Zuhri reported,

Yunus and Muamar both reported from Zuhri, who said that Saeed bin Musayab, Urwa bin Zubayr, Alqama bin Waqqas, and Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utba bin Masud related the account of Ayesha, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, concerning what the people of the slander said about her, and how Allah declared her innocent of what they said. Each of them related to me a portion of her account, and some retained her account better than others and were more exact in relating it. I committed to memory from each of them the account he related to me, and their accounts confirm one another.They mentioned that Ayesha, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, said, "Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ intended to set out on a journey, he would draw lots among his wives, and whichever of them her lot fell to, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would take her out with him.He drew lots among us for an expedition he went on, and my lot came out, so I went out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This was after the screen had been sent down. I was carried in my howdah and set down in it while we travelled.When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finished his expedition and turned back, and we drew near to Madinah, he gave the order one night to march. I rose when they announced the march and walked until I had passed beyond the army. When I had finished what I needed, I came back toward the caravan, and I felt at my chest and found that my necklace of Zafar onyx had broken and fallen. So I went back and searched for my necklace, and the search delayed me.The party who used to load for me came, took up my howdah, and fastened it onto the camel I rode, thinking I was inside it. Women in those days were light. They were not heavy and had little flesh on them, for they ate only small amounts of food. So the people thought nothing strange of the weight of the howdah when they lifted and loaded it. I was a young girl at the time.They roused the camel and set off, and I found my necklace after the army had already moved on. I came to their camping place, and there was no one there to call out to and no one to answer. So I made for the place where I had been, thinking that the people would miss me and come back for me.While I was sitting in my place, my eyes overcame me and I slept. Safwan bin Muattal Sulami, of the clan of Dhakwan, had halted behind the army and set out again in the last part of the night, and he reached my place in the morning. He saw the dark shape of a sleeping person and came to me. He recognized me when he saw me, for he used to see me before the screen was prescribed for me. I woke at his saying, we belong to Allah and to Him we return, when he recognized me, and I covered my face with my outer garment.By Allah, he did not speak a single word to me, and I heard no word from him other than that, until he made his camel kneel and pressed on its foreleg so that I mounted it. Then he set off leading the camel with me on it, until we reached the army after they had halted in the fierce heat of midday. Then those who were destroyed by what was said about me were destroyed, and the one who took the greatest part in it was Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul.We came to Madinah, and I fell ill for a month after we came to Madinah. The people were pouring out the words of the people of the slander, and I sensed nothing of it. What troubled me in my illness was that I did not find from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the tenderness I used to see from him when I was ill. He would only come in, greet us, and then ask, 'How is that one of yours?' That is what troubled me, and I sensed nothing of the evil until I went out after I had recovered.Umm Mistah went out with me toward Manasi, which was where we relieved ourselves, and we went out only from one night to the next. This was before we had privies close to our houses, and our custom was that of the early Arabs in going out to open ground. We were troubled by the idea of having privies beside our houses.So I set out with Umm Mistah, who was the daughter of Abu Ruhm bin Muttalib bin Abd Manaf, and her mother was the daughter of Sakhr bin Amir, the maternal aunt of Abu Bakr Siddiq, and her son was Mistah bin Uthatha bin Abbad bin Muttalib. The daughter of Abu Ruhm and I came back toward my house when we had finished, and Umm Mistah stumbled in her gown and said, 'May Mistah fall.'I said to her, 'What an evil thing you have said. Do you insult a man who was present at Badr?'She said, 'My dear, have you not heard what he said?'I said, 'And what did he say?'Then she told me the words of the people of the slander, and my illness grew worse upon my illness.When I returned to my house, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came in to me, greeted me, and asked, 'How is that one of yours?'I said, 'Will you give me permission to go to my parents?'At that moment I wanted to be certain of the news from them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave me permission, and I came to my parents and said to my mother, 'Mother, what are the people saying?'She said, 'My daughter, take it lightly. By Allah, seldom has there been a beautiful woman with a husband who loves her, and who has fellow wives, without them saying a great deal against her.'I said, 'Glory be to Allah. Have the people really been speaking of this?'I wept that night until morning, my tears never stopping and no sleep touching my eyes, and I woke still weeping.The Messenger of Allah ﷺ called Ali bin Abu Talib and Usama bin Zayd, when the revelation was delayed, to consult them about parting from his wife. As for Usama bin Zayd, he advised the Messenger of Allah ﷺ according to what he knew of the innocence of his family and what he felt in himself of affection for them, and he said, 'Messenger of Allah, they are your family, and we know nothing but good of them.'As for Ali bin Abu Talib, he said, 'Allah has not placed you in difficulty. There are many women besides her. And if you ask the servant girl, she will tell you the truth.'So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called Barira and asked, 'Barira, have you seen anything from Ayesha that troubles you?'Barira said to him, 'By the One who sent you with the truth, I have never seen anything in her that I could hold against her, other than that she is a young girl who falls asleep over her family's dough, so the household sheep comes and eats it.'Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood on the pulpit and asked for support against Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said while he was on the pulpit, 'Muslims, who will support me against a man whose harm toward my household has now reached me? By Allah, I know nothing but good of my family, and they have spoken of a man of whom I know nothing but good, and he never entered upon my family except in my company.'Saad bin Muaz Ansari stood and said, 'I will support you against him, Messenger of Allah. If he is from the Aws, we will strike his neck, and if he is from our brothers the Khazraj, then order us and we will carry out your command.'Then Saad bin Ubada stood, and he was the chief of the Khazraj and had been a righteous man, but tribal zeal carried him away. He said to Saad bin Muaz, 'You have lied. By the life of Allah, you will not kill him, and you are not able to kill him.'Then Usayd bin Hudayr, who was the cousin of Saad bin Muaz, stood and said to Saad bin Ubada, 'You have lied. By the life of Allah, we will certainly kill him. You are a hypocrite arguing on behalf of the hypocrites.'So the two tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, rose up until they were on the point of fighting, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was standing on the pulpit. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ kept calming them until they fell silent, and he too fell silent.I wept that whole day, my tears never stopping and no sleep touching my eyes, and I wept through the night that followed, my tears never stopping and no sleep touching my eyes, while my parents thought that the weeping would split my liver.While the two of them were sitting with me and I was weeping, a woman of the Ansar asked permission to come in to me. I gave her permission, and she sat down weeping.While we were like that, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came in to us, greeted us, and sat down. He had not sat with me since what was said about me had been said, and a month had passed in which nothing was revealed to him about my case.The Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave the testimony of faith when he sat down, then said, 'As for what follows, Ayesha, such and such has reached me about you. If you are innocent, Allah will declare you innocent. And if you have fallen into a sin, then seek the forgiveness of Allah and turn to Him in repentance, for when a servant confesses a sin and then repents, Allah turns to him in forgiveness.'When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finished what he had to say, my tears dried up until I could not feel a drop of them.I said to my father, 'Answer the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for me about what he has said.'He said, 'By Allah, I do not know what to say to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.'So I said to my mother, 'Answer the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for me.'She said, 'By Allah, I do not know what to say to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.'So I said, and I was a young girl who did not recite much of the Quran, 'By Allah, I know that you have heard this until it has settled in your hearts and you have believed it. If I tell you that I am innocent, and Allah knows that I am innocent, you will not believe me in that. And if I confess to you something that Allah knows I am innocent of, you will believe me. By Allah, I find no comparison for myself and for you except what the father of Yusuf said, "So beautiful patience. And Allah is the One whose help is sought against what you describe" [Yusuf 12:18].'Then I turned away and lay down on my bed. By Allah, I knew at that moment that I was innocent and that Allah would declare my innocence. But by Allah, I did not think that revelation would come down about my case to be recited. My case was too small in my own eyes for Allah to speak about me in words that would be recited. I only hoped that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would see a dream in his sleep through which Allah would clear me.By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had not left his seat, and no one of the household had gone out, when Allah sent down revelation upon His Prophet ﷺ. The strain that used to come over him at the time of revelation took hold of him, until drops like pearls of sweat ran down from him on a winter day, from the weight of the words being sent down upon him.When the state passed from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he was smiling, and the first word he spoke was, 'Be glad, Ayesha. As for Allah, He has declared you innocent.'My mother said to me, 'Get up and go to him.'I said, 'By Allah, I will not get up and go to him, and I will praise none but Allah. He is the One who sent down my innocence.'Then Allah revealed "Indeed, those who came with the slander are a group among you" [Nur 24:11], ten verses. Allah sent down these verses declaring my innocence."Abu Bakr, who used to provide for Mistah because of his kinship and his poverty, said, "By Allah, I will never spend anything on him again after what he said about Ayesha."Then Allah revealed "And let not those of virtue among you and wealth swear against giving to their relatives" up to His words "Do you not love that Allah should forgive you?" [Nur 24:22].Habban bin Musa said that Abdullah bin Mubarak said, "This is the most hopeful verse in the Book of Allah."Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, I certainly love that Allah should forgive me." So he restored to Mistah the provision he used to give him and said, "I will never withhold it from him again."Ayesha said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had asked Zaynab bint Jahsh, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, about my case, what she knew or what she had seen.She said, 'Messenger of Allah, I guard my hearing and my sight. By Allah, I know nothing but good.'"Ayesha said, "She was the one among the wives of the Prophet ﷺ who used to vie with me, and Allah protected her through her scrupulousness. Her sister Hamna bint Jahsh set about fighting on her behalf, and she was destroyed among those who were destroyed."Zuhri said, "This is what has reached us of the affair of this group."In the report of Yunus the wording is, tribal zeal carried him away. In the report of Fulayh it is, tribal zeal drove him to ignorance, as Muamar said. In the report of Salih it is, tribal zeal carried him away, as Yunus had it.There is an addition in the report of Salih. Urwa said that Ayesha disliked that Hassan should be insulted in her presence, and she would say that he was the one who said, my father, and his father, and my honor are a shield for the honor of Muhammad against you.There is a further addition. Urwa said that Ayesha said, "By Allah, the man about whom what was said was said used to say, glory be to Allah. By the One in whose hand is my soul, I have never uncovered the garment of any woman." She said, "Then he was killed after that as a martyr in the way of Allah."In the report of Yaqub bin Ibrahim the wording is, halting in the fierce heat of midday, and Abdul-Razzaq said, in the burning heat.Abd bin Humayd said, "I asked Abdul-Razzaq what his wording meant, and he said that it refers to the intensity of the heat."

و حدثني أبو الربيع العتكي حدثنا فليح بن سليمان ح و حدثنا الحسن بن علي الحلواني وعبد بن حميد قالا حدثنا يعقوب بن إبراهيم بن سعد حدثنا أبي عن صالح بن كيسان كلاهما عن الزهري بمثل حديث يونس ومعمر بإسنادهما وفي حديث فليح اجتهلته الحمية كما قال معمر وفي حديث صالح احتملته الحمية كقول يونس وزاد في حديث صالح قال عروة كانت عائشة تكره أن يسب عندها حسان وتقول فإنه قال فإن أبي ووالده وعرضي لعرض محمد منكم وقاء وزاد أيضا قال عروة قالت عائشة والله إن الرجل الذي قيل له ما قيل ليقول سبحان الله فوالذي نفسي بيده ما كشفت عن كنف أنثى قط قالت ثم قتل بعد ذلك شهيدا في سبيل الله وفي حديث يعقوب بن إبراهيم موعرين في نحر الظهيرة و قال عبد الرزاق موغرين قال عبد بن حميد قلت لعبد الرزاق ما قوله موغرين قال الوغرة شدة الحر