Al-Nasāʾī (1) likewise transmitted the report through ʿAbdah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Marwazī, from ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAnqazī (2), with the same chain.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (3) said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Ādam narrated to us. (ḥ) Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl also informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar informed us; Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān informed us; Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Walīd al-Kindī al-Kūfī narrated to me; Yaḥyā ibn Ādam narrated to us; Sharīk narrated to us, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said:

“The grey hair of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ amounted to about twenty strands.”

In Isḥāq’s version: “I saw roughly twenty white hairs of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the front of his head.” (4)

Al-Bayhaqī (5) further said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ related to us; Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Faqīh related to us; Hilāl ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Raqī related to us; Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbbās al-Raqī related to us; Jaʿfar ibn Burqān related to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl related to us:

“Anas ibn Mālik arrived in Madinah when ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was its governor. ʿUmar sent someone to him and said, ‘Ask him whether the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to dye his hair, for I have seen some of his hairs that were visibly colored.’

Anas replied, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was endowed with naturally dark hair. Were I to count the white hairs that faced me on his head and beard, I would find no more than eleven. What you have noticed as colored comes only from the perfume that was applied to the hair of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; that is what altered its appearance.’ ” (6)

I say: Anas’s denial that the Prophet ﷺ used dye is contradicted by earlier reports affirming it. The established principle is that affirmation overrides negation, for the one who affirms possesses additional knowledge that the denier lacks. Likewise, the reports attributing the color change to a specific cause are to be preferred—especially the narration of Ibn ʿUmar, who most likely received it from his sister, the Mother of the Believers Ḥafṣah, whose access to him was greater than that of Anas, for she may well have combed that noble head herself ﷺ.

Reports concerning his shoulders, forearms, armpits, feet, and ankles

We have already cited the ḥadīth recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim from Shuʿbah, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, who said: