40 Hadith of 'Aisha: 40 Hadith of Our Mother 'Aisha [Revised and Updated]

By Nuriddeen Knight

This book is an English compilation of 40 sayings (hadith) from the Prophet Muhammad, peace to him narrated by 'Aisha, may God be pleased with her.  The narration of prophetic speech is among one of the most important tasks in Islam. Without the preservation of prophetic speech, each generation would be more and more confused as to what

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nuriddeen
• Release date: May 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781643164939

Nuriddeen Knight

Nuriddeen Knight began her Islamic studies attending various Islamic lectures in the United States and later moved to Jordan to further her studies. She studied classical Arabic, marriage law, Islamic belief system (ᶜaqida), Prophetic biography (sīra), Qurᶜanic explanation (tafsīr), Prophetic speech and character, and Islamic spirituality (taṣawwuf) with Shaykh Khalīl Abdur-Rashid, Imam Amin Muhammad, Umm al-Khayr, Umm Sahl and Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller. In 2015 she created Noor Al Shadhili (nooralshadhili.com), a holistic initiative named after one of the greatest scholars in Islamic spirituality (taṣawwuf). It focuses on human development through education, research, and counseling. Her written work has been featured in various online publications like thepublicdiscourse.com and sapelosquare.com. She's given several lectures on topics related to Islam, mental health, and women's issues for women's organizations like HAWA in Detroit, Michigan and Being-ME in Toronto, Canada as well as universities including University of Missouri and Queens College. She graduated from Columbia University with a Master's Degree in Psychology and currently runs a blog (bythefigandtheolive.com) where you can read her social commentary. She is the author of Our Mother ᶜAᵓisha: A 40 Ḥadīth Collection and is working on a collection of forthcoming essays. For bookings and upcoming events visit nuriddeenknight.com. To find out more about this book, visit 40hadithofaisha.com.

Book preview

Contents

Preface

Introduction

40 Ḥadīth of ᶜAᵓisha

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Citations

Preface

When we think of 40 Ḥadīth (pl. aḥadīth) collections, the collection of Imam al-Nawawī, may God be pleased with him, usually comes to mind. However, gathering 40 narrations from Prophet Muḥammad is not exclusive to Imam al-Nawawī, but a tradition dating back to the first century after the Hijra, which marked the migration of Muslims from the oppressed lands of Mecca to the welcoming home of Medina.

The practice of gathering 40 Ḥadīth sprung from a ḥadīth, narrated through several Companions, that puts the spiritual rank of religious scholarship within easy reach of ordinary believers with the words: Whoever safeguards 40 narrations for my nation in the matters of this religion; God will raise him as a scholar and I shall be an intercessor and witness for him on the day of resurrection. I recall sitting on the floor surrounded by men and women eager to learn the religion when our teacher recited this narration. I immediately thought, Why don’t I do that?

It took a while for that thought to manifest as reality. I went for months without thinking about it again. About four years ago, when I was sitting in that class I considered myself a student of knowledge longing to be raised to the ranks of scholarship in the footsteps of women like our mother ᶜAᵓisha, may God be pleased with her. At the time, I didn’t know of any female scholars and I longed to fill that void. My longing led to my travel overseas to Jordan to spend time with one of my teachers on the spiritual path. I learned a lot during my time there, despite not reaching the scholarship goals I had set for myself. Nevertheless, I witnessed the scholarship of knowledgeable women as I had never witnessed before in America. There in Jordan, the idea of collecting forty aḥadīth presented itself to me once again.

I settled on collecting 40 Ḥadīth of ᶜAᵓisha, may God be pleased with her, for several reasons. For example, I’d heard so much about what a great scholar ᶜAᵓisha, the daughter of the great Companion Abū Bakr, had been, but never heard much evidence of it. In fact, the only time she’d come up was