1864 — “A woman’s hem should be a handspan.” I said, “Then her feet will be exposed.” He said, “Then a cubit, but no more than that.”

It was recorded by al-Dārimī (2/279), al-Bayhaqī (2/233), Aḥmad (6/295 and 309), and Abū Yaʿlā (folio 319/1), through Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Nāfiʿ, from Ṣafiyyah bint Abī ʿUbayd, from Umm Salamah, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with this wording.

This is a chain whose narrators are trustworthy, were it not for Ibn Isḥāq’s ʿanʿanah (unqualified “from” transmission). However, he was corroborated: Mālik stated in al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (3/105): from Abū Bakr ibn Nāfiʿ, from his father Nāfiʿ, the freedman of Ibn ʿUmar, with the same wording. Through Mālik, it was also recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2/184) and Ibn Ḥibbān (1451). Abū Bakr ibn Nāfiʿ is trustworthy and among Muslim’s narrators; thus, the chain is authentic according to his criteria.

They were also corroborated by Ayyūb ibn Mūsā ibn ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ, from Nāfiʿ, with the same wording. It was recorded by al-Nasāʾī (2/229–300) and Abū Yaʿlā (folio 315/1). This is an authentic chain according to the criteria of both al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar contradicted them, saying: from Nāfiʿ, from Sulaymān ibn Yasār, from Umm Salamah, with the same wording. It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2/184), al-Nasāʾī (2/300), Ibn Mājah (2/373), Aḥmad (6/315), and Abū Yaʿlā. Al-Dārimī regarded this version as stronger, saying after the first version: “People relate it from Nāfiʿ, from Sulaymān ibn Yasār!”

I say: If this statement is sound, then the first version must likewise be deemed authentic, because of the agreement—