28 – Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) relates that Khawlah asked, “Messenger of Allah, what if the blood does not come out?” He replied, “Water is enough for you, and any remaining trace will not harm you.” Al-Tirmidhī recorded it, but its chain is weak. (1)

Degree of the ḥadith
The ḥadith is authentic. Ibn Ḥajar deemed it weak because it contains Ibn Luhayʿah, whose memory deteriorated after his books were burned. When Ibn Ḥajar cited the report in al-Talkhīṣ with Abū Dāwūd’s wording, he added, “Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Kabīr (615) from Khawlah bint Ḥakīm, with a chain weaker than the first, and it has a mursal corroboration.”

Shaykh Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī, however, graded it sound, stating: “It is narrated by Abū Dāwūd (365), al-Bayhaqī (2/408), and Aḥmad (8549) with a ṣaḥīḥ isnād back to her. Although Ibn Luhayʿah appears in it, a number of reliable transmitters—including ʿAbdullāh ibn Wahb—narrated it from him, and what they transmit from him is sound, as more than one ḥadith scholar has affirmed.”

The author says: It also has another route mentioned by Ibn Ḥajar in al-Iṣābah, produced by Ibn Mandah through Ibn Ḥafṣ, ʿAlī ibn Thābit, al-Wāziʿ ibn Nāfiʿ, Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and Khawlah bint Yasār.

Vocabulary
– “Will not harm you”: The verb ḍarra is used when something unpleasant or harmful is inflicted; ḍurr denotes deficiency. Here the phrase means “it will not diminish the purity of your garment.”