293 — “I am older than you. As for your dependants, they are the responsibility of Allah and His Messenger; and as for jealousy, I hope that Allah will remove it.”

Abu Yaʿlā recorded it in his Musnad (198/1): ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Azdī narrated to us; ʿAjlān ibn ʿAbd Allāh, of the Banū ʿAdī, narrated to me from Mālik ibn Dīnār, from Anas, who said: When death approached Abū Salama, Umm Salama said, “To whom are you leaving me?” He replied, “O Allah, You are better for Umm Salama than Abū Salama.” When he died, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ proposed to her. She said, “I am advanced in age.” He replied with the words just quoted, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married her. He sent her a pair of millstones and a water jar.

I say: This is a sound chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and known, apart from this ʿAjlān. Ibn Ḥibbān included him among the trustworthy narrators (2/234), and Ibn Abī Ḥātim said (3/2/19), quoting Abū Zurʿa: “He was from Basra and is acceptable.”