These are noble verses concerning the wives of our Prophet ﷺ.

Zayd ibn al-Hubāb said: “Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid narrated to us, from Yazīd al-Naḥwī, from ʿIkrima, from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding the Almighty’s words, ‘Allah only desires to remove impurity from you, People of the Household,’—he said, ‘It was revealed about the Prophet’s wives ﷺ.’

ʿIkrima then declared, “Whoever wishes, I will engage him in a mubāhala (mutual imprecation) that the verse was revealed exclusively about the Prophet’s wives (1).”

Isḥāq al-Salūlī reported: “ʿĪsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Ṣilah, from Ḥudhayfa, that he said to his wife, ‘If you would like to be my spouse in Paradise, then do not remarry after me, for in Paradise a woman is with her last husband in this world. For that reason the Prophet’s wives ﷺ were forbidden to marry after him, because they are his wives in Paradise (2).’ ”

ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib also related, from Muḥārib ibn Dithār, that “Umm Salama stipulated in her will that Saʿīd ibn Zayd—one of the ten (3)—should lead the funeral prayer over her.”

This chain is interrupted.

Saʿīd had in fact died several years before her; it may be that she made the request at one time, then recovered, and he predeceased her.

It is also reported that Abū Hurayra led the prayer over her, but that report is not sound, and he too had died before her.