She replied, “From the bathhouse.” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, then mentioned it.

I say: This is a sound chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators, though some of them have been criticized in a manner that does not impair it. I have cited it briefly in Ādāb al-Zifāf (p. 140), Ghāyat al-Marām (pp. 136–137), and al-Taʿlīq al-Raghīb (1/90/8). Al-Mundhirī said concerning it:

“Ahmad and al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Kabīr through chains whose narrators are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ!”

That is what he said! Yet it contains an omission, as may be seen from al-Haythamī’s statement in al-Majmaʿ (1/277):

“...and the narrators of one of them are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ.”

Moreover, their statement, “through chains,” is mistaken; the correct wording is, “through two chains,” for the two of them have only one other chain for it: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lahīʿah narrated it from Zabbān ibn Fāʾid, from Sahl ibn Muʿādh, from his father, who heard Umm al-Dardāʾ say:

“One day I left the bathhouse, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, met me and said:

‘Where have you come from, O Umm al-Dardāʾ?’

She replied, ‘From the bathhouse.’ He said:

‘By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, no woman removes her clothes anywhere other than in the home of one of her mothers without tearing every covering between herself and the Most Merciful.’”

It was recorded by Ahmad (6/361–362) and al-Ṭabarānī (24/252–253/645).

Rishdīn ibn Saʿd also narrated it from Zabbān ibn Fāʾid through the same chain. Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it (646).