2007 — “He had divorced Hafsa, then took her back.”

It was recorded by Abu Dawud (2283), al-Nasa’i (2/117), al-Darimi (2/160–161), Ibn Majah (2016), Abu Ya‘la in his Musnad collection (1/53), al-Hakim (2/197), and al-Bayhaqi (7/321–322), through Yahya ibn Zakariyya ibn Abi Za’idah, from Salih ibn Salih, from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ‘Abbas, from ‘Umar, in a report attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim,” and al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: It is as they said. Salih is Ibn Salih ibn Hayy. Abu Ya‘la also recorded it through another chain, saying: Abu Kurayb narrated to us; Yunus ibn Bukayr informed us from al-A‘mash, from Abu Salih, from Ibn ‘Umar, who said: “‘Umar entered upon Hafsa while she was weeping, and said to her: ‘What is making you weep? Perhaps the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, has divorced you. He divorced you once, then took you back for my sake. By Allah, if he divorces you again, I shall never speak to you.’”

Al-Bazzar also recorded it through this chain with similar wording (p. 156). He then said: Ahmad ibn Yazdad al-Kufi narrated it to us; ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Ghaffar narrated to us; al-A‘mash narrated it to us through the same chain.

The first chain is acceptable. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators relied upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim, except that al-Bukhari cited Yunus ibn Bukayr only in suspended form. Moreover, he is truthful but makes mistakes, as stated in al-Taqrib (The Abridgment). ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Ghaffar corroborated him, but I did not know who he was. I then recalled that he might be ‘Amr—with a waw—ibn ‘Abd al-Ghaffar. So I consulted his biographical entry in al-Mizan (The Balance), and found that he was indeed this man, al-Fuqaymi. Abu Hatim said: