has said: “It may be that, if he divorces you, his Lord will give him wives better than you—devoutly submissive, true believers, obedient, repentant, worshipful, sā’iḥāt (women given to fasting), whether previously married or virgins.” (At-Tahrim 66:5)
Interpreting siyāḥa as fasting and as jihad
183 – It is well known that this kind of roaming is not prescribed for the Prophet’s wives ﷺ nor for the wives of the believers. Instead, the term siyāḥa in the verse has been construed to mean “fasting,” and it has also been construed to mean “jihad”; both explanations are transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ.
184 – The first interpretation is reported by ʿAmr ibn Dīnār from Yaḥyā ibn Jaʿdah, from the Prophet ﷺ in a mursal tradition.¹
185 – As for the second, Abū Dāwūd says in his Sunan²: “Chapter: The prohibition of siyāḥa,” and in it he relates the ḥadīth of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥārith from
(1) See the hadiths in which siyaha is explained as fasting, transmitted from Abu Hurayra and Ubayd ibn Umayr as marfuʿ reports, together with the statements of the Companions and early exegetes such as Ibn Masʿud, Ibn ʿAbbas, Saʿid ibn Jubayr, Mujahid, al-Dahhak, al-Hasan and others; all of this is gathered in Tafsir al-Tabari, vol. 11, pp. 28–29, under his commentary on the words: “al-taibun al-ʿabidun” (Tawba 112).
(2) Abu Dawud, no. 2486; al-Hakim, 2/83, who declared it authentic; al-Bayhaqi, 9/161. Classified as hasan by al-Albani in Sahih Abi Dawud, no. 2486.
The author, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “As for the siyaha that consists of wandering through the wilderness without a definite purpose, it is not among the practices of this umma. Thus Imam Ahmad stated: ‘Siyaha has nothing to do with Islam; it was never done by the prophets or by the righteous.’ Yet some of our brothers have engaged in this forbidden form of siyaha, either on the basis of a mistaken interpretation or through ignorance of the prohibition, imitating an innovated form of monasticism, whereas the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘There is no monasticism in Islam.’ ” Iqtida al-Sirat al-Mustaqim, 1/291.