I truly wonder what connection this ḥadīth could possibly have with a rebuke for divulging a secret when it says, “just as you have taught her writing.” Can the teaching of an ineffectual ruqyah be reasonably likened to teaching someone how to write?
Moreover, the ḥadīth explicitly states that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructed al-Shifāʾ to treat an Anṣārī man for namlah with her ruqyah and ordered her to teach it to Ḥafṣah. Is it conceivable that the Prophet ﷺ would have given such a command if the ruqyah were the very wording al-Shawkānī quoted—without any chain of transmission—words that, as he himself admitted, neither harm nor benefit? The Prophet ﷺ is far above endorsing such an incantation.
Granted, the wording found in Abū Dāwūd’s narration might admit the strained interpretation that the ḥadīth is a reprimand, but the version reported by al-Ḥākim, with which we opened this discussion, cannot possibly bear that sense; rather, it is a clear proof that the interpretation is utterly baseless, as is plainly evident. Perhaps for this very reason Ibn al-Athīr, in al-Nihāyah, prefaced the explanation that al-Shawkānī cites for “the ruqyah of namlah” with the phrase, “It has been said,” thereby signaling the weakness of that explanation and of the construction he erected upon the Prophet’s words, “Will you not teach her…!”
(kurkuma): some say it is saffron, others safflower, and others a plant similar to wars. The word is Persian in origin and has been Arabised.
(ṣalūb): this is how the word appears; I do not know its meaning. If the text is sound and free of corruption, it may well be a Hebrew term. Allah knows best.
Benefits of the ḥadīth
The ḥadīth yields many benefits, the two most important of which are:
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The permissibility of performing ruqyah for others with formulas free of shirk, whereas requesting someone else to perform ruqyah for one is disliked, as indicated by the well-known ḥadīth, “ʿUkāshah has beaten you to it.”
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The permissibility of teaching a woman to write. Indeed, al-Bukhārī entitled a heading in al-Adab al-Mufrad (no. 1118): “Chapter on writing to women and their replies.”
He then narrated with an authentic chain from Mūsā ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: