“Its chains of transmission are all reliable; anyone who criticized the report simply failed to examine all of its routes.” I later discovered the same remark in Shaykh al-Islām’s work Iqtidaʾ.

The second ḥadith is related jointly by ʿĀʾishah and Ibn ʿAbbās. They said:
“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was struck by his final illness, he would lay a small woollen cloak over his face; when it became oppressive he would lift it off, and while he was in that state …” — and they went on to cite the remainder of the wording.

Al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Nasāʾī, al-Dārimī, and Aḥmad all transmit it through the isnād of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah from her. In one of Aḥmad’s versions he adds: “He declared that forbidden to his community.” This route contains Ibn Isḥāq, who reports it with an unbroken “ʿanʿana.”

There is another route from her alone with the wording, “May Allah curse…,” the rest being identical, and it further adds:
“She said, ‘Had it not been for that, his grave would have been left exposed, but he feared it might be taken as a mosque.’”
Al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and Aḥmad record this version from ʿUrwah on her authority.

A third route is found in Aḥmad’s Musnad through Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib from her, and its chain is sound according to the criteria of the Six Books.

There is also a corroborating narration from Abū Hurayrah, identical in meaning to the report of ʿĀʾishah; Muslim transmits it through the route of Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm from him.