593 – ʿAishah (Allah be pleased with her) related: “I asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, is jihad obligatory upon women?’ He replied, ‘Yes, they have a jihad in which there is no fighting: the Hajj and the ʿUmrah.’” Recorded by Ahmad and Ibn Majah—the wording belongs to Ibn Majah—and its chain is sound; the report’s root is found in the Sahih. (1)

Status of the hadith
The narration is authentic. The author says: “Its chain is sound and its origin is in the Sahih.”

Ahmad, Ibn Majah, and al-Darqutni (2/284) also transmitted it through Muhammad ibn Fudayl, who said: “Habib ibn Abi ʿAmrah narrated to us, from ʿAishah bint Talhah, from ʿAishah (Allah be pleased with her).”

I say: This chain is sound according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs, and Ibn Khuzaymah declared it authentic (3074). Al-Bukhari recorded it through the route of ʿAbd al-Wahid ibn Ziyad to the end of the chain, and he also brought it through another route from Habib ibn Abi ʿAmrah; Muʿawiyah ibn Ishaq corroborated it from ʿAishah bint Talhah, and Muʿawiyah relates another isnad with a different wording.

Al-Tabarani likewise narrated it in al-Awsat (4287): “ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal told us: my father related to me; Ibrahim ibn al-Hajjaj informed us; Abu ʿAwanah informed us, from Muʿawiyah ibn Ishaq, from ʿUbadah ibn Rifaʿah, from al-Husayn ibn ʿAli, who said: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘I am cowardly and weak.’ He replied, ‘Come to a jihad that involves no weapons: the Hajj.’”

This chain is sound; all its transmitters are trustworthy. Al-Munadhiri said: “Its narrators are reliable.”