Anas said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, frequently oiled his hair and beard and often wore a cloth over his head, so that his garment looked like an oil seller’s (1).
He would comb his hair intermittently (2). Sometimes he combed it himself, and sometimes ‘Ā’ishah combed it for him. His hair was shorter than shoulder length but longer than ear length, and his locks reached his earlobes. When it grew long, he arranged it in four plaits. Umm Hāni’ said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, once came to us in Mecca with his hair in four plaits. Plaits are braids. This is an authentic hadith (3).
He, peace and blessings be upon him, never refused perfume. It is authentically reported in Sahīh Muslim (4) that he said:
“Whoever is offered a fragrant herb should not refuse it, for it has a pleasant scent (5) and is light to carry.”
This is the wording of
(1) Transmitted by al-Tirmidhī in al-Shamā’il (33, 126) and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān (6045). Its chain includes al-Rabīʿ ibn Subayh and Yazīd ibn Abān al-Raqāshī, both weak narrators. Al-Albānī graded the hadith weak in Mukhtasar al-Shamā’il (26). It has a weak corroborating report from Sahl ibn Saʿd, transmitted by al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab (6046). That chain includes Muhammad ibn Hārūn al-Azdī, who has some weakness, and Bishr ibn Mubashshir, who is unknown. See al-Albānī’s al-Silsila al-Daʿīfa (2356).
(2) Manuscript n reads yuhibb (“he likes”), as do the printed editions; this is a scribal misreading.
(3) Transmitted by al-Tirmidhī in al-Shamā’il (28, 31) and al-Jāmiʿ (1781), Ahmad (26890, 27389, 27390), Abū Dāwūd (4191), and Ibn Mājah (3631). Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is a gharīb hadith. Muhammad [i.e., al-Bukhārī] said: ‘I do not know of Mujāhid having heard hadith from Umm Hāni’.’” He then cited another chain through Mujāhid from Umm Hāni’ and graded it hasan! Al-Dhahabī considered it possible that Mujāhid had heard from her in al-Siyar (28:361, al-Sīra al-Nabawiyya), and affirmed it definitively in Tadhkirat al-Huffāz (1:92). Al-Hāfiz graded its chain hasan in al-Fath (10:360). The author graded it authentic, as did al-Albānī in Mukhtasar al-Shamā’il (23).
(4) No. 2253, from the hadith of Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him.
(5) The Indian edition reads al-rā’iha (“scent”), with a marginal reference to the variant reading al-rīh (“scent”) in another copy; all subsequent editions followed it. The wording al-rīh is found in our source manuscripts and in Sahīh Muslim.