Among those he was said to marry was Umm Sharīk, a woman of the Anṣār from the Najjār clan. He (the narrator) said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, remarked, “I like to marry women of the Anṣār, but I dislike the jealousy they show,” and he never consummated the marriage with her.

He (the narrator) also relates that the Prophet married Asmāʾ bint al-Ṣalt—some say she belonged to Banū Ḥarām, others to Banū Sulaym—yet he did not consummate the marriage with her either. He further proposed to Jamrah bint al-Ḥārith al-Muzaniyyah.

Al-Ḥākim Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Naysābūrī said—and Abū ʿUbaydah Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā concurred—that the Messenger of Allah married eighteen women. Among those they named was Qutaylah bint Qays, sister of al-Ashʿath ibn Qays. Some claimed he married her two months before his death; others said the marriage took place during his final illness.

They added that she never came to him, he never saw her, and the marriage was not consummated.

Others maintained that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had stipulated that Qutaylah be given a choice: if she wished, the veil would be drawn over her and she would be forbidden to the believers; but if she preferred, she could marry whomever she pleased. She chose to marry, and ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl wed her in Ḥaḍramawt. When this reached Abū Bakr, he said, “I was on the verge of setting fire to the two of them.”

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb responded, “She is not one of the Mothers of the Believers; the Prophet never consummated the marriage with her, nor was the veil imposed upon her.”

Abū ʿUbaydah added that some people asserted the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, made no testament regarding her and that she apostatized after his death. ʿUmar cited her apostasy in arguing with Abū Bakr that she was not one of the Mothers of the Believers. Ibn Mandah, however, reported that the woman who apostatized was al-Barsāʾ of Banū ʿAwf ibn Saʿd ibn Dhubyān.

The ḥadith scholar Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted through multiple chains—from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, married Qutaylah, sister of al-Ashʿath ibn Qays, but died before giving her the choice, and so Allah freed her from the bond.

Hammād ibn Salamah likewise narrated—from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from al-Shaʿbī—that when ʿIkrimah ibn Abī Jahl married Qutaylah, Abū Bakr wished to have him executed. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb remonstrated, saying, “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, never consummated the marriage with her, and she apostatized along with her brother, disowning Allah and His Messenger.” He persisted until Abū Bakr relented.

Al-Ḥākim further said that Abū ʿUbaydah added to the list Fāṭimah bint Shurayḥ and Sanāʾ bint Asmāʾ ibn al-Ṣalt al-Sulamiyyah. Ibn ʿAsākir recorded the same, citing Ibn Mandah’s chain from Qatādah, and Muḥammad ibn Saʿd reported it on the authority of Ibn al-Kalbī as well.

Ibn Saʿd added: She had been taken captive.