from al-Ḥasan, from Abū Bakrah, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade passing a sword while its blade is bare.” (1)
Bassām had coached Ḥammām with this report; when Ḥammām finished reciting it, Bassām said to him, “Ḥammām never narrated this to you, nor did Qatādah narrate it to Ḥammām.” Ḥammām reflected, realized he had erred, reached out and seized Bassām’s beard, saying, “Call for me the quarter-master, you rogue!” They could free Bassām from his grip only with great difficulty.
Abū Ḥafṣ al-Fallās said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Shuʿbah—and Hishām as well—narrated to us, from Qatādah, from Jābir ibn Zayd, from Ibn ʿAbbās—Shuʿbah traced it back to the Prophet—who said: “A dog, a donkey, and a woman cut off the prayer.”
Al-Fallās added: ʿAffān then said to him, “Ḥammām narrated to us from Qatādah, from Ṣāliḥ Abū al-Khalīl, from Jābir ibn Zayd, from Ibn ʿAbbās…” At that, Yaḥyā wept and said, “You have dared to challenge me! My companions—Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith and Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh—are gone.”
(1) Ahmad includes the report in his Musnad, 5/42, through Abu al-Nadr and Affan: al-Mubarak narrated from al-Hasan, from Abu Bakrah. Affan’s wording is: “Al-Mubarak told us: I heard al-Hasan say: Abu Bakrah informed me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed by people brandishing an unsheathed sword and said: ‘May Allah curse the one who does this! Have I not forbidden it?’ He then added: ‘When one of you draws his sword to look at it and wishes to hand it to his brother, let him sheath it first and then give it to him.’” The report is strengthened by a corroborating narration from Jabir recorded by Abu Dawud (2588), Ahmad 3/300 and 3/361, and al-Tirmidhi (2164), who graded it hasan (sound).
(2) Ibn Adi, al-Kamil, 4/folio 669, and Abu Dawud (703) cite the chain of Musaddad → Yahya → Shuʿbah → Qatadah, who said: “I heard Jabir b. Zayd relate from Ibn ʿAbbas”—Shuʿbah raised it to the Prophet—“that a menstruating woman and a dog cut off the prayer.” Al-Nasaʾi, 2/64, records the same wording through Yahya b. Saʿid.
Concerning ʿAʾishah: when she was told that a dog, a donkey, and a woman invalidate the prayer, she replied, “You have likened us to donkeys and dogs! By Allah, I have seen the Prophet ﷺ praying while I was lying on the bed between him and the qiblah. When I felt a need, I disliked sitting up lest I disturb the Prophet, so I slipped away from beside his feet.” Reported by al-Bukhari, 1/485, “The Praying Person’s Screen: Chapter on ‘Nothing breaks the prayer,’” and by Muslim (512), “Prayer: Chapter on Crossing in front of a worshipper.”