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A ruling that rests upon physical resemblance is only acted upon when no stronger proof—such as the marital bed—exists.
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Scholars of the Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Ḥanbalī schools hold that the Prophet ﷺ instructed his wife Sawdah to veil herself from the boy purely as a precaution and out of pious scrupulousness, since he observed a marked resemblance between the child and ʿUtbah ibn Abī Waqqāṣ.
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Unlawful intercourse produces the same in-law impediments (ḥurma al-muṣāharah) as lawful intercourse. The proof is that Sawdah was ordered to veil herself, showing that ʿUtbah’s act of fornication carried the same legal effect as intercourse within marriage. This is the position of the Ḥanafī and Ḥanbalī schools. The Mālikīs and Shāfiʿīs disagree, maintaining that fornication has no such consequence because it has no legal respectability.
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A judge’s verdict does not alter the inner reality of a matter. If the successful litigant knows he is in the wrong, what he receives remains forbidden to him, and the judge’s ruling does not render it permissible. Shaykh al-Islām [Ibn Taymiyyah] said: “Whoever has intercourse with a woman believing it to be a valid marriage, lineage is ascribed to him and the in-law prohibitions apply—by consensus of the scholars, to the best of my knowledge—even though that marriage is void before Allah and His Messenger. The same ruling applies to every act of intercourse a person thinks lawful while it is in fact unlawful.”
The Second Ḥadīth
Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrated: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came in to me delighted, the lines of his face gleaming with joy, and said, ‘Have you not seen that Mujazziz just looked at Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and Usāmah ibn Zayd and declared, “Some of these feet belong to the others”?’” In another wording: “Mujazziz was a qāʾif (professional physiognomist).”
Lexical Notes
• tabruq – with ḍamma on the rāʾ – means “to shine” or “to gleam.”
• asāsīr wajhihi (the lines of his face) – asāsīr is the plural of asrār, itself the plural of sarar; originally the creases inside the palm, here referring to the lines on the forehead.
• Mujazziz – with ḍamma on the mīm, fatḥa on the jīm, and kasra on the first zāʾ – is an active-participle form. He belonged to Banū Mudlij, a clan noted for qiyāfah (physiognomy), though the expertise is not confined to them.
• ānifan – “just now,” “a moment ago.”
• qāʾif – one skilled at tracing lineage through resemblance and at reading footprints; plural qāfah.
Overall Meaning
Zayd ibn Ḥārithah was light-skinned while his son Usāmah was dark-skinned. Because of this contrast, some people cast doubts on the paternity of Usāmah and spoke in ways that pained the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.