She said to Abdullah bin Masud, "You and your children have kept me so occupied that I cannot give anything in charity along with you."Abdullah replied, "By Allah, I would not want you to do so if there is no reward in it for you."So she went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "Messenger of Allah, I am a woman with a craft from which I earn and sell, and neither I, nor my children, nor my husband have any source of provision besides it. They have kept me so occupied that I cannot give anything in charity. Will I have any reward for what I spend on them?"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to her, "Spend on them, for you will have the reward of whatever you spend on them."
فقلت لعبد الله بن مسعود: لقد شغلتني أنت وولدك عن الصدقة فما أستطيع أن أتصدق معكم بشيء! فقال لها عبد الله: والله ما أحب إن لم يكن في ذلك أجر أن تفعلي. فأتت رسول الله ﷺ فقالت: يا رسول الله، إني امرأة ذات صنعة أبيع منها وليس لي ولا لولدي ولا لزوجي نفقة غيرها، وقد شغلوني عن الصدقة فما أستطيع أن أتصدق بشيء فهل لي من أجر فيما أنفقت؟ قال: فقال لها رسول الله ﷺ: أنفقي عليهم فإن لك في ذلك أجر ما أنفقت عليهم.
Imam Ahmad narrated it (16086) from Yaqub, who said, my father told us, from Ibn Ishaq, who said, Hisham bin Urwa told me, from his father, from Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utba, from Raita, and he mentioned it. He also narrated it (16085) through another route, as did Tabarani in Al-Kabir (24/263), both from the hadith of Sulayman bin Dawud Hashimi, who said, Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Zinad told us, from his father, from Urwa bin Zubayr, from Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utba, with it, in abridged form.Ibn Hibban graded it sahih (4247) through the route of Hisham bin Urwa, from his father, with his chain, in similar fashion. Muhammad bin Ishaq, although he was a mudallis, explicitly stated that he heard it directly, and he was also corroborated by another narrator. Haythami pointed to this in Al-Majmu (3/108).Raita is the daughter of Abdullah bin Muawiya Thaqafiyya. It has been said that she is Zaynab, the wife of Ibn Masud herself, and that Raita was her nickname. It has also been said that they are in fact two different women, and that she was another wife of Ibn Masud. It has also been said that she is a different woman altogether, not a wife of Ibn Masud, but that her story resembles that of Zaynab. This last opinion is the weaker one, because the hadith states that she was the wife of Abdullah.