I see you—may Allah forgive you—a free-born lady,
one of the chaste, untouched by deceit or guile.
Chaste, dignified, never tainted by suspicion;
she would sooner greet the dawn hungry than feast on backbiting.
What has been said does not cling to you for all time;
it is merely the utterance of a man grasping at straws.
If I have lampooned you as they reported,
may my whip never again return to my fingers.
How, when as long as I live my affection and my support
belong to the Household of the Messenger of Allah, the adornment of gatherings?
Indeed, they possess a glory before which all people seem short;
every stretch of pride is dwarfed by the reach of their honour.
Here the verses from Sūrat al-Nūr are to be written, beginning with the Almighty’s words:
“Indeed, those who came with the slander are a band among you. Do not think it evil for you; rather, it is good for you. Every man among them shall bear the sin he has earned …”
and ending with His words: “… for them is forgiveness and a noble provision.” (24:11–26).
See there what we have cited of hadiths, transmission routes, and reports from the early and later generations, and success is by Allah’s grace.
***
The Expedition of al-Hudaybiyah (2)
It took place in Dhū al-Qaʿdah of the sixth year AH, without dispute. Among those who state this are al-Zuhrī, Nāfiʿ the client of Ibn ʿUmar, Qatādah, Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār, and others. It is also the view related by Ibn Luhayʿah, from Abū al-Aswad, on the authority of ʿUrwah, that it occurred in Dhū al-Qaʿdah of the sixth year.
Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān (3) said: “Ismāʿīl ibn al-Khalīl narrated to us, from ʿAlī ibn al-Muthar, who informed me that Hishām ibn ʿUrwah related from his father: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out for al-Hudaybiyah in Ramadan, and al-Hudaybiyah took place in Shawwāl.” This report is extremely unusual coming from ʿUrwah.
Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim (4) have transmitted—through Hudbah, from Hammām, from Qatādah—that Anas ibn Mālik said: “The Messenger of Allah performed four ʿumrahs, all of them in Dhū al-Qaʿdah—[except the ʿumrah that accompanied his Farewell Pilgrimage]: an ʿumrah from al-Hudaybiyah in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, an ʿumrah in the following year in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, an ʿumrah from al-Jiʿrānah in Dhū al-Qaʿdah when he distributed the spoils of Ḥunayn, and an ʿumrah together with his Ḥajj.” This is the wording of al-Bukhārī.