Mirdās—Allah knows best! I asked him, ‘Where did you record from ʿUmayr?’ He replied, ‘When I travelled to Egypt [I recorded] from Ibn Ayyūb’; so perhaps it was as he said.”

I say: This raises no doubt about someone whose meeting with the shaykhs from whom he narrates is beyond question, such as this grandfather of his. Nor does it require that he be deemed weak without qualification. The presumption is that his hadith is to be accepted. This is why al-Dhahabī did not include him in al-Mughnī fī al-Ḍuʿafāʾ wa al-Matrūkīn, although he mentioned him very briefly in al-Mīzān. And Allah knows best.

Even so, he has been corroborated; indeed, perhaps his grandfather al-Faḍl has been corroborated, as previously indicated. It was mentioned earlier that al-Nasāʾī recorded it in al-Kunā. Al-Nasāʾī died in 303 AH, whereas the grandson died in 282 AH, so they were contemporaries. I consider it unlikely that al-Nasāʾī narrated it from him; rather, either he or his shaykh is a corroborating narrator for him. Perhaps al-Nasāʾī narrated it from one of his Egyptian shaykhs, such as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam ibn Aʿyan al-Miṣrī, who narrated from the trustworthy Saʿīd ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī Maryam—namely, Saʿīd Abū Maryam, who is the shaykh of al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad al-Shaʿrānī here. And Allah knows best.

In sum, this investigation leads us to conclude that the chain of transmission of the hadith is strong, and that the early hadith masters who declared it authentic were exceptionally well informed—especially since it has supporting reports that confirm its meaning. Among them is the hadith of Aisha, through Abū al-Malīḥ, who said:

“Some women from the people of Syria came to Aisha, and she asked, ‘Where are you from?’ ...” The hadith is similar, but the wording attributed to the Prophet is:

“No woman removes her clothes anywhere other than her own home without tearing the veil between herself and her Lord.”

It is cited in Ādāb al-Zifāf (p. 141). See also Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wa al-Tarhīb, no. 163, in the new edition published by Maktabat al-Maʿārif.