294 — “Whoever has three daughters and is patient with them, feeds them, gives them drink, and clothes them from his means, they will be a shield for him against the Fire on the Day of Resurrection.”

Ibn Mājah recorded it (3669), as did Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (no. 76) and Aḥmad (4/154), through Ḥarmalah ibn ʿImrān, who said: I heard Abū ʿUshshānah al-Maʿāfirī say: I heard ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir say: I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, say—and he then cited the hadith.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of Muslim, apart from Abū ʿUshshānah—the initial ʿayn being vocalized with a ḍammah and the shīn doubled. His name was Ḥayy ibn Yuʾmin—the yāʾ bearing a ḍammah and the wāw a sukūn—an Egyptian narrator who was trustworthy and widely known by his appellation.

Al-Būṣīrī said in al-Zawāʾid (1/221):

“Its chain of transmission is authentic. Aḥmad and Abū Yaʿlā also transmitted it in their respective Musnads. It has a corroborating report from the hadith of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, transmitted by Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī.”

I say: This corroborating report is weak because of its unknown narrator and inconsistency. Abū Dāwūd recorded it (5147) through Khālid; Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (79) through ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad; and Aḥmad (3/42) through Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā. All of them narrated from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from Saʿīd al-Aʿshā—who was Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mukammil al-Zuhrī—from Ayyūb ibn Bashīr al-Anṣārī, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, in a report attributed to the Prophet:

“Whoever supports three daughters, teaches them good conduct, marries them off, and treats them well, shall have Paradise.”

Aḥmad’s wording is:

“No one has three daughters, or three sisters, or two daughters, or two sisters, and then fears Allah