577 – On the authority of aṣ-Ṣammāʾ bint Busr (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Do not fast on Saturday except for what has been made obligatory upon you. If one of you can find nothing but the peel of a grape or the twig of a tree, let him chew it.” Recorded by the Five; all of its narrators are trustworthy, yet the report is internally inconsistent. Mālik rejected it, and Abū Dāwūd said, “It is abrogated.” (1)

Status of the ḥadīth:
This ḥadīth is ḥasan. It was transmitted by Imām Aḥmad and the four compilers of the Sunan. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said, “Its transmitters are reliable.”

The report was criticized for inconsistency because it is sometimes transmitted as “ʿAbdullāh ibn Busr from his sister aṣ-Ṣammāʾ” and elsewhere as simply “from ʿAbdullāh” without mentioning his sister. The response is that this discrepancy is not harmful, for he is a Companion and all Companions are upright.

The claim that it is abrogated by the following ḥadīth is also unsound, because this report is stronger, and the next one can be interpreted differently.

At-Tirmidhī graded the ḥadīth ḥasan; al-Ḥākim authenticated it and al-Dhahabī concurred. It was also declared authentic by Ibn as-Sakan. Al-Nawawī said that the leading scholars have authenticated it, and it was likewise deemed sound by ad-Dāraqutnī, ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq, and al-Mubārakfūrī. Others, however, considered it weak, including an-Nasāʾī, aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, and al-Ḥāfiẓ.