Abu Mūsā al-Ashʿarī narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“Many men have attained perfection, but none of the women have attained it except Āsiyah, the wife of Pharaoh, and Mary, daughter of ʿImrān; and the superiority of ʿĀʾishah over other women is like the superiority of tharīd over all other food.”

This ḥadīth, as you can see, is sound; both of the Two Shaykhs agreed on including it in their Ṣaḥīḥ collections. Its wording confines perfection among women to Mary and Āsiyah. The intent, however, may be limited to their own times, for each of them cared for a prophet while he was still a child: Āsiyah fostered Moses—he who spoke with Allah—and Mary fostered her own son, the servant and Messenger of Allah. Thus the ḥadīth does not deny perfection to others in this community, such as Khadījah and Fāṭimah.

Khadījah served the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for fifteen years before his mission began and for more than ten years afterwards. With both her person and her wealth she was a truthful minister to him—may Allah ennoble her and be pleased with her. As for Fāṭimah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), she enjoyed additional merit over her sisters because she was bereaved of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), whereas her sisters had all died during his lifetime.

ʿĀʾishah, moreover, was the most beloved of the wives of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to him, and he married no other virgin besides her. Among all women—within this community and beyond—none is known to have been more knowledgeable or more insightful than she. Allah Himself defended her honor when the people of the slander said what they said, revealing her vindication from above the seven heavens. She lived for nearly fifty years after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), conveying the Qur’an and the Sunnah from him, issuing legal verdicts to the Muslims, and reconciling those who differed. She is regarded as the noblest of the Mothers of the Believers—even above Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, mother of his daughters and sons, according to a group of early and later scholars—though the safer course is to suspend judgment between the two.(1)

This reservation arises because his (peace and blessings be upon him) statement:

“The superiority of ʿĀʾishah over women is like the superiority of tharīd over all other food”

may be understood as general with respect to the women mentioned [and others], or as general with respect to those other than the women mentioned.(1) Allah knows best.

Our purpose here is to set forth what pertains to Mary, daughter of ʿImrān (peace be upon her), for Allah purified her and chose her above the women of the worlds in her time—and her superiority may in fact be absolute, as noted earlier. A ḥadīth also states that she and Āsiyah, daughter of Muzāḥim, will be among the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in Paradise. In the Tafsīr(2) we cited some of the early scholars who held this view, finding support for it in His words, “mature women and virgins” (66:5). They said: the mature woman is Āsiyah, and among the virgins is Mary, daughter of ʿImrān. We mentioned this at the end of Sūrat al-Taḥrīm, and Allah knows best.

Al-Ṭabarānī(3) said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nājah related to us, Muḥammad ibn Saʿd al-ʿAwfī(4) related to us, my father related to us, my uncle related to us