This hadith was also narrated to me by Abu al-Tahir: Ibn Wahb reported; from Bakr ibn Mudar; from Ibn al-Had, with this transmission: the same.
وَحَدَّثَنِيهِ أَبُـو الطَّـاهِرِ، أَخْـبَرَنَا ابْنُ وَهْبٍ، عَنْ بَكْـرِ بْنِ مُضَـرَ، عَنِ ابْـنِ الْـهَـادِ، بِهَذَا الإِسْـنَادِ مِثْلَهُ.
[000–000]. (Dar al-Salam 0143) Al-Hasan ibn [Ali al-Hulwani and Abu Bakr ibn Ishaq narrated to me:i they said: Ibn Abi Maryam narrated; Muhammad ibn Ja[far reported; Zayd ibn Aslam reported to me; from [Iyad ibn [Abdullah; from Abu Sa[id al-Khudri; from the Prophet (peace be upon him) [H]. Also Yahya ibn Ayyub, Qutaybah and Ibn Hujr narrated: Isma[il (who is Ibn Ja[far) narrated; from [Amr ibn Abi [Amr, from al-Maqburi; from Abu Hurayrah, from the Prophet (peace be upon him): The same meaning as the hadith narrated by Ibn [Umar from the Prophet (peace be upon him).17
وَحَدَّثَنِي الْحَسَنُ بْنُ عَلِيٍّ الْحُلْوَانِيُّ، وَأَبُو بَكْرِ بْنُ إِسْحَاقَ قَالاَ حَدَّثَنَا ابْنُ أَبِي مَرْيَمَ، أَخْبَرَنَا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ جَعْفَرٍ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنِي زَيْدُ بْنُ أَسْلَمَ، عَنْ عِيَاضِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللهِ، عَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيِّ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ح وَحَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ أَيُّوبَ، وَقُتَيْبَةُ، وَابْنُ، حُجْرٍ قَالُوا حَدَّثَنَا إِسْمَاعِيلُ، - وَهُوَ ابْنُ جَعْفَرٍ - عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ أَبِي عَمْرٍو، عَنِ الْـمَقْبُرِيِّ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ بِمِثْلِ مَعْنَى حَدِيثِ ابْنِ عُمَرَ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ.
Text Explanation
17. The Prophet tells the women that they need to give in charity because their actions, of much cursing and denial of their mates’ kindness, lead to their punishment. In the sense used in the hadith, a mate is a woman’s husband. As for stopping praying and not fasting during Ramadan, this refers to a woman’s menstruation, when she does not offer these acts of worship.
The hadith includes a number of rulings, such as encouraging people to be charitable and do good deeds and to often pray for God’s forgiveness. It tells us that good deeds erase bad ones, as God says in the Qur’an. The hadith makes clear that denial of one’s spouse’s kindness is a grave sin, because the warning that a sin is punishable in Hell indicates its being grave, as we will soon explain, God willing. It shows that cursing is an abominable act of disobedience to God, but does not rank as a grave sin. The Prophet said: ‘Cursing a believer is like killing him’.
Scholars are agreed that cursing is forbidden. Linguistically speaking, to curse is to cast away or expel, and in Islam it means to cast away and expel someone from God’s mercy. It is not permissible to expel from God’s mercy anyone whose final status is unknown for certain. Therefore, scholars say that it is not permissible to curse anyone by name, whether a Muslim or non-Muslim, or even an animal, unless we know through an authentic text that he died or will die as an unbeliever, such as Abu Jahl or Satan. To curse by description is not forbidden, such as cursing a woman who ties more hair to women’s hair, the woman who seeks to have this done to her, the woman who prints a tattoo on another and the one who has a tattoo on her skin, the person who devours usury and the one who pays it, image makers, perpetrators of injustice, transgressors, unbelievers, the person who changes land borders, the one who affiliates himself to other than his own family, the one who alleges that his father is someone other than his real father, the one who commits a grave sin in Islam, or gives shelter to whoever has done so, and similar descriptions stated in authentic texts, but God knows best.
The hadith uses the word kufr, which normally means ‘disbelief’, in reference to actions other than disbelieving in God, such as denial of a spouse’s kindness, denial of kindness in general, denial of rights or God’s bounty. This means that it is perfectly correct to explain the previous hadiths using this word in the way we explained them. The hadith clearly indicates that faith, or iman, may increase or decrease.
The hadith further teaches that the leader of the Muslim community, governors, chiefs and other people in authority should admonish their subjects and warn them against committing what is forbidden and encourage them to do what God has bidden us. It also shows that it is perfectly in order for a learner or a disciple to question the teacher or the leader about what he has said if he does not understand it, just like this wise woman asked the Prophet. The hadith shows that it is correct to refer to Ramadan without adding the words ‘month of’, even though adding these words is the better choice, but God knows best.
Imam Abu [Abdullah al-Mazari said: ‘The Prophet explains the deficiency of reason by saying that the testimony of two women equals that of one man. The Prophet refers here to the explanation given in the Qur’an, as God says: “so that if either of them should make a mistake, the other will remind her”. This means that women are generally less accurate. People have differed as to the meaning of “reason”, with some of them saying that it is knowledge, or certain necessary disciplines. It is also said to be a faculty that distinguishes information’. This is what al-Mazari said. The different views concerning the nature of reason and its parts is long and sufficiently well known not to need further explanation here.
The Prophet describes women as deficient in religion because they neither pray nor fast when they are in menstruation. This may sound problematic, but it is not. It is clearly apparent. In Islamic contexts, the words religion, faith (iman) and Islam are all interchangeable as we have mentioned more than once. We also stated that acts of worship are also called faith (iman) and religion. When we know this, we realize that whoever offers more of worship increases his faith and religion. By contrast, whoever offers less of worship decreases his faith and religion. Moreover, such decrease may incur a sin, as in the case of one who neglects obligatory prayer or fasting or other duties of worship without valid justification. On the other hand, it may not incur any sin, as in the case of someone who does not attend Friday prayer because it is not obligatory for him for some valid reason. Alternatively, it may be required that a person does not perform such an act of worship, as in the case of a woman in menstruation abstaining from prayer and fasting. It may be asked: since she has a valid reason, does she earn the reward of prayer during her period, even though she does not compensate after her period is over by praying the duties she has missed? The question compares this case to that of a person who is ill or on a journey. He is