“When the verse of hijab was revealed, I went to enter as I had formerly done, but the Prophet said to me: ‘Stay back, my son!’”

Aḥmad recorded it (3/227 and 238), as did Abū Yaʿlā (4276), from whom Ibn al-Sunnī narrated it (317), as well as al-Ṭaḥāwī and Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (3/329). I say: Its chain of transmission is weak. Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from Salm al-ʿAlawī, whom al-Nasāʾī and others deemed weak—not because his honesty was impugned, but because of the paucity of his hadiths. Such paucity does not support a judgment that he is either reliable or weak, as Ibn ʿAdī expressly stated at the end of his biographical notice. He then related, through an authentic chain, that Ibn Maʿīn was asked about him and replied: “Trustworthy.”

I have cited one of his hadiths in al-Ḍaʿīfah (4255). I have only included this hadith of his here in al-Ṣaḥīḥah because it has become clear to me that he preserved it accurately, since it has also come through another route. Abū ʿAwānah narrated from al-Jaʿd Abū ʿUthmān, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of Allah said to me: “My son!” Muslim recorded it (6/177), as did Abū Dāwūd (4964), al-Tirmidhī (2833), Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf (9/83/6608), Ibn Saʿd in al-Ṭabaqāt (7/20), Aḥmad (3/285), and al-Bayhaqī (10/200).

Al-Jaʿd also narrated from Anas the account of the Prophet’s wedding and the revelation of the verse of hijab:

“O you who believe, do not enter the houses of the Prophet unless permission has been granted to you ...”

The verse continues, and at its end is the statement: “Al-Jaʿd said: Anas ibn Mālik said: ‘I was the one most recently acquainted with these verses, and the wives of the Prophet were screened from view.’”