2784 — “Eat it”—meaning garlic—“for I am not like any of you; I fear that I may offend my companion.” [That is, the angel.]

Ahmad (6/433 and 462), al-Humaydi (339), and Ibn Abi Shaybah (8/301/4530)—from whose route Ibn Majah (3364) also narrated it—reported it. All three said: Sufyan ibn Uyaynah narrated to us: Ubayd Allah ibn Abi Yazid narrated to us that his father informed him, saying: “I stayed with Umm Ayyub, one of those with whom the Messenger of Allah lodged. She narrated to me from the Messenger of Allah that they went to the trouble of preparing a meal containing some vegetables and presented it to him. He disliked it and said to his Companions...” and he then cited it. The addition is Ahmad’s.

Al-Tirmidhi (6/107/1811), al-Darimi (2/102), and Ibn Khuzaymah in his Sahih (1671)—and, through him, Ibn Hibban (3/264/2090)—also narrated it through other routes from Sufyan, with the same wording. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good, authentic, singular hadith. Umm Ayyub was the wife of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari.”

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy, and all are among the narrators of the two Shaykhs except Abu Yazid, Ubayd Allah’s father, who was Meccan. No one other than Ibn Hibban declared him reliable. However, he was not alone in narrating it, for a similar report from Abu Ayyub is authentically established. Muslim and others narrated it, and it has been documented in al-Irwa’ (no. 2511).

It is further supported by the hadith of Jabir, attributed to the Prophet: “Whoever eats from this foul-smelling plant”—in one narration: “onion, garlic, and leek”—“must not come near our mosque, for the angels are offended by that which offends human beings.” Another narration has: “the sons of Adam.” Muslim and others narrated it, and it has likewise been documented in the source cited above (547).