that; yet I have found no report clarifying the reason except the previously cited narration of al-Waqidi, which indicated that she was sexually weak. However, al-Waqidi is discredited, as noted above. It seems possible to me that the reason was her narrowness of temperament and sharp disposition, which led her to be intensely jealous of her co-wives. Muslim (4/174) recorded, through Hisham ibn Urwah, from his father, from Aishah, who said:

“I never saw a woman in whose place I would have preferred to be more than Sawdah bint Zamʿah—a woman of sharp temperament.” She said: “When she grew old, she assigned her day with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to Aishah.”

The first part of this report is also narrated through another chain by Ibn Saʿd (8/54), from Thabit al-Bunani, from Sumayyah, from Aishah, with the same wording, except that it reads, “She had jealousy.” This is perhaps a corruption of “sharpness of temperament.” And Allah knows best.

1480 — “In place of the Torah, I was given the Seven Long Surahs; in place of the Psalms, the Hundreds; in place of the Gospel, the Oft-Repeated Surahs; and I was specially favored with the Mufassal section.”

It was recorded by al-Tayalisi (2/9/1918), al-Tahawi in Mushkil al-Athar (2/154), al-Tabarani in al-Tafsir (1/100, no. 126), and Ibn Mandah in al-Maʿrifah (2/206/2), through the route of Imran al-Qattan, from Qatadah, from Abu al-Malih, from Wathilah ibn al-Asqaʿ, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said this.

I say: Its chain is good. Its narrators are trustworthy and among the narrators of the two Sahihs, apart from Imran al-Qattan, whose hadith is good, owing to the well-known scholarly disagreement concerning him. Saʿid ibn Bashir also corroborated him, reporting it from Qatadah. It was recorded by al-Tabari and Yusuf ibn Abd al-Hadi in Hidayat al-Insan (fol. 22/2). Layth ibn Abi Sulaym also corroborated it, from Abu Burdah, from Abu al-Malih. Al-Tabari likewise recorded it (no. 129).

It also has a supporting report, similar in wording, from the mursal narration of Abu Qilabah, attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Al-Tabari recorded it (127).

I say: Its chain is authentic, though mursal. Thus, taken together through its various chains, the hadith is authentic. And Allah knows best.