A Coptic man, a cousin of Mariyah the mother of Ibrahim, used to visit her frequently and come in and out of her home, until people began to gossip about it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me, "Take this sword and go. If you find him with her, kill him."I said, "Messenger of Allah, when you send me on a task, am I to be like a red-hot iron rod that nothing can turn aside until I carry out your command, or does the one present see what the one absent does not?"He replied, "Rather, the one present sees what the one absent does not."So I set out with the sword strapped on me and found him with her. I drew the sword. When he saw me approaching, he realized I meant him harm, so he ran to a palm tree and climbed it, then threw himself down onto his back and spread his legs open. To my surprise, he was castrated and smooth, having nothing at all, neither little nor much. I lowered the sword, then came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and informed him.He said, "Praise be to Allah, who keeps evil away from us, the people of the household."
كثر على مارية أم إبراهيم قبطي ابن عم لها كان يزورها، ويختلف إليها، فقال لي رسول الله ﷺ: خذ هذا السيف فانطلق، فإن وجدته عندها فاقتله قال: قلت: يا رسول الله، أكون في أمرك إذا أرسلتني كالسكة المحماة لا يثنيني شيء حتى أمضي لما أمرتني به، أم الشاهد يرى ما لا يرى الغائب؟ قال: بل الشاهد يرى ما لا يرى الغائب، فأقبلت متوشح السيف، فوجدته عندها، فاخترطت السيف، فلما رآني أقبلت نحوه تخوف أنني أريده، فأتى نخلة فرقى فيها، ثم رمى بنفسه على قفاه، ثم شغر برجله، فإذا به أجب أمسح، ما له قليل ولا كثير، فعمدت السيف، ثم أتيت رسول الله ﷺ وأخبرته، فقال: الحمد لله الذي يصرف عنا أهل البيت.
Bazzar (634), Tahawi in Sharh Maani (4953), Bukhari in Tarikh al-Kabir (1/177, a fragment of it), and Diya in Mukhtarah (735) all narrated it through the route of Yunus bin Bukayr, from Muhammad bin Ishaq, who said, Ibrahim bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Abu Talib told me, from his father, from his grandfather Ali bin Abu Talib, and he related it. Bazzar said, "We do not know of this hadith being narrated from the Prophet ﷺ through any connected route except through this route with this chain." Its chain is hasan because of Muhammad bin Ishaq, for his hadith is hasan, and he explicitly stated that he heard it directly according to Bukhari, and his teacher Ibrahim bin Muhammad is also truthful.There is no contradiction between the two accounts, for the difference in some details of the story stems from detail versus brevity, and if there is some unusual wording in it, that goes back to the narrator. Mariya was the daughter of Shamun, from a Coptic father and a Christian Roman mother. She was born in a village called "Hafn" in Upper Egypt, located on the eastern bank of the Nile. Then, at the beginning of her youth, she moved with her sister Sirin to the palace of Muqawqis, the great ruler of the Copts.Hatib bin Abu Balta came as an envoy from the Prophet ﷺ, carrying his letter to Muqawqis. Muqawqis read the letter with care and reverence, then turned to Hatib to ask him about the Prophet. He knew that the time for the appearance of the final Prophet had drawn near, but he believed that he would emerge from the land of Syria, as prophets had done before him. When he learned that he had instead emerged from the Arabian Peninsula, he feared for his kingdom, for if he accepted his call the Copts would reject him. So he wrote a letter in which he said, "I have honored your envoy, and I have sent you two maidens who hold a great position among the Copts, along with garments and a mount for you to ride."The Prophet ﷺ chose Mariya for himself and gave her sister Sirin to his poet Hassan bin Thabit. He built a house for her far from the masjid. This was in the year seven after the Hijrah, after the Prophet ﷺ had returned from Hudaybiya. He had relations with her as one who owned her by right of possession, and he placed a veil over her. She conceived by him in the year eight and bore him Ibrahim in Dhul-Hijjah of the year eight. She died in Muharram of the year sixteen. Umar led the funeral prayer over her and buried her in Baqi.The Prophet ﷺ had enjoined good treatment of the people of Egypt, as is recorded in the sahih collections.