722 — “When you perform female circumcision, take only a slight part and do not cut severely, for that is more radiant for the face and more pleasing to the husband.”

Al-Dūlābī (2/122) and al-Khaṭīb, in al-Tārīkh (5/327), narrated it from Muḥammad ibn Sallām al-Jumaḥī, the client of Qudāmah ibn Maẓʿūn, who said: Zāʾidah ibn Abī al-Ruqād, Abū Muʿādh, narrated to us, from Thābit, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Umm ʿAṭiyyah—then he cited it.

I say: This is a weak chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy except for Zāʾidah ibn Abī al-Ruqād, whose hadith is rejected, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Taqrīb. As for al-Haythamī’s statement in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (5/172), “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ, and its chain of transmission is good”: if it was through a route other than this one, that is possible; but if it was through this route, then no. Yet I do not think it was through any route other than this one. For I have seen that Ibn ʿAdī transmitted it in al-Kāmil (150/2) and said: “Zāʾidah ibn Abī al-Ruqād alone narrates this from Thābit; I know of no one else who narrates it. Zāʾidah has good hadiths, though some of his hadiths are objectionable.”

I say: Al-Khaṭīb also related from al-Qawārīrī that he rejected this hadith.

I say: However, the hadith has another route from Anas, transmitted by Abū Nuʿaym in Akhbār Aṣbahān (1/245), from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Umayyah, who said: Abū Hilāl al-Rāsibī narrated to us: I heard al-Ḥasan say: Anas narrated to us, saying: “There was a female circumciser in Medina called Umm Ayman, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to her …” Then he cited it.

I say: Its narrators have been deemed trustworthy, except for this Ismāʿīl; and the apparent meaning is that he is the one mentioned in al-Mīzān and al-Lisān: