and he is the second of the two, and one of the Muslim community’s venerable elders. Beware lest he turn and see you supporting me against him, whereupon he becomes angry; then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, will come and become angry on account of his anger, and Allah will become angry on account of their anger, and Rabīʿah will perish.” They asked, “Then what do you command us to do?” He replied, “Go back.”

So Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—set out for the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and I followed him alone, continuing after him until he came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and related the incident to him exactly as it had occurred. He raised his head toward me and said, “O Rabīʿah, what is there between you and al-Ṣiddīq?” I said, “O Messenger of Allah, such-and-such happened, and he said to me something that I disliked. Then he told me, ‘Say to me what I said to you, so that it may be requital.’” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, then said: [and he mentioned it]. Abū Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—then turned away weeping.

I say: This chain of transmission is authentic; its narrators are trustworthy. The only concern is Ibn Fuḍālah’s ambiguous use of “from,” but he explicitly stated that he heard the narration. For this reason, a group of scholars deemed him trustworthy. Abū Zurʿah said: “When he says, ‘He narrated to us,’ he is trustworthy.” *

3259—(“One suckling or two sucklings do not establish a prohibitive foster relationship.”)

Isḥāq ibn Rāhūyah narrated it in his Musnad (4/13/2), and through his route and other routes, Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ (4/166–167), from al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān, from Ayyūb, who narrated from Abū al-Khalīl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, from Umm al-Faḍl, who said:

A Bedouin entered upon the Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, while he was in my house, and said, “O Prophet of Allah, I had a wife, then I married another woman in addition to her. My first wife claims that she breastfed my newer wife once or twice.” The Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, then said: [and he mentioned it].

Ibn al-Athīr said: