Rather, what he rebuked was her failure to pay the zakat due on them. This differs from the earlier narrations, in which he condemned the very act of wearing such ornaments and did not touch upon the obligation of zakat. It appears that this incident occurred during the period when wearing them was still permissible, so the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—moved gradually toward prohibiting them: he first imposed zakat on them and then forbade them altogether, as the preceding reports clearly state, especially the first tradition traced back to Abu Hurayrah:

“Whoever wishes to encircle his beloved with a ring of fire, let him encircle him with a ring of gold …” and so forth.

This wording gives unmistakable evidence that the prohibition applies to the very act of placing on a gold ring—and anything comparable to it—not to the mere omission of its zakat.

In truth, this story teaches only that zakat is obligatory on jewelry, just as the forthcoming report of ʿAʾishah establishes zakat on silver rings. Neither narration indicates that wearing such items is forbidden; they simply require zakat on what is worn. The rulings of prohibition or permissibility must therefore be drawn from other proofs: we derive the ban on gold bracelets for women from the earlier hadiths, and we take the permissibility of silver from the previously cited hadith of Abu Hurayrah, from the report of ʿAʾishah just mentioned, and from other supporting evidence.