Who has sent you with the truth, I shall remain patient until I meet Allah,’ she declared. ‘I am only afraid that the evil spirit might strip me of my clothes.’ The Prophet ﷺ prayed for her. Thereafter, whenever she feared that it would assail her, she would go to the curtains of the Kaʿbah, cling to them, and say to it, ‘Begone!’—and it would leave her.

Al-Bazzār said: ‘We do not know this report in these exact words except through this chain. Ṣadaqah is reliable, and Farqad was narrated from by a number of scholars—among them Shuʿbah and others—and his narrations were tolerated despite his weak memory.’

Another chain from Ibn ʿAbbās: Imām Aḥmad said: ‘Yahyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; ʿImrān ibn Muslim Abū Bakr narrated to us; ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ narrated: Ibn ʿAbbās said to me, “Shall I show you a woman of Paradise?” I answered, “Yes.” He said, “This black woman came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘I suffer seizures and my body becomes exposed; pray to Allah for me.’ He replied, ‘If you wish, be patient and Paradise will be yours; or, if you wish, I will pray that Allah grant you healing.’ She said, ‘I choose patience, but pray that I not become uncovered.’ So he prayed for her.”’

Al-Bukhārī likewise recorded it from Musaddad, from Yahyā—namely Ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān—and Muslim recorded it from al-Qawārīrī and from Yahyā al-Qaṭṭān and Bishr ibn al-Faḍl, all from ʿImrān ibn Muslim Abū Bakr al-Faqīh al-Baṣrī, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, with the same wording. Al-Bukhārī then said: ‘Muḥammad narrated to us; Mukhallad narrated to us; from Ibn Jurayj, who said: ʿAṭāʾ told me that he had seen Umm Zafar, that same tall black woman, holding on to the curtain of the Kaʿbah.’

Ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Athīr notes in al-Ghābah that this Umm Zafar had once been the hairdresser of Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, and that she lived long enough for ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ to meet her in person—Allah knows best.

Another ḥadīth: Al-Bayhaqī said: ‘ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd informed us; Muḥammad ibn Yūnus narrated to us; Qurrat ibn Ḥabīb al-Qannawī narrated to us; Ilyās ibn Abī Tamīmah narrated to us, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Abū Hurayrah: Fever came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, send me to the people you love most”—or he said, “to the companions you urge on most,” Qurrat was unsure. He replied, “Go to the Anṣār.” So she went to them and laid them low. They came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, fever has struck us; pray to Allah to cure us.” He prayed for them, and it was lifted. A woman then followed him and said, “O Messenger of Allah, pray to Allah for me, for I am one of the Anṣār—and my father is among…"