Ibn Hibban recorded it (no. 65): Abu Yaʿla informed us: Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Muqaddami narrated to us: Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Zubayri narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from ʿAtaʾ ibn al-Saʾib, from Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sulami, from Abu Musa al-Ashʿari, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: He then mentioned it.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All of its narrators are trustworthy and are among al-Bukhari’s narrators. Although ʿAtaʾ ibn al-Saʾib suffered confusion in his later years, Sufyan—namely, al-Thawri—narrated from him before that occurred.

1281 — “A woman belongs to her last husband.”

Abu ʿAli al-Harrani al-Qushayri narrated it in Tarikh al-Raqqah (3/39/2): Al-ʿAbbas ibn Salih ibn Musafir al-Harrani narrated to us: Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Sukkari, Ismaʿil ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Khalid, narrated to us: Abu al-Malih narrated to us, from Maymun ibn Mihran, who said: Muʿawiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, proposed marriage to Umm al-Dardaʾ, but she refused to marry him and said: “I heard Abu al-Dardaʾ say that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘A woman is with her last husband,’ or he said: ‘belongs to her last husband’”—or words to that effect. “And I do not desire any substitute for Abu al-Dardaʾ.”

I say: The narrators in this chain are trustworthy and known, except for this al-ʿAbbas ibn Salih, for whom I have not presently found a biographical notice. It should therefore be checked in Narrator Criticism and Accreditation (1). Abu al-Shaykh also narrated it in al-Tarikh (p. 270): Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Jawhari narrated to us: Ismaʿil ibn Zurarah narrated to us, who said: Abu al-Malih al-Raqqi narrated to us similarly, limiting it to the report attributed to the Prophet alone. This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and known, apart from al-Jawhari. Abu al-Shaykh said: “Trustworthy, good in hadith; among his sound hadiths are…” He then cited several hadiths from him, this being one of them.

Al-Baghawi also narrated it in Hadith ʿIsa ibn Salim (103/1), from Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam, who said: ʿAtiyyah ibn Qays told me that Muʿawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan proposed marriage to Umm al-Dardaʾ … the hadith. However, he did not attribute its Prophetic portion to the Prophet, but stopped it at Abu al-Dardaʾ. Al-Tabarani, however, narrated it from him as a report attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Any woman whose husband dies and who then marries afterward belongs to her last husband.”