“Its chain of transmission is sound!”

So said al-Nawawī, and al-Zaylaʿī confirmed it in Nasb al-Rāyah 2/31. Al-Hāfiẓ, however, passed over its chain in Talkhīṣ 2/42, and that is nearer to the truth, for I have found no biographical notice for this Rāʾiṭah. In her stratum the only entry I located in Tahdhīb states:

“Rāʾiṭah bint Muslim: she narrated from her father, and her son ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Hārith ibn Abzā al-Makkī reported from her.”

Al-Hāfiẓ remarks in al-Taqrīb: “Unknown.”

It is therefore possible she is this woman—or someone else altogether—so on what basis can the chain be deemed sound?

There is a supporting report from Ḥujayrah bint Ḥuṣayn, who said:

“Umm Salamah led us in the ʿAṣr prayer, standing in the middle of us.”

It was also recorded by ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Ibn Abī Shaybah 2/88, and al-Bayhaqī. All its transmitters are trustworthy except this Ḥujayrah, whom I could not identify; nonetheless, al-Nawawī likewise declared it sound, and al-Hāfiẓ again kept silent about it. It is further strengthened by what Ibn Abī Shaybah relates through the route of Qatādah from Umm al-Ḥasan: that she saw Umm Salamah, the Prophet’s wife, leading the women in prayer while she stood among them in their row.

I say: this chain is authentic; its narrators are reliable and well-known transmitters used by the two Shaykhs, apart from Umm al-Ḥasan. She was a Basran whose name was Khayrah, the freedwoman of Umm Salamah. A number of trustworthy narrators reported from her; in Tahdhīb she is marked as one from whom Muslim transmitted, and Ibn Ḥibbān listed her in al-Thiqāt 4/216.

In sum, these reports are suitable for practice, especially since they are reinforced by the general wording of his statement