The story of the Hajj of our Mother ‘A’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
And may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of prophets and messengers,
Our Prophet Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions.
To proceed:
Hajj is a significant concern for a woman,
Due to the many circumstances that may arise and affect her performance of the rituals,
Or her choice of the time to perform them.
From the issue of the mahram and his availability at the appropriate time,
To the issue of ritual purity and whether the timing aligns with the days of the rituals,
To pregnancy after marriage and its physical burden,
To young children whom she finds difficult to leave behind to perform the rituals,
And other such circumstances.
Then, once she performs Hajj,
Her psychological state may be affected by various factors,
Which leave their mark on her Hajj.
From the fear of the onset of her menstrual cycle before its expected time,
To the surprise of it arriving unexpectedly,
To the fatigue and exhaustion from performing the rituals,
To general physical weakness.
Until the days of Hajj conclude,
When she rejoices in having performed the rituals,
And yearns to repeat the experience,
As if she had never endured any hardship at all.
The most beautiful story a woman has experienced during Hajj
Is the story of our Mother ‘A’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her,
During the Farewell Pilgrimage.
Its beauty lies in the personalities and details of the story,
In the timing of the events,
And in the most refined interaction between spouses in life,
Our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
With the person most beloved to him.
It lies in the solutions offered by the compassionate and merciful Prophet
To the difficulties faced by his wife, the truthful woman, daughter of the truthful man.
This beauty in the story is further crowned by
Other incidents that occurred to the Mothers of the Believers,
And to the female Companions who were honored to see the face of our noble Prophet,
And who accompanied him on the Farewell Pilgrimage.
In this story are lessons and morals
That beautify the life of every woman who adopts them,
And illuminates her path.
In this story is solace for every woman
Who experiences some of what our Mother ‘A’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, went through,
Or what some of the Mothers of the Believers went through.
It is a story that every woman preparing for Hajj needs,
To take as an example the righteous women,
And the noble role models,
Who were raised by the best of mentors,
Our noble Prophet, peace be upon him,
And lived in the best era of this Ummah, whose people are to be emulated.
Compiling the story and the methodology of writing it.
One of the beautiful aspects of the story of our Mother ‘A’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her,
Is that it has many scattered narrations,
Which makes it easier to understand the details of the story.
However, one must collect all these narrations
So that we can understand all aspects of the story.
This is the method of the scholars of hadith;
They collect all the narrations
So that the full picture of the matter is clear to them before deriving a ruling.
An example of this is what Al-Bukhari recorded in his Sahih in the Book of Hajj,
In the chapter: "If a woman menstruates after she has performed the circumambulation of the Ka'bah (ifadah)."
He said: Abu Al-Nu'man narrated to us,
Hammad narrated to us, from Ayyub, from ‘Ikrimah,
That the people of Madinah asked Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both,
About a woman who performed the circumambulation and then menstruated.
He told them: "She may depart."
They said: "We will not take your word and leave the word of Zayd."
He said: "When you arrive in Madinah, ask."
They arrived in Madinah and asked,
And among those they asked was Umm Sulaym,
Who mentioned the hadith of Safiyyah.
It was narrated by Khalid and Qatadah from ‘Ikrimah.
Ibn Hajar commented on this narration by saying:
"Al-Bukhari has greatly abbreviated the hadith of ‘Ikrimah,
And were it not for the extraction of these other chains of transmission, the intended meaning would not have been clear."
So praise be to Allah for what He has bestowed and favored us with.
Ibn Hajar says this statement
After he has collected the narrations of the hadith
That clarify many details of the incident that occurred
Between Ibn ‘Abbas and Zayd Ibn Thabit, may Allah be pleased with them both,
Regarding the issue of the farewell circumambulation for a menstruating woman.
Following this methodology, I have proceeded in writing this story.
I have divided the research into two parts:
The first, in which I mentioned the Hajj of ‘A’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her,
In the form of a story,
And I have indicated in the margin for each paragraph its source from the hadiths,
By mentioning the hadith number.
The second, in which I mentioned the hadiths related to the story,
Extracted in a detailed manner according to the narrators,
And according to the scholars of hadith who recorded them in their books,
And I have numbered them to facilitate reference within the story.
In this work, we will record only the first part of the book.
Whoever wishes for more should refer back to the book.
I ask Allah to accept this from me,
To place it in the scale of my good deeds,
And to benefit everyone who reads or hears it.
And our final prayer is that praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.