2 of 2 · 5–6 AH · after the expedition of al-Muraysi' · Madinah
Hassan ibn Thabit رضي الله عنه
The Slander and the Forgiveness
On the return from the expedition of al-Muraysi', a false rumour spread against the Prophet ﷺ's wife 'A'ishah, spread by hypocrites and repeated by a few believers who did not stop to think. After a month of anguish, Allah revealed her innocence in the opening verses of Surah al-Nur, and the Qur'an warned those who had spread it.
Some reports say Hassan was among those who repeated it and that he was punished, and the words of the Qur'an about "the one who took the greater share" are applied by some scholars to the leader of the hypocrites, 'Abdullah ibn Ubayy, and not to him. The reports about Hassan's part are not all of one strength, and Muslims have been careful not to condemn him beyond what is established.
'A'ishah herself set the example. When someone spoke ill of Hassan in her presence, she told him not to, for Hassan used to defend the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. She received him in her home, and when he later recited verses praising her purity, she was not bitter.
A person's earlier service to the faith is not erased by one slip, and forgiveness can be a form of justice.
Whom could you judge by his best deeds instead of his worst mistake?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 4141 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 2487 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Qur'an 24:11-20
- Ibn Hajar, Fath al-BariHistorical report
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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