Hadith 2
Fatimah bint Qays reported that Abu ʿAmr ibn Ḥafs divorced her irrevocably while he was away. In another version: he pronounced three divorces, then sent his agent to her with some barley. She felt the amount was paltry and showed her displeasure, whereupon he swore, “By Allah, you have no claim on us for anything.”
She went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and told him what had happened. He said, “You are not entitled to maintenance,” and in another wording, “nor to lodging.”
He then told her to complete her waiting period in the house of Umm Sharik, but added, “That woman is visited frequently by my Companions, so observe your waiting period with Ibn Umm Maktūm. He is a blind man; you may lay aside your garments in his presence. When your ʿiddah is over, inform me.”
She said, “When my waiting period ended, I told him that Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān and Abū Jahm had both proposed to me.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “As for Abū Jahm, he never puts his staff down from his shoulder; and as for Muʿāwiyah, he is a pauper with no wealth. Marry Usāmah ibn Zayd.” She disliked the idea.
He repeated, “Marry Usāmah ibn Zayd,” so she married him, and Allah placed goodness in the union and I became pleased with him. (1)
Unfamiliar terms
• al-batta: from batta, “to sever.” In legal usage it refers to an irrevocable divorce in which the husband has no right of return.
• fasakhaṭahu: sakhaṭ (displeasure) is the opposite of riḍā (contentment). Here it means she deemed the maintenance insufficient and resented it.
• Umm Sharik: one of the distinguished women among the Companions, spelled with an open shīn, a kasra on the rāʾ, followed by yāʾ then kāf.
• yaghshāhā aṣḥābī: “my Companions visit her often,” i.e., they come to her house frequently because of her piety and virtue.
• fa-ādhinīnī: with a lengthened hamzah, meaning “let me know.”
• fa-lā yaḍaʿ ʿaṣāhu ʿan ʿātiqih: the ʿātiq is the area between the neck and the shoulder, where a staff is carried. The expression is a metaphor for Abū Jahm’s harshness toward women and his frequent beating of them, as clarified in two reports of Muslim:
- “Abū Jahm is a man who beats women.”
- “Abū Jahm is hard on women.”
“Jahm” is spelled with an open jīm and a silent hāʾ.
• faṣaʿlūk: from ṣaʿlaka, meaning poverty; a ṣaʿlūk is a poor man.
• inkihi Usāmah: with a kasra on the initial hamzah, as noted by al-Muṭarrizī.