123 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, regarding a man who has intercourse with his wife while she is menstruating, said: “He must give in charity one dīnār or half a dīnār.” It was reported by the Five, and judged authentic by al-Ḥākim and Ibn al-Qaṭṭān, though others preferred the view that it is mawqūf. (1)

Status of the ḥadīth
Scholars have differed over its acceptability. Al-Albānī wrote: “Imām Aḥmad strengthened it, saying, ‘What an excellent ḥadīth this is!’ When asked, ‘Do you act upon it?’ he replied, ‘Yes.’” The collectors of the Sunan, along with al-Ṭabarānī, al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī, recorded it with a chain that is sound according to al-Bukhārī’s criteria, and it was declared authentic by al-Ḥākim, al-Dhahabī, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, Ibn al-Qayyim, and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī.

Ibn al-Sakan and Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ deemed it weak, and al-Nawawī even reported a consensus on its weakness in his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and in al-Majmūʿ—an assertion that cannot be upheld. Ibn Ḥajar observed that the report shows a great deal of confusion in both its text and its chain, and that Imām Aḥmad’s own stance on it fluctuated repeatedly. Al-Tirmidhī’s remark that “the scholars of the major centres see no expiation” indicates that practical reliance has been to set the report aside. End quote.

Lexical notes
– “comes to his wife” (yati imraʾatahu): to have intercourse with her by penetration.
– “ḥāʾiḍ” (menstruating woman): its plural is ḥuyyaḍ. One says, “ḥāḍat al-marʾah ḥayḍan” (the woman menstruated), and thus she is ḥāʾiḍ.