al-Ṣanʿānī al-Miṣṣīṣī, who was truthful but made many mistakes, as stated in al-Taqrīb. Perhaps al-Bazzār narrated it through a route other than his; otherwise, how could Ibn al-Qaṭṭān have authenticated it if it came through his route? (1)

Moreover, he was not alone in narrating it, although its chain has been narrated differently. Imam Ahmad (6/377) said: “[Abu] al-Mughīrah informed us”—the word within brackets is omitted from the Musnad—“al-Awzāʿī informed us: Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah al-Anṣārī informed me, from his grandmother Umm Sulaym, who said: Umm Salamah, the Prophet’s wife, peace and blessings be upon him, was her neighbor, and she used to visit her. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, entered, and Umm Sulaym said: ‘Messenger of Allah, what do you think if a woman sees in a dream that her husband is having intercourse with her: must she perform the ritual bath?’ Umm Salamah said: ‘May your hands be dusted with earth, Umm Sulaym! You have exposed the women before the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.’ Umm Sulaym said: ‘Allah is not ashamed of the truth, and it is better for us to ask the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, about what confuses us than to remain blindly ignorant of it.’

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, then said to Umm Salamah: ‘Rather, may your hands be dusted with earth! Yes, Umm Sulaym: she must perform the ritual bath if she finds the fluid.’ Umm Salamah said: ‘Messenger of Allah, do women have fluid?’ The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘How else would her child resemble her? Women are the counterparts of men.’

The narrators of this chain are all trustworthy and are among the narrators of the six canonical collections. However, al-Haythamī deemed it defective because of a discontinuity in the chain, saying (1/268): “Isḥāq did not hear from Umm Sulaym.” But the first narration indicates that Isḥāq received it from Anas, who received it from his mother Umm Sulaym. Muslim (1/171) and others also narrated it from ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, who said: Isḥāq ibn Ṭalḥah said: “Anas ibn Mālik informed me: Umm Sulaym came…”—the hadith, omitting