His Book: “Why have you divorced me? Was it out of displeasure?”
He replied, “No.”
She said, “Then I implore you by Allah, take me back. I have no need of men, but I would love to be resurrected among your wives.” So he reinstated her. She went on, “I have therefore given my day to ʿĀʾishah.” (1)
Al-Aʿmash related from Ibrāhīm that Sawdah once said, “Messenger of Allah, I prayed behind you last night and you prolonged the bowing so much that I had to hold my nose, fearing it might bleed.” He laughed, and from time to time she would make him laugh with such remarks. (2)
Ṣāliḥ, the freedman of al-Tuʾāmah, reported from Abū Hurayrah that during the Farewell Pilgrimage the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “This Hajj—then remain on the backs of the mats.” (3) Ṣāliḥ added: because of this Sawdah used to say, “I will not perform Hajj after it.”
ʿĀʾishah said: Sawdah sought permission on the night of Muzdalifah to leave before the press of the people. She was a slow-moving woman—meaning, heavy—so he granted her permission. (4)
(1) Reported by Ibn Saad, 8/54. The chain is sound, but it is mursal; as noted above, the correct position is that the Prophet did not divorce her.
(2) Ibn Saad, 8/54.
(3) The expression zuhur al-husr is in the accusative, the implied verb being “then remain.” Al-husr is the plural of hasir, a mat spread on the floor; the intent is that the wives were to stay inside their houses and not go out. The hadith is recorded by Ibn Saad, al-Tabaqat, 8/55, and by Ahmad, 2/446 and 6/324, with a strong isnad: although Salih, the freedman of al-Tawama, became confused in his later years, Ahmad’s transmitter from him here is Ibn Abi Dhiʾb, who heard from him before that happened. Supporting versions appear in Ahmad, 5/218, and Abu Dawud (no. 1722) at the beginning of the Book of Hajj, through the route of Abd al-Aziz b. Muhammad – Zayd b. Aslam – Waqid b. Abi Waqid al-Laythi – his father, that the Prophet said to his wives during his Farewell Pilgrimage: “Stay here, then (only later) appear from behind the mats.” The isnad is sound for corroboration.
(4) Reported by Ibn Saad, 8/55–56; al-Bukhari, 3/423; Muslim, no. 1290; Ahmad, 6/164; and al-Nasaʾi, 5/266. The full wording is: “So I set off before the people were crushed; we stayed until dawn, then we moved on when he did. Had I asked the Messenger of Allah for permission as Sawda did, it would have been dearer to me than any good news.”