59 – Umm ʿAṭiyyah al-Anṣāriyyah, Nusaybah bint al-Hārith (may Allah be pleased with her)
Her full name is Nusaybah bint al-Hārith, though some say she was Nusaybah bint Kaʿb.
She was counted among the jurists of the Companions and transmitted a number of hadiths. She is the one who washed the Prophet’s ﷺ daughter Zaynab (1).
Those who narrated from her include: Muhammad ibn Sīrīn, his sister Ḥafṣah bint Sīrīn, Umm Sharahīl, ʿAlī ibn al-Aqmar, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and several others.
She lived until roughly the year 70 AH.
She is the narrator of the report: “We were forbidden to follow the funeral procession, but the prohibition was not emphatically enforced upon us” (2).
Her hadiths are recorded in all six canonical collections.
(*) Musnad Ahmad 6:407; Tarikh Ibn Maʿin, no. 742; al-Jarh wa l-Taʿdil 9:465; al-Istibsar 355; al-Istiyab 4:1947; Usd al-Ghaba 7:280; Tahdhib al-Kamal, no. 1698; Tarikh al-Islam 3:101; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 12:455; al-Isaba 13:253; Khulasa Tazhib al-Kamal 496.
(1) The documentation of her hadith has already been given on p. 250, note 3 of the present volume.
(2) Reported by al-Bukhari 3:115, Book of Funerals, chapter “Women following funerals,” and by Muslim (938), Book of Funerals, chapter “Prohibition of women following funerals.”
Her words, “but he did not make it binding upon us,” mean that the Prophet did not emphatically prohibit it as he did in other matters; thus she implies that women’s following a funeral is disliked rather than strictly forbidden.
Al-Qurtubi observed that the context of Umm ʿAtiyya’s report indicates a ruling of mere disapproval (karaha), and this is the opinion held by the majority of scholars.
Malik inclined to its permissibility, and this is likewise the position of the scholars of Madina.
Support for permissibility is provided by the report of Ibn Abi Shayba 3:395, through Muhammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAta, from Abu Hurayra: the Messenger of Allah was attending a funeral when ʿUmar noticed a woman and shouted at her; the Prophet said, “Leave her alone, ʿUmar…”.
The same narration was collected by Ibn Majah (1581) and al-Nasaʾi through this chain, and also through another chain via Muhammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAta, from Salama ibn al-Azraq, from Abu Hurayra; as al-Busayri and Ibn Hajar note, all the transmitters in both chains are trustworthy.