and the claim that both reports describe one and the same incident can only be sustained by resorting to strained interpretation, as al-Sindi has shown in his marginal notes on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim:

First, one would have to suppose that what was originally requested were the khumrah and the thawb together, but that some transmitters mentioned only one of them—or forgot the other. This would amount to blaming the narrator and attributing deficiency to him without any proof, and the weakness of such a position is obvious.

Second, they would have to argue that the phrase “from the mosque” is not part of the Prophet’s own wording ﷺ, but rather ʿĀʾishah’s, attached to her statement “he said.” Al-Nawawī cites this opinion from al-Qāḍī in his Commentary on Muslim. On that reading the ḥadīth would run: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me—from the mosque—‘Hand me the khumrah.’” This contradicts the plain wording of the report, and it is highly unlikely that the original text was as they claim while all the narrators nevertheless agreed to transmit it in a form that leaves the immediate impression that “from the mosque” belongs to his ﷺ statement and is connected to the verb “Hand me….”

What we have maintained is further supported by the fact that the four authors of the Sunan—except al-Nasāʾī—entitled the chapter in line with the obvious meaning, saying:

“Chapter: A menstruating woman may take something from the mosque.”

Al-Tirmidhī adds: “The ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah is sound and authentic, and this is the view held by the vast majority of scholars; we know of no disagreement among them that there is no harm in a menstruating woman taking something from the mosque.”

Al-Khattābī states in al-Maʿālim: “The juristic inference from the ḥadīth is that a menstruating woman is allowed to reach in with her hand and take something from the mosque…”