452 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) related that the Prophet ﷺ said to her, “If you were to die before me, I would wash your body….” The report was recorded by Aḥmad and Ibn Mājah, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared it sound ⦗1⦘.

Grade of the ḥadīth:
The ḥadīth is authentic. Al-Talkhīṣ states: It was transmitted by Aḥmad, al-Dārimī (1/51), Ibn Mājah, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Dāraqutnī (2/74), and al-Bayhaqī (3/396) through the chain of ʿĀʾishah. Al-Bayhaqī criticized it on account of Ibn Isḥāq, noting that he reported it with an unspecified link (ʿanʿana) and appeared to be alone in doing so. Yet he is not alone, for Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān corroborated him in the versions preserved by Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī, and the chain satisfies the criteria of the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim). Ibn al-Jawzī likewise inclined toward declaring it sound.