“Some people have used this narration to argue that wearing an iron ring is permissible, but the inference is unfounded: permission to acquire (ittikhadh) a ring does not necessarily entail permission to wear it. The Prophet may only have intended that the ring be obtained so that its value could benefit the woman.” I add: Even if we were to concede that the wording permits it explicitly, the text should be dated to the period before the prohibition, so as to reconcile it with the present hadith that forbids it—just as the reports that seem to allow men to adorn themselves with gold are reconciled with the reports that forbid it. This is plain, God willing. This understanding was adopted by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ibn Rahuyah, may Allah have mercy on them. Ishaq ibn Mansur al-Marwazi asked Ahmad, “Is a ring of gold or of iron disliked?” He replied, “By Allah, yes.” Ishaq said, “Exactly as he has said.” See Masail al-Marwazi, p. 224, and our note on the previous hadith, p. 215. It is also the view of Malik, as narrated by Ibn Wahb in his Jamiʿ, p. 101, and of Umar, as recorded in Tabaqat Ibn Saʿd, 4/114, and Jamiʿ Ibn Wahb, p. 100. The same position is transmitted by ʿAbd al-Razzaq and al-Bayhaqi in Shuʿab al-Iman, as cited in al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir, 13/191/1. Nor is there any contradiction between this hadith and the report of Muayqib, who said: “The ring of the Prophet ﷺ was of iron plated with silver; it was sometimes in my hand, for Muayqib was entrusted with the Messenger of Allah’s ring.”