his time with us. There was hardly a day except that he would visit all of us, approaching each wife without intimacy until he reached the one whose day it was, and he would spend the night with her. Sawdah bint Zamʿah, when she became elderly and feared that the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) might leave her, said: "O Messenger of Allāh, my day is for ʿĀʾishah." The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) accepted that from her, and regarding this, Allāh the Exalted revealed, and in similar cases - I think he said - "And if a woman fears ill-conduct from her husband..." (Sūrah al-Nisāʾ, verse 128). It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (1/333 - al-Tanāzīyah) through the chain of Aḥmad ibn Yūnus, who narrated from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, who said: ʿĀʾishah said: "O son of my sister, the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) did not prefer..." Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr disagreed, informing us through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād with the same chain, but he sent it [as a mursal ḥadīth], saying: from Hishām, from his father, who said: "It was revealed concerning Sawdah and those like her, 'And if a woman fears...'" the ḥadīth. It was recorded by al-Bayhaqī (7/297) who said: "Aḥmad ibn Yūnus narrated it from Abū al-Zinād as a connected chain as previously mentioned at the beginning of the Book of Marriage." The connected chain is likely more authentic, as Aḥmad ibn Yūnus is a trustworthy narrator from the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim], and the addition of the connected chain is accepted, especially since it has a corroborating narration from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: "Sawdah feared that the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) would divorce her, so she said: 'O Messenger of Allāh, do not divorce me; keep me and assign my day to ʿĀʾishah.' He accepted, and the verse was revealed. 'And if...'"