As for the story of the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ marriage to Maymūnah, Ibn Isḥāq (1) reports: “Aʿban ibn Ṣāliḥ and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ and Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married Maymūnah bint al-Ḥārith on that journey while he was in a state of consecration (iḥrām), and that al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib served as his guardian in the marriage.”

Ibn Hishām adds: “She had placed the matter in the hands of her sister Umm al-Faḍl, who in turn entrusted it to her husband al-ʿAbbās; he then contracted the marriage for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and, on the Prophet’s behalf, fixed a dowry of four hundred dirhams.”

Al-Suhaylī (2) notes that when the proposal of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached her while she was mounted on a camel, she declared, “The camel and all that is on it belong to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

He goes on to say that the verse was revealed regarding her: “and any believing woman who offers herself to the Prophet, if the Prophet wishes to marry her, that is exclusively for you and not for the believers” (al-Aḥzāb 33:50).

Al-Bukhārī (3) relates—through Ayyūb, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married Maymūnah while he was muḥrim, consummated the marriage after leaving iḥrām, and that she later died at Sarif.

Al-Suhaylī (4) further cites al-Dāraqutnī, through Abū al-Aswad, the protégé of ʿUrwah, and through Maṭar al-Warrāq, both from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married Maymūnah while he was not in iḥrām.

He remarks that Ibn ʿAbbās’s first report describing the Prophet as muḥrim has been interpreted to mean that the marriage took place in a sacred month—as the poet says (5):

“They slew ʿUthmān the Caliph, consecrated (muḥrim)…
He prayed, and never have I seen one so forsaken,”

i.e., during a sacred month.

I say: This explanation is problematic, for the reports from Ibn ʿAbbās overwhelmingly indicate otherwise—especially his explicit statement, “He married her while muḥrim and consummated the marriage after he was ḥallal,” and the event also fell in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, which itself is a sacred month.

Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī relates: ʿAbd al-Razzāq told us that al-Thawrī said to me, “Pay no heed to the opinion of the people of Madinah; ʿAmr narrated to me, from Abū al-Shaʿthāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married while in iḥrām.”