976 – Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him) related that the Prophet ﷺ, regarding the female captives taken at Autās, said: “No pregnant woman is to be approached (for intercourse) until she has delivered, and no woman who is not pregnant until she has gone through one menstrual cycle.” Recorded by Abū Dāwūd and declared authentic by al-Ḥākim (1). A corroborating report from Ibn ʿAbbās appears in al-Dāraqutnī (2).

Degree of authenticity
The ḥadīth is ṣaḥīḥ. It was transmitted by Abū Dāwūd, al-Dāramī, al-Dāraqutnī, al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī through the chain of Shurayk → Qays ibn Wahb → Abū l-Wadāk → Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī. Al-Ḥākim graded it authentic, saying it meets the conditions of Muslim; al-Dhahabī concurred, and both Ibn Ḥajar and al-Shawkānī deemed it ḥasan. Additional routes strengthen it, among them the report of Ibn ʿAbbās in al-Dāraqutnī; Ibn Ṣāʿid said, “Its transmitters are those of Muslim.” Al-Albānī concluded: “Taking all its chains together, the ḥadīth is authentic.”

Vocabulary
• sabāyā: plural of saby, meaning captives taken from the disbelievers, particularly their women and children.
• Autās: the location previously identified and described.