“ʿĀʾishah bint Ṭalḥah related to us, saying: ‘I once said to ʿĀʾishah—while I was sitting in her lap, and people from every region were coming to visit her. The elderly men would frequent me because of my position with her, and the youth would befriend me, so they would present gifts to me and write to me from the provinces. I would say to ʿĀʾishah, “Aunt, this is So-and-so’s letter and his gift.” ʿĀʾishah would reply, “My daughter, answer him and reciprocate. If you have nothing with which to reciprocate, I will give you something.”’ She continued: ‘Then she would give me something (to send in return).’

I (al-Albānī) say: This Mūsā is Mūsā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq ibn Ṭalḥah al-Qurashī. He narrated from a number of the Successors, and two trustworthy narrators transmitted from him. Ibn Abī Ḥātim mentioned him in al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (4/1/150), and before him al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (4/287); neither of them recorded any criticism or commendation for him. Ibn Ḥibbān listed him among the reliable narrators, and al-Ḥāfiẓ (Ibn Ḥajar) said in al-Taqrīb: “Acceptable,” meaning when his narration is corroborated, otherwise his ḥadith is soft (i.e., weak).

Al-Majd Ibn Taymiyyah said in Muntaqā al-Akhbār, immediately after citing this report: “It is proof for the permissibility of women learning to write.”

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maḥmūd al-Baʿlabakkī al-Ḥanbalī followed him in al-Muṭṭaliʿ (folio 107/1), and later al-Shawkānī in his commentary (8/177), stating: “As for the ḥadith, ‘Do not teach them writing, do not lodge them in upper chambers, but teach them Sūrat al-Nūr,’ the prohibition of teaching writing in that report applies to women from whom moral corruption is feared.”

I reply: This statement is refuted on two counts.

First: The very attempt to reconcile the two reports suggests that the ḥadith containing the prohibition is authentic; otherwise, one would not have gone to the trouble of harmonising it with this authentic report. Yet that is not the case, for the ḥadith of prohibition is fabricated, as al-Dhahabī declared. All of its chains are exceedingly weak—as demonstrated in Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah, no. 2017. Since that is so, there is no need for the proposed reconciliation, and what al-Shawkānī has done resembles