al-Sindī replied, “I maintain that this ḥadīth is not one of the Zawāʾid; it is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere.”
I say: Each scholar had his own standpoint. Al-Sindī focused on the purport demanded by the context, as I have already pointed out, whereas al-Būṣayrī focused on the wording. There is no doubt that, with the additional phrase “and perform a full bath,” the report is indeed an addendum to what the two Shaykhs recorded; hence al-Būṣayrī included it, examined its chain of transmission and declared its transmitters reliable. He should also have stated explicitly that it is authentic, just as al-Majd Ibn Taymiyyah did in al-Muntaqā. Allah is the One who grants success.
There is no contradiction between this ḥadīth and the narration transmitted by Abū al-Zubayr from ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, who said:
“News reached ʿĀʾishah that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr instructs women, when they take the ritual bath, to undo their hair. She exclaimed, ‘How astonishing of Ibn ʿAmr! He tells women who bathe to undo their hair! Why does he not tell them to shave it off instead? I used to bathe with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from a single vessel, and I never did more than pour three handfuls of water over my head.’”
Muslim recorded it (1/179), as did Ibn Abī Shaybah (1/24/1-2), al-Bayhaqī (1/181) and Aḥmad (6/43).
I say: The two reports are not at odds for two reasons:
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The first report is more authentic. Although Muslim included the second, Abū al-Zubayr was a narrator who practised tadlīs and he transmits it with the ambiguous ʿan-ʿanah.
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The first concerns menstruation, whereas the second concerns janābah (the state of major ritual impurity following intercourse), as is evident. They can therefore be reconciled by saying that undoing the hair is required in the case of menstruation but not in the case of janābah. This was the view of Imām Aḥmad and other early scholars.
This reconciliation is preferable, for a corroborating report has come from Umm Salamah, who said: