al-Musayyab, and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr. The chain that reaches the latter is sound. Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān narrated: “I asked Saʿīd ibn Jubayr about a person in a state of janābah reciting Qur’an, and he saw no harm in it, saying, ‘Is not the Qur’an inside him?’” Al-Baghawī, in Sharḥ al-Sunnah 2/43, also lists ʿIkrimah among those who allow it. Even so, it is obvious that the practice is not entirely free of disapproval because of the ḥadīth, “I disliked to mention Allah except while in a state of purity.” See al-Ṣaḥīḥah 834. Allah knows best.

His statement, “It is unlawful for someone in janābah to remain in the mosque,” is based on the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came while the doorways of his Companions’ houses opened onto the mosque. He said, ‘Turn these doorways away from the mosque … for I do not permit the mosque to a menstruating woman or to a person in janābah.’” Recorded by Abū Dāwūd.

Another report from Umm Salamah states: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered the courtyard of this mosque and called out in a loud voice, ‘The mosque is not lawful for a menstruating woman or for a person in janābah.’” Recorded by Ibn Mājah and al-Ṭabarānī.

I say: Presenting the material in this way gives the reader the impression that there are two distinct ḥadīths with two separate chains—one from ʿĀʾishah and the other from Umm Salamah—whereas it is actually a single report with one chain whose backbone is Jassarah bint Dajjājah. She wavered in her transmission, sometimes saying “from ʿĀʾishah” and at other times “from Umm Salamah.” Such inconsistency weakens a ḥadīth, as is well known to specialists, because it shows the narrator’s lack of precision and retention. Added to this is the fact that no critic whose evaluation is relied upon declared Jassarah trustworthy; al-Bukhārī remarked, “She has oddities.” For that reason several scholars judged the ḥadīth weak, as al-Khaṭṭābī noted. Al-Bayhaqī said, “It is not strong because …” and ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq said: