al-Kalam ala Hadith Imraati la taruddu yad lamas li Ibn Hajar
- Author died
- 852 AH
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- al-Kalam ala Hadith Imraati la taruddu yad lamas li Ibn Hajar
al-Kalam ala Hadith Imra'ati la Taruddu Yada Lamis (Discourse on the Hadith: "My Wife Does Not Repel the Hand of One Who Touches") is a specialized hadith treatise by the Shafi'i scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (773–852 AH / 1372–1449 CE) examining the authenticity, transmission chains, and legal interpretations of the titular narration .
Background and Purpose
The work was composed as an expansive response to an inquiry regarding the narration in which a man approaches the Prophet ﷺ saying: إن امرأتي لا ترد يد لامس ("My wife does not repel the hand of one who touches [her]") . The questioner asked about the hadith's grading, compilers, textual variants, semantic meaning, previous scholarly commentary, the identities of the man and woman involved, and the implications of the husband's inability to separate from her . Ibn Hajar classifies the hadith as hasan sahih (fair and authentic) and rejects the verdict of those who deemed it fabricated (mawdu'), noting that the identities of the husband and wife are not preserved in any of its transmission paths .
Textual Variants and Interpretations
Ibn Hajar details the primary transmissions and texts of the hadith:
- The route from Ibn Abbas recorded by Abu Dawud and al-Nasa'i in their Sunan and al-Bazzar in his Musnad, containing the Prophet's instruction: غربها ("Send her away"), to which the man replied: أخاف أن تتبعها نفسي ("I fear my soul will follow her"), leading the Prophet ﷺ to say: فاستمتع بها ("Then enjoy [or keep] her") .
- Alternate wordings in al-Nasa'i where the Prophet ﷺ says: طلقها ("Divorce her"), the man responds: إني لا أصبر عنها ("I cannot bear being without her"), and the Prophet ﷺ instructs: فأمسكها ("Then retain her") .
- The narration from Jabir ibn Abd Allah transmitted by Abu Bakr al-Khallal in al-Ilal, al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam, and al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan, with the phrase فارقها ("Separate from her") .
Addressing the meaning of the phrase "does not repel the hand of one who touches," Ibn Hajar summarizes the two main scholarly interpretations:
- A metaphor for unchastity or loose conduct (fujur / rayba): Held by Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, Ibn al-A'rabi, and al-Khattabi in Ma'alim al-Sunan, who interpreted it as her being compliant toward anyone who approaches her, using the hadith as evidence for the permissibility of remaining married to an unchaste woman despite divorce being preferable . Ibn Hajar cites al-Rafi'i in al-Sharh al-Kabir and al-Qadi Abu al-Tayyib al-Tabari as sharing this view . He also records the nuances offered by al-Dhahabi (that she enjoyed being touched without reaching major adultery) and Ibn Kathir (that the husband suspected or noticed indications of impropriety without definite proof, prompting a precautionary recommendation to divorce that was relaxed when the husband stated his deep attachment, weighing a certain love against a conjectural offense) .
- Excessive charity and squandering money (tabdhir): Attributed to Ahmad ibn Hanbal and al-Asma'i, interpreting the phrase as not turning away any beggar seeking food or money . Ibn Hajar includes al-Qadi Abu al-Tayyib's critique of this view: linguistically, a beggar is a multamis (seeker) rather than a lamis (toucher), and charity is a recommended act that would not warrant a command to divorce .
Isnad Analysis and Critique of Ibn al-Jawzi
Ibn Hajar conducts an evaluation of the narrators in the chain of Ibn Abbas (Husayn ibn Hurayth, al-Fadl ibn Musa, al-Husayn ibn Waqid, 'Umara ibn Abi Hafsa, and 'Ikrima), evaluating each narrator against the standards of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim . He addresses remarks by al-Daraqutni, al-Mundhiri, and Ibn Tahir al-Qaysarani concerning the solitary transmission (tafarrud) of certain narrators, as well as the alternate connected and mursal variants cited by al-Nasa'i and Diya al-Din al-Maqdisi .
He concludes that when the various independent lines from Ibn Abbas are correlated with the corroborating narration of Jabir ibn Abd Allah, the suspicion of isolated narration is eliminated and the basis (asl) of the hadith is confirmed . On this basis, Ibn Hajar critiques Ibn al-Jawzi for declaring the hadith fabricated in al-Mawdu'at, attributing this error to Ibn al-Jawzi's limited source examination (qillat ittila') and reliance on Ahmad ibn Hanbal's dismissal of a single specific chain via Abu al-Zubayr without examining all extant routes .
Transmission and Manuscript
The manuscript of the treatise was copied directly from Ibn Hajar's autograph by his student Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Umar ibn al-Nasibi al-Shafi'i in Cairo at the beginning of 852 AH (1448 CE) .
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