, the freedman of Ibn ‘Abbās, who said: Ibn ‘Abbās and some of the Prophet’s Companions sent me to Umm Salamah to ask her: On which days did the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, fast most often? She replied: Saturday and Sunday. He would say: “These are festival days for the polytheists, and I like to differ from them.”

The authenticity of this hadith is open to question, for it is narrated by Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib, some of whose narrations have been deemed objectionable. In his Ahkām (1), ‘Abd al-Haqq discussed the hadith narrated by Ibn Jurayj from him (2), from ‘Abbās ibn (3) ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās, from his uncle al-Fadl: “The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, visited ‘Abbās at a desert encampment of ours.” He said: Its chain of transmission is weak. Ibn al-Qattān said (4): It is weak, as he stated, since Muhammad ibn ‘Umar’s standing as a narrator is unknown.

He also mentioned (5) this narration of his from Umm Salamah concerning fasting on Saturday and Sunday, and said: ‘Abd al-Haqq passed over it without comment, thereby judging it authentic. Yet the standing of this Muhammad ibn ‘Umar is unknown, and his son, ‘Abd Allāh ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Umar, who narrates it from him, is also of unknown standing. I therefore consider the hadith good. Allah knows best.