Bulugh al-Maram — Hadith #52414

On the authority of Aisha, may God be pleased with her, she said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “When you have stoned the pillars and shaved your heads, then perfume and everything else is permissible for you except women.” Narrated by Ahmad and Abu Dawud, and its chain of narration is weak. 1.1 - It is rejected with this wording. This is the wording of Ahmad (6/143), and he added: “and clothes.” It was also narrated by Ad-Daraqutni (2/276) and Al-Bayhaqi in “As-Sunan Al-Kubra” (5/136) through the same chain of narration, and they have the addition: “and you have slaughtered.” I said: The defect in this hadith lies with Hajjaj ibn Artat, for he made many mistakes and was a mudallis (one who practices tadlis, a form of deception in hadith transmission). Therefore, al-Bayhaqi said: "This is one of the fabrications of Hajjaj ibn Artat." I said: Abu Dawud (1978) also narrated it—and Hajjaj is also in its chain of transmission—with the wording: "When one of you throws the pebbles at Jamrat al-Aqaba, everything becomes permissible for him except women." This wording is authentic, as it has a supporting narration from Aisha with a sound chain of transmission from Ahmad (6/244), which reads: "I perfumed the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with my own hands using a fragrant oil for the Farewell Pilgrimage, for exiting ihram and entering ihram: when he entered ihram, and when he threw the pebbles at Jamrat al-Aqaba on the Day of Sacrifice before circumambulating the Kaaba." It also has another supporting narration with Ahmad (2090) and others from Ibn Abbas—its wording being the same as Abu Dawud's—and its narrators are trustworthy, except that it has a break in the chain of transmission, and there is disagreement regarding whether it is a hadith traced back to the Prophet (marfu') or a statement of a Companion (mawquf). In conclusion, the hadith is authentic without mentioning the shaving of the head and the sacrifice, and thus everything becomes permissible except women. After throwing the pebbles at Jamrat al-Aqaba, acting upon this sound evidence, which is also the opinion of a group of the early Muslims, such as Aisha, Ibn al-Zubayr, Alqamah, and others. Note: As for what some people issue fatwas with, filling people's ears with them during Hajj, that the state of ihram is not lifted except after performing two of the three rites—throwing the pebbles at Jamrat al-Aqaba, shaving or shortening the hair, and performing Tawaf al-Ifadah—they must abandon their opinion and follow the sound evidence. If they say, "We are only following the evidence," meaning the hadith in question with its objectionable addition, we say: Why did you exclude the sacrifice, which is mentioned in the hadith? Especially since Imam Ahmad, may God have mercy on him, said it, as mentioned in “Masail Salih” (3/103/1431), where he said: “I said: If a pilgrim in ihram throws stones, shaves his head, and slaughters his sacrificial animal before performing tawaf around the Kaaba, is he allowed to hunt outside of ihram? He said: Yes. Didn’t the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, say: ‘When you shave your heads and slaughter your sacrificial animal, everything becomes permissible for you’? Do they say that? I don’t think so.”