Second: None of the authorities just listed—whether they recorded the report in its abridged or complete form—identify the questioner as Asmāʾ bint Yazīd. In their versions she is simply called “Asmāʾ,” without any lineage, and some do not mention her name at all. The only exception is a narration in Muslim 1/180, where she is named “Asmāʾ bint Shakal.” What al-Ḥāfiẓ cited earlier—that Muslim styles her “Asmāʾ bint Yazīd al-Anṣārī”—is a mistake on his part, and it was probably the source of the author’s slip, or of the person whom he followed. Allah knows best.

The hadith also makes an explicit distinction between a woman’s ghusl after menstruation and her ghusl after janābah. Concerning menstruation the Prophet ﷺ stressed vigorous scrubbing and thorough cleansing, an emphasis that is not made for the bath taken after janābah. Moreover, the hadith of Umm Salamah quoted in the book proves that undoing the hair is not obligatory for the janābah bath, and that is precisely what is intended in the report of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr from ʿĀʾishah, as is clear from her bathing together with the Prophet ﷺ. Hence, there is no contradiction among the narrations once this distinction is observed: the hair must be undone for the menstrual bath, but it need not be undone for the janābah bath. This stands in opposition to the view taken by the author, for on his position one would be forced to reject the hadith of ʿĀʾishah without evidence—which is impermissible.

The same differentiation was upheld by Imām Aḥmad, declared sound by Ibn al-Qayyim in Tahdhīb al-Sunan (1/165–168), and is likewise the position of Ibn Ḥazm (2/37–40).