—the freedman of ʿUrwah—reported from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “By Him Who sent Muḥammad with the truth, he never saw a sieve, nor did he ever eat sifted bread from the day Allah commissioned him until He was taken to His presence.” I asked, “How, then, did you eat the barley?” She replied, “We used to blow on it, and the husk would fly off.” Aḥmad alone relates this through this chain (1).

Al-Bukhārī (2) likewise transmitted—from Muḥammad ibn Kathīr, from al-Thawrī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĀbis ibn Rabīʿah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah—who said: “We would sometimes bring out a shank that had been kept for fifteen days and eat it.” I asked, “Why would you do that?” She laughed and said, “The family of Muḥammad ﷺ never ate their fill of wheat bread served with a relish until he met Allah, Mighty and Majestic.”

Aḥmad (3) said: “Yaḥyā narrated to us; Hishām narrated to us; my father informed me, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: ‘A whole month would pass over the household of Muḥammad with no fire being lit in any of their houses; we had nothing but dates and water—unless some meat was brought to us.’ ”

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs (4), through Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah, she said: “A crescent would pass, then another, and no fire would be kindled in the houses of Muḥammad. We lived on the two black things—dates and water. Yet our neighbours from the Anṣār who owned milk-goats would send some of their milk to the Messenger of Allah, and he would drink it and give us some to drink as well.”

Aḥmad (5) also recorded it, from Yazīd (6), from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from her, with similar wording.

In the Musnad (7) of Imām Aḥmad (8): “ʿAbdullāh narrated to us; my father narrated to me; Ḥusayn narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Muṭarrif narrated to us, from Abū Ḥāzim, from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, who heard ʿĀʾishah say: ‘Two successive new moons would pass and no fire would be lit in any of the houses of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ I asked, ‘Aunt, on what did you live?’ She replied, ‘On the two black things: dates and water.’ Aḥmad alone relates this version.”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (9) likewise narrated, through Shuʿbah, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, from