his ḥadīth, and therefore al-Dhahabī affirmed in "al-Mughnī" that he is trustworthy. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: "Truthful but has errors." Thus, he strengthened its isnād in "al-Fatḥ" (9/487), and mentioned that Aḥmad authenticated it. Ibn al-Turkumanī strongly refuted al-Bayhaqī's criticism based on the aforementioned, so refer to it. The meaning of his saying (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam): "Tasalabbi"—as Ibn al-Athīr said—"means: wear the mourning garment, which is (al-silāb), and the plural is (sulub), and a woman is said to have 'tasallabat' when she wears it. It is also said: it is a black garment with which the woman in mourning covers her head." I say: this meaning is explicit in the narration of Aḥmad; as it is in the wording: "Wear the mourning garment for three [days], then do as you wish." However, in another narration of his (6/369) it is in the wording: "Do not mourn after this day of yours." This is anomalous to me in this wording, as it contradicts the previously mentioned paths on one hand, and the mutawātir ḥadīth from a group of the Mothers of the Believers and others—on the other hand—which is explicit that a woman whose husband has died mourns for him for four months and ten days, and it is documented in "al-Irwāʾ" (2114). Some scholars went to the view that this mutawātir ḥadīth abrogates the ḥadīth of the chapter, among them Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī. I say: if the ḥadīth were preserved in the second wording, then the claim of abrogation would be necessary. However, what is preserved is only in the first wording: "Tasalabbi for three [days]"; it is more specific than the mutawātir ḥadīth, so the lesser is exempted from the greater, meaning: she mourns with whatever permissible garments she wishes other than..