3172—(Aishah used to scrape semen from the Prophet’s garment while he was praying.)

Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it in his Sahih (1/147/290): Al-Hasan ibn Muhammad narrated to us: Ishaq—that is, al-Azraq—narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Qays narrated to us from Muharib ibn Dithar, from Aishah, that she used to … to the end of the report.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy transmitters found in Sahih Muslim. Muhammad ibn Qays is al-Asadi al-Walibi; Ishaq is Ibn Yusuf al-Wasiti; and al-Hasan ibn Muhammad is Ibn al-Sabbah al-Za‘farani.

Concerning this hadith, al-Hafiz said in al-Talkhis al-Habir (1/32):

“ Ibn Khuzaymah, al-Daraqutni, al-Bayhaqi, and Ibn al-Jawzi narrated it through Muharib ibn Dithar, from Aishah, who said: ‘At times I would scrape it from the garment of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while he was praying.’ This is the wording of al-Daraqutni; Ibn Khuzaymah’s wording is the one just cited. Ibn Hibban also narrated, through al-Aswad ibn Yazid, from Aishah, who said: ‘I recall rubbing semen from the garment of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while he was praying.’”

I say: I have two observations on this documentation:

The first is that attributing it without qualification to al-Daraqutni conventionally means his Sunan, yet the hadith does not occur there with this wording; nor does it occur in al-Bayhaqi’s Sunan.

The other is that I doubt the establishedness of the words “while he was praying” in Ibn Hibban’s narration. For its chain in his work (2/330/1377—al-Ihsan) is: Muhammad ibn Allan informed us at Adhanah; Luwayn narrated to us; Hammad ibn Zayd narrated to us from Hisham al-Dastuwa’i, from Abu Ma‘shar, from Ibrahim, from al-Aswad, from Aishah … with the wording cited by al-Hafiz, except that it says: “while he was praying in it,” adding “in it” at the end.