“Soon one of you will deny me while reclining upon his couch …” The hadith continues with similar wording. It was recorded by Aḥmad (4/132). Its chain is good for purposes of corroboration.

The second half is supported by a hadith of Khālid ibn al-Walīd, excluding the clause concerning hospitality. It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (3806) and others. It contains the wording “mules,” which is rejected; for that reason, I included it in al-Ḍaʿīfah (The Weak [Hadiths]) (1149).

2871 — “Allah enjoins you to treat women well; Allah enjoins you to treat women well. For they are your mothers, your daughters, and your maternal aunts. A man from the People of the Book marries a woman, and even if she does not so much as spin a thread, neither of them loses desire for the other [until they die in old age].”

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (The Great Lexicon) (20/374/648) by two routes from Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb, from Sulaymān ibn Sulaym, from Yaḥyā ibn Jābir, from al-Miqdām ibn Maʿdī Karib: the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, stood before the people, praised Allah and extolled Him, then said—and he cited the hadith.

Ibn ʿAsākir likewise narrated it in Tārīkh Dimashq (History of Damascus) (18/45/1–2) through Dāwūd ibn Rashīd: “Muḥammad ibn Ḥarb informed us,” with the same report; the addition is his. He also added immediately afterward: Abū Salamah—that is, Sulaymān ibn Sulaym—said: “I related this hadith to al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Sufyān al-Ghassānī, and he said: ‘I have been informed that among the hidden shameful deeds which Allah has forbidden, whose mention has not been made explicit in the Quran, is that:”