that he said: “Whoever enters a horse between two other horses when he is certain that it will be beaten—that is gambling.” This was narrated by Abū Hurayra and supports Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab’s position. Success comes from Allah.

Section
Ill Fortune, Contagion, and Evil Omens

It is reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Ill fortune lies in a house, a woman, and a horse”; that he said: “If there is ill fortune, it lies in a house, a woman, and a horse”; and that he said: “There is no contagion and no evil omen.”

Some scholars said that ill fortune in a house means the calamities that befall its occupant, and likewise with a horse and a woman. They regarded the Prophet’s statement, “There is no contagion and no evil omen,” as contradicting this. They deemed the hadith about ill fortune weak on the basis of the report that ʿĀʾisha denied that the account Abū Hurayra narrated had ever come from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him; rather, it was something the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance used to say. She then recited:

“No calamity befalls the earth or yourselves but is recorded in a Book before We bring it into being.” [al-Hadīd: 22]

Others accepted the hadith as authentic and interpreted ill fortune in a house as bad neighbours, in a woman as her bad character, and likewise in a horse.

My position is that there is no contradiction between the two hadiths, because what he affirmed in one differs from what he denied in the other. In one hadith, he denied that anything can transmit contagion to anything else or have any effect upon it, saying, “There is no contagion and no evil omen,” for there is no agent but Allah Most High.

In the other hadith, he explained that ill fortune may be found in a house, a woman, and a horse: the recurrence of harm befalling someone through living in certain houses, marrying certain women, or keeping