2 of 2 · The Madinan years · Madinah
Umamah bint Abi al-'As رضي الله عنها
"Wear This, My Little Daughter"
'A'ishah reported that the Negus of Abyssinia sent the Prophet ﷺ some jewellery as a gift, and among it was a gold ring set with an Abyssinian stone. The Prophet ﷺ picked it up with a stick, or with the tip of a finger, turning away from it.
Then he called Umamah, the daughter of his daughter Zaynab, and said: "Wear this, my little daughter" (Sunan Abi Dawud 4235; Sunan Ibn Majah 3644). What he would not wear himself, he gave with tenderness to a small girl of his family.
The Prophet ﷺ turned away from gold for himself, yet took joy in giving it to a child he loved.
What could you give away today that would bring more joy in someone else's hands than in yours?
- Sunan Abi Dawud 4235 Graded by Al-Albani: Hasan Isnaad · Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul Hamid: Hasan Isnaad · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad HasanHasan
- Sunan Ibn Majah 3644 Graded by Al-Albani: Hasan · Muhammad Fouad Abd al-Baqi: Hasan · Shuaib Al Arnaut: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad HasanHasan
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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