85 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever goes to relieve himself should conceal himself.” Recorded by Abū Dāwūd (1).

Hadith grading
Its chain is sound (ḥasan) through Abū Hurayrah, while the route attributed to ʿĀʾishah is mistaken.

The compilers of the Sunan transmit the report from Abū Hurayrah; it is also related by Ibn Ḥibbān (4/257), al-Ḥākim (1/265), and al-Bayhaqī (1/94). The hadith specialists state that the narration revolves around Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥimṣī al-Ḥabranī. Some claimed he was a Companion, but this is unproven. His transmitter is Ḥuṣayn al-Ḥabranī, who is unknown. Abū Zurʿah said, “He is a truthful shaykh,” and Ibn Ḥibbān included him among the reliable narrators, while al-Dāraquṭnī, in the ʿIlal, noted the divergent views regarding him.

Shaykh al-Saʿātī, in al-Fath al-Rabbānī (1/262), cited evidence establishing that Abū Saʿīd al-Khayr was indeed a Companion, and he quoted al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar in Fatḥ al-Bārī as judging the isnād of this hadith to be hasan.

Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, al-Nawawī, and Ibn al-Mulaqqin likewise declared it authentic.

Vocabulary notes
• man: a conditional particle; its protasis (condition) is the verb atā (“comes”).
• fa-li-yastatir: the apodosis (consequence). The prefixed fāʾ links the two clauses because the apodosis is an imperative—one of the twelve cases in which the answer to a conditional sentence must be joined to it with fāʾ. “Concealment” here means placing a screen between oneself and others so that one’s private parts are not exposed.