that was identical; how much more so, then, when there are two different texts? To my knowledge, these are two hadiths, not one. In the hadith of Awn ibn Abd Allāh concerning the test, the black woman answered only by gestures, not by speaking. In al-Zuhrī’s report, however, the black woman answered the questions by saying ‘Yes.’ When he asked her, ‘Do you testify that there is no god but Allah?’ the report states that she said, ‘Yes.’ Likewise, when he asked her, ‘Do you testify that I am the Messenger of Allah?’ she said, ‘Yes,’ speaking aloud. A hand gesture is not speech. Al-Zuhrī’s report also includes the additional test concerning resurrection after death, when he asked her, ‘Do you believe in resurrection after death?’”

What Ibn Khuzaymah said is confirmed by the fact that Judge Abū Ahmad al-'Assāl narrated this hadith in his Kitāb al-Ma'rifah (Book of Knowledge) through