Eleven women once sat together and pledged to one another that they would hide nothing about their husbands.The first said, "My husband is the meat of a scrawny camel set on the peak of a rugged mountain, not easy ground that can be climbed, and not fat enough to be worth carrying away."The second said, "My husband, I will not speak of him, for I fear that once I begin I will not stop. If I mention him I will have to mention all his faults, the hidden ones and the plain."The third said, "My husband is the tall lout. If I speak I am divorced, and if I keep silent I am left hanging."The fourth said, "My husband is like a night in Tihamah, neither hot nor cold, nothing to fear and nothing to weary of."The fifth said, "My husband, when he comes in he is a leopard, and when he goes out he is a lion, and he never asks about what he has left behind."The sixth said, "My husband, when he eats he sweeps the dish clean, when he drinks he drains the cup, and when he lies down he rolls himself up alone, and he never stretches out a hand to learn what grief I carry."The seventh said, "My husband is a dull, impotent oaf. Every disease that exists is his disease. He will split your head, or break your bones, or do both to you at once."The eighth said, "My husband, his scent is the scent of sweet marjoram, and his touch is the touch of a rabbit."The ninth said, "My husband, his tent poles stand high, his sword belt hangs long, his hearth ashes are heaped up, and his house stands close to the meeting place."The tenth said, "My husband is Malik, and what a man Malik is! Malik is better than anything I could say of him. He has camels that spend most of their time kneeling at home and little of it out at pasture. Whenever they hear the sound of the lute they know for certain that they are as good as slaughtered."The eleventh said, "My husband is Abu Zar, and what a man Abu Zar is! He hung my ears heavy with jewels, he filled my arms with flesh, and he made me so happy that I was delighted with myself. He found me with a family who owned a few sheep in a narrow mountain valley, and he set me among a people of neighing horses, groaning camels, threshing floors and winnowed grain. In his house I speak and am never insulted, I lie down and sleep until morning, and I drink until I have had my fill.Umm Abu Zar, and what a woman Umm Abu Zar is! Her storage bags are full to bursting, and her house is roomy and wide.Ibn Abu Zar, and what a young man Ibn Abu Zar is! His sleeping place is as narrow as a sword drawn from its sheath, and the foreleg of a young kid is enough to fill him.Bint Abu Zar, and what a girl Bint Abu Zar is! She is obedient to her father, obedient to her mother, she fills out her garment, and she is the envy of her rival.Jariya of Abu Zar, and what a servant Jariya of Abu Zar is! She never spreads our private talk about, she never carries off our stores, and she never lets our house fill up with filth."She went on, "Abu Zar went out one day while the milk skins were being churned, and he met a woman with two children of her own, like two leopard cubs, playing beneath her waist with two pomegranates. So he divorced me and married her.Afterward I married a noble man who rode a swift horse and carried a Khatti spear. He drove home a great herd of livestock for me and gave me a pair of every kind of grazing beast, and he said, 'Eat your fill, Umm Zar, and send provisions to your family.'Yet if I gathered together everything he ever gave me, it would not fill the smallest vessel of Abu Zar."Ayesha said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to her, "I have been to you as Abu Zar was to Umm Zar."One narration has "an impotent oaf, clumsy" without any hesitation over the wording, and it has "little of it out at pasture," and it has "her cloak is empty of her," and "the best of her women," and "the ruin of her rival," and it has "she never carries off our stores at all," and it has "he gave me a pair of every animal fit for slaughter."
و حدثنيه الحسن بن علي الحلواني حدثنا موسى بن إسمعيل حدثنا سعيد بن سلمة عن هشام بن عروة بهذا الإسناد غير أنه قال عياياء طباقاء ولم يشك وقال قليلات المسارح وقال وصفر ردائها وخير نسائها وعقر جارتها وقال ولا تنقث ميرتنا تنقيثا وقال وأعطاني من كل ذابحة زوجا