Al-Bazzār reported it (175) and said: “Mandal is weak.” Al-Haythamī likewise said so in al-Majmaʿ (5/171–172), adding: “He was declared trustworthy, and the rest of its narrators are trustworthy.”
I say: In sum, the hadith, through these routes and supporting narrations, is authentic. Allah knows best.
Know that female circumcision was known among the early generations, contrary to what those who lack knowledge imagine. Here are some reports concerning this:
- Al-Ḥasan said: “ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ was invited to a meal, and he was told: ‘Do you know what this is? This is a girl’s circumcision!’ He said: ‘This is something we did not see in the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,’ and he refused to eat.” Al-Ṭabarānī reported it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (3/7/2) through Abū Ḥamzah al-ʿAṭṭār, from him.
I say: Abū Ḥamzah’s name was Isḥāq ibn al-Rabīʿ. He was sound in hadith, as Abū Ḥātim said, and the rest of its narrators have been deemed trustworthy. Thus, if al-Ḥasan heard it from ʿUthmān, then its chain is good. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq also narrated it from Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Kurayz, from al-Ḥasan, with the same wording but without mentioning “a girl.” Al-Ṭabarānī likewise reported it, as did Aḥmad (4/217). Its chain is good were it not for Ibn Isḥāq’s use of an ambiguous “from” formula, for he practised tadlīs; and this is the defect al-Haythamī identified in it (4/60).
- Umm al-Muhājir said: “I was taken captive along with some Byzantine slave girls. ʿUthmān invited us to Islam, but none of us accepted Islam except myself and one other woman. He said: ‘Circumcise them and purify them.’ I then used to serve ʿUthmān.”