and they themselves felt constricted. No one would sit with them, speak to them, or greet them until Allah revealed in His Book that He had accepted their repentance.”) p. 302.

Authentic. This conveys the meaning of part of the hadith of Kab ibn Mālik concerning the story of his staying behind and his repentance. It was narrated from him by al-Bukhārī (3/177–182), Muslim (8/105–112), Abū Dāwūd (4600) in abridged form, al-Tirmidhī (2/186), and Ahmad (3/454, 456–459).

410—(The hadith: “The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—shunned some of his wives for forty days.”) p. 302.

Singular in specifying this precise number. I searched for it in the likely sources among the books of the sunnah but did not find it, except that it is mentioned without a chain of transmission in Sunan Abī Dāwūd, immediately after the forthcoming hadith (408). Its commentator, al-Shamsābādī, did not reproduce it in Awn al-Mabūd. Rather, he stated (4/432) that this phrase was absent from most manuscripts—that is, most manuscripts of the Sunan.

I say: What is well known and widely reported from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—is that he shunned his wives for one month when he swore to abstain from them. Several hadiths report this, some of which I shall mention:

The first is from Jābir ibn Abd Allāh, who said: The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—shunned his wives for one month. He stayed upstairs while they remained downstairs. The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—then went down to them after twenty-nine nights. A man said, “Messenger of Allah, you remained for twenty-nine nights.” The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—replied: “A month is like this and this”—gesturing twice with his fingers and tucking in his thumb the third time. Ahmad narrated it (3/329) with an authentic chain meeting Muslim’s criterion. Muslim also narrated it in his Sahīh (3/125), in an abridged version conveying the same meaning.