months and ten days. I then came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said: “Messenger of Allah, seek forgiveness for me.” He asked, “Why is that?” So I told him what had happened, and he said: “If a righteous man comes to you, then marry him.” The two additional passages are from Ibn Rāhūyah.

I say: Its chain of transmission is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria. Muslim, al-Bukhārī, and others also narrated it through other routes from Subayʿah and other Companions, both in abbreviated and fuller versions. I have documented one of these in al-Irwāʾ (2113). I chose to cite this particular narration because, unlike all the other routes, it alone contains the point mentioned above: that he, peace and blessings be upon him, instructed her to marry a righteous man if she found one.

Ibn Ḥajar, however, erred when he attributed it in al-Fatḥ (9/476) to the narration of al-Aswad from Abū al-Sanābil himself in Ibn Mājah. This is another narration found in Ibn Mājah, and also in Ibn Rāhūyah; it does not contain this point. The reason for the error—so it appears to me, and Allah knows best—is that this narration occurs in Ibn Mājah immediately before the hadith under the heading, so that, when quoting from it, his eye apparently passed over to it. And Allah knows best.

The hadith contains other legal benefits as well, many excellent ones having been mentioned by Ibn Ḥajar, such as his statement:

“It establishes the permissibility of a woman adorning herself after the end of her waiting period for those who may propose marriage to her. For in al-Zuhrī’s narration recorded by al-Bukhārī, he said: ‘Why do I see that you have adorned yourself for suitors?’ In Ibn Isḥāq’s narration: ‘So I prepared myself for marriage and dyed myself with henna.’ In Maʿmar’s narration from al-Zuhrī: ‘She had applied kohl.’ And in al-Aswad’s narration: ‘She perfumed and beautified herself.’”

I say: What do those who zealously maintain that a woman, in her entirety, is something that must be concealed, without exception, make of this authentic hadith and of the benefit Ibn Ḥajar has mentioned?! Perhaps they will say—as is their habit with such explicit texts—“That was before the revelation of the verse of hijab.” We reply: Not so fast! This occurred during the Farewell Pilgrimage, as is established in the two Sahihs. “So is there anyone who will take heed?” See my book, The Muslim Woman’s Jilbab (p. 69, new edition).