Its narrators are reliable, except for Nusay; no one rated him trustworthy save Ibn Ḥibbān (5/482).

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar remarks in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb: “Unknown.”

I say: Even so, the meaning conveyed is unanimously accepted by the leading exegetes—such as Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Kathīr, al-Shawkānī, and others who confine themselves to transmitted interpretation and pay no heed to the speculative opinions of later scholars.

Once this is understood, realise how dangerous is the practice—so widespread among many affluent Muslims today—of employing non-Muslim women in their homes. It is scarcely possible that both spouses, or at least one of them, will not fall into temptation and violate the Sacred Law.

As for the husband, the danger is obvious: he may commit fornication with the maid, especially given that, being unbelievers, such women possess no religious sense of what is lawful or unlawful, as the Qur’an affirms regarding the People of the Book. How much greater, then, is the risk with outright polytheists—such as many Sri Lankan domestics—who have no revealed scripture at all!

With respect to the wife, it is exceedingly difficult for most Muslim women today—whether wives or adult daughters—to observe proper ḥijāb before these maids as they do before men, save those whom Allah protects, and they are but few.

And even if we were to assume that both spouses remained safe from temptation, their children would still be exposed to the morals and customs of these maids—habits that run counter to our Sharīʿah. Indeed, some of them may deliberately seek to corrupt the children’s upbringing and sow doubts about their religion, as we have heard in certain cases.