bathhouse." Reported by al-Tirmidhī, who rated it sound; it has numerous corroborating chains that may be consulted in al-Targhīb.

Abū al-Malīḥ narrated: Some women from Syria entered upon ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her. She asked, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are from Syria.” She said, “Perhaps you are from the district whose women enter the bathhouses?” They said, “Yes.” She then said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘Whenever a woman removes her clothes in a place other than her own house, she tears down the veil between herself and Allah, exalted is He.’”

This narration is found in the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and Ibn Mājah, but not in al-Nasāʾī, and its chain is authentic according to the criteria of the Two Shaykhs. See Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb 1/141/157-165, Maktabat al-Maʿārif (Riyadh), a new, revised, and expanded edition.

As for the exception for a sick woman or one experiencing post-partum bleeding that appears in the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAmr recorded by Abū Dāwūd and others, its chain is unsound, as clarified in Ghāyat al-Marām 192 and elsewhere.