several routes from Hushaym: Abu al-Zubayr informed us, from Jabir, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said … and he mentioned it.

I say: Abu al-Zubayr did not explicitly state that he had heard it in any of their transmissions; he was known to practise tadlis. Nor have I seen it narrated through al-Layth ibn Saʿd from him, either by any of them or by others. Its meaning is, however, supported by what Abd al-Rahman ibn Jubayr narrated—that Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As informed him:

A group of men from Banu Hashim entered upon Asma bint Umays. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq—whose wife she was at that time—then entered, saw them, and disliked it. He mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, saying, “I saw nothing but good.” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, replied:

“Allah has declared her innocent of that.”

Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, stood upon the pulpit and said: “After this day of mine, no man is to enter upon a woman whose husband is absent unless he is accompanied by one or two men.”

It was narrated by Muslim (7/8), al-Nasai in al-Sunan al-Kubra (9217) and in Fadaʾil al-Sahabah (284), Ibn Hibban (5585—the Muassasah edition), al-Bayhaqi (7/90), and Ahmad (2/171, 186, 213). In one version, he added:

“Abd Allah ibn Amr said: Thereafter, I never entered upon a woman whose husband was absent in that capacity unless one or two men were with me.”

Notes:

First: The wording in the hadith under discussion, “a previously married woman,” appears thus in Sahih Muslim, Tarikh Baghdad, and one narration of al-Bayhaqi. In the narration of Abu Yala and Ibn Hibban, it appears as, “a woman in a house.” As for Ibn Abi Shaybah and al-Nasai, they omitted both expressions—“previously married” and “in a house”—and this is also one narration of al-Bayhaqi. Perhaps the preponderant version is that of Muslim, since it agrees with the hadith of Asma bint Umays. And Allah, Most High, knows best.