ʿĀʾishah herself; it is further supported by his ﷺ saying, “Leave what causes you doubt for what does not cause you doubt.” One must realize, however, that the mention of “the elder” is not meant as a fixed limit, but only as an illustration of what is usually true of older men—namely, the weakness of sexual desire. The real criterion is the strength or weakness of one’s desire, or, put differently, the strength or weakness of one’s self-control. On this basis we reconcile the differing reports from ʿĀʾishah, for some of them clearly allow it without restriction—such as this very ḥadīth, which in some narrations is her direct answer to ʿAmr ibn Maymūn’s question, where she said, “And indeed in the Messenger of Allah you have a good example.” Other narrations indicate that it is permissible even for a young man, because she said, “while I was fasting,” and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away when she was eighteen years old. The same meaning appears in what ʿĀʾishah bint Ṭalḥah reported: she was staying with ʿĀʾishah, the Prophet’s wife, when her husband ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq entered while he was fasting. ʿĀʾishah said to him, “What has kept you from approaching your wife so that you might kiss her and play with her?” He asked, “May I kiss her while I am fasting?” She replied, “Yes.” Mālik transmitted this (1/274), and al-Ṭaḥāwī related it from him (1/327) with an authentic chain.

Ibn Ḥazm (6/211) said: “ʿĀʾishah bint Ṭalḥah was the most beautiful woman of her era, and at that time she and her husband were both young, in the prime of youth.”

Such cases are to be understood as situations in which she felt safe for the couple. For that reason, al-Ḥāfiẓ said in