This account of Rukāna is reported from Ibn Abbās through two routes: it is Ikrima’s report from Ibn Abbās, transmitted through two routes from Ikrima. It is more firmly established than the report of Abd Allāh ibn Alī ibn Yazīd ibn Rukāna and Nāfi ibn Ajīr: “He divorced her with the wording al-batta (definitively), and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, required him to swear an oath, asking, ‘You intended only one divorce?’” These narrators are unknown, their standing is not known, and they are not jurists. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abū Ubayd, Ibn Hazm and others classified their hadith as weak.

Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: “Rukāna’s hadith concerning the wording ‘definitively’ has no standing.”

He also said: “The report about Rukāna does not establish that he divorced his wife with the wording ‘definitively,’ because Ibn Ishāq narrates from Dāwūd ibn al-Husayn, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbās, that Rukāna divorced his wife three times. The people of Medina refer to three divorces as ‘definitively.’”

Thus, Ahmad cited this other hadith, which states that he divorced her three times, as evidence that the hadith containing the wording “definitively” is unsound. He explained that the people of Medina describe someone who has pronounced three divorces as having divorced “definitively.” This shows that he regarded the hadith as established. Other leading hadith scholars have also clarified this. This chain of transmission—Ibn Ishāq’s statement, “Dāwūd ibn al-Husayn narrated to me, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbās”—is considered established by Ahmad and other scholars.

Through this same chain it is reported that “the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, restored his daughter Zaynab to her husband on the basis of their original marriage contract.” Ahmad and other scholars authenticated this report.

When Ibn Ishāq says, “He narrated to me,” hadith scholars consider his report authentic. The only concern is possible concealment of an intermediary when he narrates using “from.” Abū Dāwūd also related this report from Ibn Abbās through another route in his Sunan. Both versions agree with Tāwūs’s hadith from Ibn Abbās. Ahmad used to counter Tāwūs’s hadith with the hadith of Fātima bint Qays, which states that her husband divorced her three times, and with similar reports.