to fast; should I perform the ritual bath and fast that day?”

He replied, “I too may awaken in a state of major ritual impurity while intending to fast, so I bathe and fast that day.”

The man said, “O Messenger of Allah, you are not like us; Allah has forgiven you your earlier and later sins.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ became angry and said, “By Allah, I hope that I am the most God-fearing of you and the one who knows best what to avoid.” (1)

This is a sound hadith.

Abu Dawud recorded it through al-Qaʿnabi from Malik. Al-Nasaʾi also narrated it in his Musnad of Malik through Muhammad ibn Salamah, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn al-Qasim the jurist, from Malik.

Al-Nasaʾi further transmitted this wording, with a similar chain, through Ahmad ibn Hafs al-Naysaburi, from his father, from Ibrahim ibn Tahman, from Hajjaj ibn Hajjaj, from Qatadah, from ʿAbd Rabbihi, from Abu ʿIyad, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn al-Harith, from Nafiʿ, the freedman of Umm Salamah, from Umm Salamah, from the Prophet ﷺ.

This isnad is both singular and precious (2). Five Successors appear consecutively, one narrating from the other, so that—numerically speaking—it is as though I have shaken hands (3) with al-Nasaʾi himself.

It was also related by Ibn Abi ʿArubah from Qatadah with his chain, but he did not name Nafiʿ; rather, he said: “from the freedman of Umm Salamah, from her.”

The hadith of ʿAʾishah is found in the Sahih.