Abu Ziyād narrated from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nuʿm, from Abū Saʿīd, who said:

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Fāṭimah is the lady of the women of Paradise, except for Mary daughter of ʿImrān.”

Its chain is ḥasan, and al-Tirmidhī declared it sound (1); the two Shaykhs did not record it. A similar wording exists through ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, but that chain is weak.

This shows that Mary and Fāṭimah are the foremost of the four. The exception could mean that Mary is superior to Fāṭimah, or that the two are equal in merit. However, another ḥadīth—if authentic—supports the first view. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir said:

“Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Farrāʾ, Abū Ghālib, and Abū ʿAbd Allāh, the two sons of al-Bannāʾ, related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar ibn al-Muslima informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhaffaṣ informed us; Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān narrated to us; al-Zubayr—namely Ibn Bakkār—narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Ghurayb, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘The mistress of the women of Paradise is Mary daughter of ʿImrān, then Fāṭimah, then Khadījah, then Āsiyah wife of Pharaoh.’”

If the wording with “then”—which denotes sequence—is reliably preserved, it clarifies one of the two possibilities implied by the earlier exception clause and takes precedence over the versions that employ the conjunction “and,”(2) which neither confirms nor denies order. Allah knows best.

Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī also transmitted this ḥadīth from Dāwūd al-Jaʿfarī(3), from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad—al-Darāwardī(4)—from Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUqbah, from Kurayb, from Ibn ʿAbbās as a marfūʿ report; in that version the conjunction “and” replaces “then,” so it differs in both chain and wording.(5) Allah knows best.

As for the narration recorded by Ibn Mardawayh, related by Shuʿbah from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah, from his father, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Many men have attained perfection, but among women none attained perfection except three: Mary daughter of ʿImrān, Āsiyah wife of Pharaoh, and Khadījah daughter of Khuwaylid. And the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd over all other food.” The same ḥadīth was recorded by the rest of “the group”(6) —with the exception of Abū Dāwūd—through various chains from Shuʿbah, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Murrah al-Hamadānī, from