The fact that the objectors have missed is what he expressed so eloquently in the earlier citation (p. 97):

“One knows with certainty that the incident is true in its general sense.”

In other words, the certainty concerns the overall event, not the specific details on which the various chains of transmission do not concur; whatever appears far-fetched belongs to that latter category, as anyone of insight can see.

From this standpoint I wrote in Irwāʾ (6/203):

“Considering both chains together, the ḥadith is sound as far as the Prophet’s actual words ﷺ are concerned, whereas the stated reason is weak because its wording differs in the two isnads, as I explained.”

A second response is that declaring the report impossible is blatant obstinacy—a stance we have often observed from them—for nothing in the Sharīʿah or in sound reason precludes such a thing happening to Asmāʾ or to anyone else, since infallibility is absent, as I noted earlier. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ himself deemed it conceivable that something even more serious could issue from ʿĀʾishah—the truthful, purified one and Asmāʾ’s sister—making mention of what they find objectionable about Asmāʾ a trifling matter. That is embodied in his ﷺ statement to ʿĀʾishah during the incident of the slander:

(Sahīḥ) “If you have committed a sin, then seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him …” ⦗the rest of the ḥadith⦘.

It was recorded by the Two Shaykhs and others and is traced in al-Ṣaḥīḥah (1208).

In addition to the above, the report about Asmāʾ does not state that she wore thin garments as an act of wanton display or in conscious violation of the Sharīʿah. Even if it were authentic—and it is not, as you have seen—it would have to be understood as having occurred out of inadvertence or ignorance, for such instances have indeed taken place. ⦗106⦘