It has reached me that whenever the Prophet ﷺ went into prostration, the whiteness of his armpits could be seen. Reported by Ahmad (1/364). The chain is sound; its transmitters are those found in the six canonical collections. There is a parallel report from Ahmar, and it will be cited on p. 753. Benefit: The narration does not—contrary to what has been claimed—prove that the Prophet ﷺ was not wearing a shirt. Even with a shirt on, the edges of his armpits could appear because the sleeves of the shirts of that period were short, allowing the armpit to be seen from the sleeve opening. Nor does it show that there was no hair under his armpits, for the point may be that only the outer edge of the armpit was visible, not its inner part where the hair grows, which would not normally be seen without effort. And if it is established that one of his unique qualities was the absence of under-arm hair, then there is no difficulty. See Subul al-Salam (1/257). (1) All extant copies read it with an open bāʾ: al-bahmah. Lexicographers state that al-bahmah is the singular of al-bahm, the newborn of sheep (male or female); its plural is bahām with a kasrah on the bāʾ. Al-Hakim, al-Bayhaqi, and likewise al-Tabarani in his Muʿjam—as cited in Nasb al-Raya (1/387)—have the diminutive form buhaymah with a dammah; al-Zaylaʿi judged this the correct reading and considered the form with an open bāʾ erroneous. (2) This is part of the hadith of Maymunah bint al-Harith, the Prophet’s wife: “When the Prophet prostrated, he distanced his hands until …” Reported by Muslim (2/53-54), Abu Dawud (1/143), and al-Nasaʾi (1/166-167).