being in accordance with the sunnah and free from innovation. Ibn Masud, may Allah be pleased with him, also alluded to this when he said: “Moderation in accordance with the sunnah is better than strenuous effort in innovation.”

Another lesson is that a minor innovation is a path leading to a major innovation. Do you not see that the people of those circles eventually became among the Kharijites whom the Rightly Guided Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib killed? So is there anyone who will take heed?

2006 — “There will be no unmarried person in Paradise.”

Aslam al-Wasiti recorded it in his History (180) through Said ibn Isa al-Wasiti, who said: Hammad ibn Salamah narrated to us from Ayyub, Yunus, and Humayd, from Muhammad ibn Sirin, from Abu Hurayrah, who said: “The men and women were boasting against one another, so Abu Hurayrah said: ‘Women will be more numerous than men in Paradise.’ Umar ibn al-Khattab looked at the people and said: ‘Do you not hear what Abu Hurayrah is saying?’ Abu Hurayrah then said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say concerning the first company to enter Paradise: Their faces will be like the moon on the night of its fullness, and the second company will be like the lights of a star in the sky. Each one of them will have two wives, the marrow of whose shins will be visible through the flesh; and there will be no unmarried person in Paradise.’”

I say: The narrators of this chain of transmission are trustworthy narrators of Muslim, apart from Said al-Wasiti, whom I have not identified. Aslam mentioned him in his biographical notice, but did not relate any criticism or commendation concerning him. Nor was he alone in narrating it: a group of trustworthy narrators reported it from Ayyub, from Muhammad, with similar wording. Muslim recorded it (8/145–146), as did Ahmad (2/230, 247, and 507). Al-Darimi also recorded it (2/336) through Hisham al-Qardusi, from Muhammad, with similar wording.