of Allah, peace be upon him, said: “…” and he mentioned it.

She said, “I did not hear him order that it be killed.”

It was narrated by al-Bukhārī (1831 and 3306), Muslim (7/42), al-Nasāʾī (2/63), Ibn Mājah (3230), Ibn Ḥibbān (3952), al-Bayhaqī (5/210–211), and Aḥmad (6/87, 271, and 279). Ibn Ḥibbān said:

“This is singular!”

I say: I could not see why he considered it singular, for its narrators are veritable mountains in precision of retention—especially since the second hadith corroborates it:

2—As for the hadith of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd (5262), Ibn Ḥibbān (5606), and Aḥmad (1/176) narrated it, likewise through al-Zuhrī, from ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, from his father, attributed to the Prophet.

Moreover, it is clear that ʿĀʾishah’s statement, “I did not hear him order that it be killed,” does not preclude someone else having heard this from him, peace be upon him. Hence the saying: the knowledge of one who knows is evidence against one who does not know. Saʿd knew what she did not know. It is also established from Umm Shurayk that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, ordered the killing of geckos, as recorded by al-Bukhārī and others; its tracing has already been given under no. 1581. I also cited there a report from ʿĀʾishah herself that she used to kill geckos. If that is authentic, then she must have adopted the hadith of someone else who had heard this from the Prophet, peace be upon him.

Note: ʿĀʾishah’s statement cited above does not occur in Ibn Ḥibbān’s version of the hadith. The annotator of it (9/277) overlooked this and attributed it only to al-Bukhārī.