2 of 2 · 8–11 AH · 629–632 CE · Her room, Madinah
Maymunah bint al-Harith رضي الله عنها
A House of Learning
Maymunah's nephew, the young 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas, was hungry to learn everything the Prophet ﷺ did. One night when it was his aunt's turn, he slept in her house, lying across the width of the cushion while the Prophet ﷺ and Maymunah lay along its length. He watched as the Prophet ﷺ woke in the night, recited the closing verses of Surah Al 'Imran, made wudu' from a hanging waterskin and stood to pray. Ibn 'Abbas got up, did the same and stood at his left; the Prophet ﷺ took him by the ear and moved him round to his right (Sahih al-Bukhari 183; Sahih Muslim 763).
Her home was a place where the boy who would become "the scholar of the ummah" could learn the Prophet's ﷺ worship at first hand, and she made room for it. She herself narrated detailed descriptions of how the Prophet ﷺ performed the ritual bath, which became one of the main sources for how Muslims perform ghusl to this day (Sahih al-Bukhari 249).
Maymunah's home was open to learning; the most private moments of the Prophet's ﷺ worship reached us because she and her family preserved them.
Is your home a place where someone younger could learn their faith by watching?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 183 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 763 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih al-Bukhari 249 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Qur'an 3:190-200
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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