Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā narrated to us; Abū Isrāʾīl al-Kūfī informed us; from al-Walīd ibn al-ʿAyzār; from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn; from ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “While we—the Companions of Muḥammad ﷺ—were still many in number, we never thought it strange that the Spirit of Tranquillity should speak through ʿUmar’s tongue.” (5)

Al-Bayhaqī comments: It is corroborated by Zirr ibn Hubaysh and al-Shaʿbī on the authority of ʿAlī.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān also said: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Qays ibn Muslim, from Ṭāriq ibn Shihāb, who said: “We used to be told that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb spoke with the tongue of an angel.” (6)

In our Life of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) we have already recorded many of his unveilings and his reports of unseen matters—such as the story of Sāriyah ibn Zunaym (7) and similar events; and to Allah belong all praise and favour.

Among these is what al-Bukhārī narrates—through Firās, from al-Shaʿbī, from Masrūq, from ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her)—that the wives of the Prophet ﷺ once gathered around him and said, “Messenger of Allah, which of us will be the first to join you?” He replied, “The one whose hand is the longest.” Sawdah had the longest forearm among them, so she was the first to follow him. Thus it appears in al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ that it was Sawdah. (8)

Yūnus ibn Bukayr also transmitted it—from Zakariyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, from al-Shaʿbī—in mursal form, adding: “When Zaynab died, they realised that she had been the one whose hand was longest in goodness and charity.” (9)

In Muslim’s version—related by Maḥmūd ibn Ghaylān, from al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā, from Ṭalḥah ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ṭalḥah, from ʿĀʾishah bint Ṭalḥah, from ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers—the wording is: “Zaynab’s hand was the longest among us, for she used to work with her own hands and give in charity.” (10) This is the opinion well known among the historians: Zaynab bint Jaḥsh was the first of the Prophet’s ﷺ wives to pass away.

Al-Wāqidī said: “She died in the year 20 AH, and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb led her funeral prayer.” (11)

I say: As for Sawdah, she too died toward the end of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s caliphate, as reported by Ibn Abī Khaythamah.

Another example is what Muslim relates (12) in the narration of Usayd ibn Jābir from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb about Uways al-Qaranī—how he declared him the best of the Successors, that he had once suffered from leukoderma, then prayed to Allah and Allah removed it from him.