= This is definitive, admitting no discussion or conjecture, especially as it was declared concerning an Imam whose affairs have been firmly established upon the creed of the Salaf. Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) says in Fath al-Bari (vol. 19, p. 349), while commenting on the hadith narrated by al-Bukhari: a man from the Ansar told ʿUmar b. al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger (peace be upon him) had divorced his wives. ʿUmar was angered with his daughter Ḥafsa, and upon asking the Prophet (peace be upon him) about this report, it was explained that the matter was otherwise than the Ansari had stated. (The full hadith is lengthy in Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 6, pp. 147–150, Kitab al-Nikah, chapter “A man’s admonition to his daughter concerning her husband” — I have cited only what pertains to the illustrative example in meaning:) “Here it should be noted that reports which spread widely—even if they have many transmitters—if they do not originate in sensory perception (seeing or hearing), cannot be assumed true. Thus, when the Ansari insisted (in his narration) that the divorce had occurred, and likewise those whom ʿUmar saw at the pulpit insisted on it, this is to be understood as a rumor that circulated from one person based on the assumption he made when the Prophet (peace be upon him) refrained from his usual intimacy with his wives; he therefore supposed that he had divorced them, spread the rumor, it circulated, and people spoke of it.” (1) The speaker is Abu Ismaʿil al-Harawi; the passage continues from the preceding remarks reproaching idle speech. (2) Sarakhs: an ancient city in the region of Khurasan, extensive between Nishapur and Marv on a river of intermittent flow. Countless imams have borne its nisba. See Muʿjam al-Buldan by al-Ḥamawī, vol. 3, pp. 208–209; al-Rawḍ al-Muʿattar by al-Ḥimyari, p. 316. (3) He is Abu ʿAli Zāhir b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā al-Sarakhsī, jurist and hadith scholar, the leading elder of his time in Khurasan. He studied under Abu al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī and died in 289 AH. See Tabyīn Kaḏb al-Muftari by Ibn ʿAsākir, pp. 206–207; al-Muntaẓam by Ibn al-Jawzī, vol. 7, p. 206; Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya by al-Subkī, vol. 3, pp. 293–294. (4) The original reads “takadu fī,” which is a copying error; in this edition it appears as “mutaḥayyarān” with regard to the issue of matrimonial compatibility…