(4) From ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her):

Hind bint ʿUtbah said, “O Prophet of Allah, accept my pledge!” He looked at her hand and said, “I will not pledge allegiance to you until you change your hands; they are like the paws of a wild beast.”

This ḥadith is ḥasan. Abū Dāwūd recorded it in the Sunan, saying: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; Ghibṭah bint ʿAmr al-Mujāshiʿiyyah told me; she said: my aunt Umm al-Ḥasan related to me from her grandmother, from her—namely, ʿĀʾishah.

The isnād is a chain made up entirely of women who are otherwise unknown, yet al-Dhahabī remarks in al-Mīzān: “As for the class of unknown women, I know of none who was ever accused of lying or whose narration was abandoned.”

The report has another route and supporting narrations that strengthen it. Ibn Abī Ḥātim stated—as cited by Ibn Kathīr in his Tafsīr—: Naṣr ibn ʿAlī narrated to us; Umm ʿAṭiyyah bint Sulaymān narrated to me; my aunt narrated to me from my grandmother, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:

“Hind bint ʿUtbah came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to pledge allegiance. He looked at her hand and said, ‘Go and change your hand.’ She went away, applied henna to it, and then returned. He said, ‘I accept your pledge on condition that you do not associate anything with Allah.’ He then accepted her pledge while two gold bangles were on her wrist. She asked, ‘What do you say about these two bangles?’ He replied, ‘They are two portions of the Fire of Hell.’”

Ibn Kathīr passes over the report without ruling on it, and its chain is identical to the one just mentioned. Al-Haythamī included it in al-Majmaʿ in fuller form and then said: