- On the authority of Abū Qatādah — may Allah be pleased with him — that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said regarding the cat: “It is not impure; rather, it is one of those that move about among you.” The Four Sunan compilers related the report, and both al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Khuzaymah declared it authentic.⦗1⦘
Status of the ḥadīth
The report is ṣaḥīḥ. It was authenticated by al-Bukhārī, al-‘Uqaylī, and al-Dāraqutnī, while al-Tirmidhī remarked: “a ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth.” Al-Dāraqutnī added, “Its transmitters are reliable and well-known.” Al-Ḥākim said: “Mālik authenticated this ḥadīth and cited it as evidence in the Muwaṭṭaʾ.”
Moreover, the narration enjoys a corroborating chain that is likewise sound, transmitted by Mālik and, through him, by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, al-Tirmidhī, al-Dārimī (1/203), Ibn Mājah, al-Ḥākim (1/263), al-Bayhaqī (1/246), and Aḥmad (22074). All of them relate it from Mālik (44) → Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah → Ḥamīdah bint ʿUbayd → her maternal aunt Kabshah bint Kaʿb ibn Mālik, who was married to ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Qatādah al-Anṣārī. Al-Nawawī judged it authentic in al-Majmūʿ and quoted al-Bayhaqī’s statement: “Its chain is sound.”
The report also has additional transmission routes.
Ibn Mundah criticized the narration, claiming that Ḥamīdah and Kabshah are unknown. The response is that Ḥamīdah was narrated from by her son Yaḥyā, whom Ibn Maʿīn deemed trustworthy; as for Kabshah, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, Abū Mūsā, and Ibn Ḥibbān stated that she was a Companion. This applies specifically to this chain; otherwise