The wife of Uthman bin Mazun used to dye her hands with henna and wear perfume, but she had stopped doing so. She came in to visit me, and I asked her, "Is your husband present or away?"She replied, "Present, but as though he were away."I asked her, "What is the matter with you?"She said, "Uthman has no desire for the world, nor any desire for women."Ayesha said, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ then came in to see me, and I told him about this. He went and met Uthman and said, "Uthman, do you believe in what we believe?"He answered, "Yes, Messenger of Allah."The Prophet said, "Then do as we do."
كانت امرأة عثمان بن مظعون تختضب وتطيب، فتركته، فدخلت علي، فقلت لها: أمشهد أم مغيب؟ فقالت: مشهد كمغيب. قلت لها مالك؟ قالت: عثمان لا يريد الدنيا، ولا يريد النساء. قالت عائشة: فدخل على رسول الله ﷺ فأخبرته بذلك. فلقي عثمان فقال: يا عثمان! أتؤمن بما نؤمن به؟ قال: نعم يا رسول الله قال: فاصنع كما نصنع.
Imam Ahmad (24754) narrated it from Muammal, who said, Hammad narrated to us, Ishaq bin Suwayd narrated to us, from Abu Fakhita, from Ayesha, and she related it. This Muammal is Ibn Ismail, who has weak memory, but he has been corroborated. Abu Naeem narrated it in al-Hilya (6/257) through another route, from Hisham bin Abdul-Malik, who said, Hammad bin Salama narrated to us, from Ishaq bin Suwayd, who said, Abu Fakhita narrated to me, from Ayesha, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Uthman bin Mazun, and he related something similar. Its chain is hasan because of Abu Fakhita, who is Saeed bin Alaqa al-Kufi, for he has hasan hadith, even though Ibn Hajar called him "trustworthy" based on Daraqutni's assessment of his reliability. The wording I have presented was mentioned by Ahmad (24753), who referred back to it, except that it contains "so take us as an example." The hadith has other routes which I mentioned in the chapter on night prayer.As for what was narrated from Abu Dharr, who said, a man called Ikaf bin Bishr al-Tamimi came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ said to him, "Ikaf, do you have a wife?" He said, No. He said, "Or a slave girl?" He said, Nor a slave girl. He said, "And you are well off?" He said, And I am well off. He said, "Then you are one of the brothers of the devils. If you were among the Christians you would be one of their monks. Our practice is marriage. The worst among you are your unmarried men, and the most contemptible of your dead are your unmarried men. Are you going to wrestle with the devil? The devil has no weapon more effective against righteous men than women, except for those who are married, for they are purified and free of indecency. Woe to you, Ikaf, they are the companions of Ayub, Dawud, Yusuf, and Kursuf." Bishr bin Atiya said to him, Who is Kursuf, Messenger of Allah? He said, "A man who worshipped Allah on the shore of one of the seas for three hundred years, fasting by day and praying by night. Then he disbelieved in Allah the Almighty because of a woman he fell in love with, and he abandoned the worship of Allah he had been devoted to. Then Allah made up for some of what had happened to him and accepted his repentance. Woe to you, Ikaf, get married, or else you will be among the wavering ones." He said, Marry me off, Messenger of Allah. He said, "I have married you to Kareema bint Kulthum al-Himyari."This is daif. Abdul-Razzaq (10387) narrated it, saying, Muhammad bin Rashid narrated to us, from Makhul, from a man, from Abu Dharr, and he related it. Imam Ahmad (21450) narrated it through this same route, and it contains an unnamed man. It has another chain, which is what Aqeeli narrated in al-Duafa (3/356), and Abu Yaala (6856), and Tabarani in al-Kabir (18/85, no. 158), and Ibn Hibban in al-Majruhin (1022), all of them through routes from Muawiya bin Yahya, from Sulayman bin Musa, from Makhul, from Ghudayf bin Harith, from Atiya bin Busr al-Mazini, who said, Ikaf bin Wadaa came, and he related the hadith. Atiya bin Busr is not corroborated in this, as Aqeeli said. Ibn Hibban said, Muawiya bin Yahya, who is al-Sadafi, has very unreliable hadith, he used to buy books and narrate from them. Ibn Hajar said in al-Isaba (2/496), in the biography of Ikaf bin Wadaa, after presenting other routes for the hadith, "The routes mentioned are not free of weakness and inconsistency."