There is also a sound corroborating narration for the report from Abu Musa al-Ashʿari, already mentioned in the first subsection of this chapter.

A further corroboration is related by al-Tabarani in al-Awsat on the authority of Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd Allah, who said: “We were with Abu Saʿid al-Khudri in the mosque when a man began flipping over some arrows. Abu Saʿid said, ‘Does this man not know that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade handling weapons in the mosque?’”

Al-Haythami observes: “In the chain is Abu al-Bilad, whom Abu Hatim declared weak.”

Al-Hafiz comments: “The hadith points to the gravity of shedding even a small amount of blood as well as a large amount, reaffirms the sanctity of a Muslim, and establishes the permissibility of bringing a weapon into the mosque.” A similar note appears in al-ʿUmda.

5 – Bringing children into the mosque. Several hadiths address this:

a) Abu Qatadah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

“We were sitting in the mosque when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out carrying Ummamah bint Abi al-ʿAs ibn al-Rabiʿ—her mother was Zaynab, daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. She was a little girl whom he carried on his shoulder. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the prayer with her on his shoulder; when he bowed he would set her down, and when he rose he would lift her back onto his shoulder. He continued in that manner until he completed the prayer.”

This narration appeared earlier in abridged form under “Purification of the Garment,” issue 4.