Ibn ʿAdiyy remarked: “He narrates only a few ḥadiths; most of what he does relate is odd, and some of it is actually objectionable.”

Al-Bayhaqī transmitted—through al-Ḥakam and others, from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, from Muḥammad ibn al-Haytham the judge—who said: Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab told us; al-Awzāʿī told us, from Abū ʿAmmār Shaddād ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Umm al-Faḍl bint al-Ḥārith. She said: “I entered upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I had a disturbing dream last night.’ He asked, ‘And what was it?’ I replied, ‘It was as though a piece of your very body was cut off and placed in my lap.’ He said, ‘You have seen something good: if Allah wills, Fāṭimah will give birth to a boy who will rest in your lap.’

“Fāṭimah then gave birth to al-Ḥusayn, and he was indeed in my lap just as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had said. One day I went in to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and placed the child in his lap. I turned away for a moment, and when I looked back the eyes of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were flowing with tears. I said, ‘O Prophet of Allah, may my father and mother be your ransom, what is the matter?’ He answered, ‘Gabriel has just come to me and informed me that my community will kill this son of mine.’ I asked, ‘This one here?’ He said, ‘Yes—and he brought me some soil from the very place where he will be slain, red earth.’(1)

Imām Aḥmad likewise related it(2) through ʿAffān, from Wuhaib, from Ayyūb, from Ṣāliḥ Abū al-Khalīl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, from Umm al-Faḍl, who said: “I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘In my dream I saw that there was a part of you in my house and in my lap.’ He replied, ‘If Allah wills, Fāṭimah will give birth to a boy and you will care for him.’ Fāṭimah then bore Ḥusayn, and he handed the child over to me. I nursed him with Qutham’s milk. One day I brought him to visit the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He took him, laid him on his chest, and the child urinated so that some of it touched his waist-wrapper. I tapped him lightly on the shoulders, and he said, ‘You have hurt my son—may Allah set you right,’ or he said, ‘may Allah have mercy on you.’ I said, ‘Give me your wrapper so I can wash it.’ He said, ‘The urine of a baby girl is washed, but over the urine of a baby boy water is merely poured.’

Aḥmad also reported it through Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr, from Isrāʾīl, from Simāk, from Qabūs ibn Abī Muḥāriq, from Umm al-Faḍl(3), giving the same wording but without the statement foretelling his death(4)—and Allah knows best.

Imām Aḥmad further said: ʿAffān told us; Ḥammād told us; ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār informed us, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream at midday while he was resting. He was disheveled and dusty, and in his hand was a vial filled with blood. I said, ‘May my father and mother be your ransom, O Messenger of Allah—what is this?’ He replied, ‘It is the blood of al-Ḥusayn and his companions; I have been gathering it since this morning.’ ʿAmmār said: We counted the days and discovered that he was killed on that very day.(5)