7 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) related that the Prophet ﷺ used to bathe with the water left over by Maymūnah. Muslim recorded this report. The compilers of the Sunan transmit the wording: “One of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ bathed in a large bowl. The Prophet ﷺ then came to bathe from it, and she said, ‘I was junub (in a state of major ritual impurity).’ He replied, ‘Water itself does not become junub.’” Al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Khuzaymah declared it authentic. (1)

Authenticity of the ḥadīth
The ḥadīth is sound (ṣaḥīḥ). The version recorded by Muslim has been critiqued because ʿAmr ibn Dīnār hesitated in his wording; yet al-Bukhārī (253) and Muslim (322) also preserve a firm version that reads, “The Prophet ﷺ and Maymūnah used to bathe from a single vessel.” Although that phrasing does not oppose Muslim’s wording, what does contradict it is the narration found in the Sunan—and that narration is authentic. Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī said in al-Muḥarrar that al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, and al-Dhahabī all graded it authentic. Ibn Ḥajar remarked in al-Talkhīṣ (1/15): “Some scholars criticized it on account of Simāk ibn Ḥarb because he was susceptible to prompting, yet Shuʿbah narrated it from him, and Shuʿbah transmits from his teachers only what he regards as sound.”

Vocabulary
– “One of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ”: She is Maymūnah bint al-Ḥārith al-Hilāliyya (may Allah be pleased with her), as stated by al-Dāraquṭnī and others.
– jafna: pronounced with a fatḥa on the jīm and a sukūn on the fāʾ; a large wooden bowl. Its plural is jifān. A qaṣʿa is likewise a large vessel, generally wooden, in which food is placed.
– junuban: with two ḍammas; a person who has incurred janāba (major ritual impurity), whether male or female; the singular