Ibn Isḥāq relates—through Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reunited his daughter with Abū al-ʿĀṣ after a number of years, on the basis of their first marriage contract, without stipulating a new dowry. (1)
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Taymī also reports:
Abū al-ʿĀṣ set out for Syria with a caravan belonging to Quraysh. Zayd rode out against it with one hundred and seventy mounted men; they intercepted the caravan in the sixth year, seized it, and took several people captive, Abū al-ʿĀṣ among them. Before dawn he came to Zaynab, who granted him asylum. She then asked her father to return his property to him, which he did, but he instructed her not to allow him to approach her so long as he remained a polytheist.
Abū al-ʿĀṣ returned to Mecca, restored every right to its owner, and then came back as a Muslim emigrant in Muḥarram of the seventh year. The Prophet ﷺ thereupon restored Zaynab to him under that same, original marriage. (2)
= Shuayb, from his father, from his grandfather.
This isnad (chain of transmission) is weak, because al-Hajjaj ibn Artat was a mudallis (one who practiced tadlis) and here he merely says “from”. Imam Ahmad declared: “This hadith is weak—indeed baseless; al-Hajjaj never heard it from Amr ibn Shuayb but only from Muhammad ibn Ubayd al-Arzami, and al-Arzami’s reports are worthless. The sound narration is the one in which the Prophet ﷺ confirmed their first marriage contract.”
The author is referring to the following hadith:
(1) Reported by Ibn Hisham, 1/658-659; Ahmad, nos. 1876, 2369, 3290; Ibn Saʿd, 8/33; Abu Dawud, 2240; al-Tirmidhi, 1143; Ibn Majah, 2009; ʿAbd al-Razzaq, 12644; al-Darqutni, p. 396; and al-Hakim, 3/638-639 and 4/46, all through the chain: Ibn Ishaq → Dawud ibn al-Husayn → Ikrima → Ibn Abbas. All the transmitters are trustworthy, and Ibn Ishaq explicitly stated that he heard it. The only point of reservation concerns Dawud ibn al-Husayn’s narrations from Ikrima, but the hadith is supported by authentic mursal (incompletely-linked) reports from Amir al-Shabi, Qatadah, and Ikrima ibn Khalid, preserved by Ibn Saʿd (al-Tabaqat, 8/32), ʿAbd al-Razzaq (al-Musannaf, 12647), and al-Tahawi (Sharh Maʿani al-Athar, 2/149). These corroborations strengthen the report and render it sound.
(2) Recorded by Ibn Saʿd, 8/33, through the route of al-Waqidi.