days.(1)
It was he who said: “Had the slaying of ‘Uthmān been an act of guidance, the Ummah would have milked from it milk; but it was deviation, and so the Ummah has milked from it blood.” He also said: “If anyone were to repudiate you for what you did to ‘Uthmān, he would be fully entitled to repudiate you.”

Imām Aḥmad said: Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, from ‘Urwah, from Zaynab bint Abī Salamah, from Ḥabībah bint Umm Ḥabībah bint Abī Sufyān, from her mother Umm Ḥabībah, from Zaynab bint Jahsh—the Prophet’s ﷺ wife—
Sufyān remarked: “Four women”—who said:
“The Prophet ﷺ awoke from his sleep with his face flushed red and exclaimed, ‘There is no god but Allah! Woe to the Arabs from an evil that has drawn near. Today a breach has been opened in the dam of Gog and Magog like this’—and he formed a circle with his thumb and the finger next to it. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, shall we perish while righteous people are among us?’ He replied, ‘Yes, when filth becomes widespread.’”(2)

Thus Imām Aḥmad transmitted it from Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah with this chain, and Muslim likewise recorded it(3) from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, Sa‘īd ibn ‘Amr al-Ash‘athī, Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb, and Ibn Abī ‘Umar—all of them from Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah with identical wording. Al-Tirmidhī also reported it(4) from Sa‘īd ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Makhzūmī and others, all through Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah. Al-Tirmidhī said, “It is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ,” and he related that al-Ḥumaydī said on the authority of Sufyān, “I memorised from al-Zuhrī in this chain four women.”

I say: al-Bukhārī has also included it(5)—through Mālik ibn Ismā‘īl—and Muslim(6)—through ‘Amr al-Nāqid—from Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah, from al-Zuhrī, from ‘Urwah, from Zaynab, from Umm Ḥabībah, from Zaynab bint Jahsh, without mentioning Ḥabībah in the chain. The same omission appears in the narrations of al-Zuhrī transmitted by Shu‘ayb, Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān, ‘Aqīl, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, Muḥammad ibn Abī ‘Atīq, and Yūnus ibn Yazīd; none of them include Ḥabībah in the isnād. Allah knows best.

According to the version reported by Aḥmad and those who followed him from Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah, this isnād combines two Successors—al-Zuhrī and ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr—and four female Companions, two daughters and two wives, a configuration that is exceedingly rare.

Al-Bukhārī then said, after citing the foregoing ḥadīth: “From Abū ’l-Yamān, from Shu‘ayb, from al-Zuhrī,” and he reported it to the end.(7)

He then added: “And al-Zuhrī said: Hind bint al-Ḥārith narrated to me that Umm Salamah said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ awoke and said, ‘Glorified is Allah! What treasures have been sent down tonight, and what tribulations have been revealed!’” Al-Bukhārī provides the full isnād in other places as well.(8)