prophet ﷺ supposedly telling her, “Do not do that, O ḥumayrāʾ, for it causes leukoderma” (1); this is a fabricated report.
Among the people of the Hijaz, the term ḥamrāʾ refers to a woman who is fair-skinned with a slight ruddiness—an uncommon complexion among them. Hence the wording in the ḥadith: “a man who was aḥmar, as though he were one of the mawālī” (2), meaning that his coloring resembled that of the freedmen taken captive from the Christian Syrians, Byzantines, and Persians.
When the Arabs say, “So-and-so is abyaḍ (white),” they mean wheat-colored skin with dark features.
If the complexion matches that of the people of India, they say asmar or ādami (tawny).
If it matches the deep black of the Takrūr, they say aswad (black),
and, likewise, anyone whose skin is predominantly dark is called aswad or shadīd al-udmah (intensely dark-skinned).
An example is his ﷺ statement: “I have been sent to the aḥmar and the aswad” (3).
The meaning is that the children of Adam inevitably fall into one of these two categories, and every
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “That is enough.” I replied, “O Messenger of Allah, do not hurry.” He then rose for me and again said, “That is enough.” I repeated, “Do not hurry, O Messenger of Allah.” She (Aisha) added, “I was not fond of watching them, but I wished the women to know his regard for me and my standing with him.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar states in Fath al-Bari, 2/355, that the chain is sound and that he has found the nickname al-hamira (the fair-skinned one) in no other authentic hadith. Al-Zarkashi says in al-Mu‘tabar, 19/2 and 20/1: our teacher Ibn Kathir related from his teacher Abu’l-Hajjaj al-Mizzi that he used to say, “Every report containing the term al-hamira is forged except a single hadith on fasting in Sunan al-Nasa’i.” I add: there is also another report in al-Nasa’i—“The Abyssinians entered the mosque …”—and he cited the previous narration.
(1) Reported by al-Daraqutni, p. 14, and al-Bayhaqi, 1/6, through Khalid ibn Ismail al-Makhzumi—Hisham ibn Urwa—Urwa—from Aisha: “I heated water for the Messenger of Allah in the sun for him to bathe with. He said to me, ‘O Hamira, do not do that, for it causes leukoderma.’” Al-Daraqutni judged Khalid ibn Ismail abandoned; Ibn ‘Adi said he fabricates hadith against trustworthy narrators; Ibn Hibban ruled that no reliance may ever be placed on him.
(2) An excerpt from a longer hadith recorded by al-Bukhari, 11/463, Book of Faith, chapter “Whoever swears an oath and sees a better alternative should do what is better and expiate his oath,” transmitted by Ayyub from Abu Qilaba, and by al-Qasim al-Tamimi from Zuhdam, from Abu Musa al-Ashari.
(3) Part of a hadith recorded by Muslim in his Sahih, no. 521, “The First Mosques,” on the authority of Jabir ibn Abd Allah: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I have been given five things that no one before me was given: every prophet was sent only to his own people, whereas I have been sent to every red and black; the spoils of war have been made lawful for me; and the earth has been made pure and …”