1002 – Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that a woman said, “Messenger of Allah, my husband wants to take my son away, yet he has been of benefit to me; he even draws water for me from the well of Abū ʿInabah.” Her husband then arrived, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ said, “Young man, this is your father and this is your mother; take the hand of whichever of them you wish.” The boy took his mother’s hand, and she left with him. Reported by Aḥmad and the Four Sunan compilers, and al-Tirmidhī classed it as sound. (1)

Hadith grading:
The ḥadith is ṣaḥīḥ (authentic). It was recorded by al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, and Ibn Ḥibbān through several chains from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from Ziyād ibn Saʿd, from Hilāl ibn Abī Maymūnah, from Abū Maymūnah, from Abu Hurayrah. Ibn Jurayj corroborated it, saying, “Ziyād informed me from Hilāl ibn Usāmah that Abū Maymūnah said …” and he provided the rest of the report. Ibn Abī Shaybah transmitted it via Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr from Abū Maymūnah, and Ibn al-Qaṭṭān ruled it sound. Al-Ḥākim said, “Its isnād is authentic,” and al-Dhahabī agreed. Al-Tirmidhī commented, “A good, sound ḥadith; its chain is authentic and its narrators are trustworthy.”

Vocabulary:
• biʾr: pronounced with a kasrah on the bāʾ and on the hamzah; the noun is feminine. The hamzah may be replaced with a yāʾ. Two irregular plurals of paucity exist: ʾābār (on the pattern afʿāl) and abʾur (like aflis). It means a well, whether stone-lined or not.
• Abī ʿInabah: pronounced with a kasrah on the ʿayn, a fatḥah on the nūn, followed by a bāʾ with fatḥah and ending with a tāʾ marbūṭah. The singular is ʿinab (grape).