The Incident of the Slander (Hadith al-Ifk)

On the Muslim army's way back from the Banu al-Mustaliq expedition the people camped one night; Aisha went out for her need, lost a necklace of Zafar beads and went back searching — returning to find the army had marched, the men who set down her howdah having lifted it onto the camel thinking her in it for her light weight. She sat where she was, reckoning if missed they would come back for her, and sleep overcame her; the Badr Companion Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal al-Sulami, appointed to the rear-guard gathering fallen things, saw the dark of a sleeping person and knew her — he had seen her before the veil — and called out the istirja' at the top of his voice so she woke with her veil; he knelt his mount, led her on honored, and spoke not a single word until they reached the army hastening in the midday heat. Abdullah ibn Ubayy, the head of hypocrisy, seized the moment to spread the vicious slander through Medina, some Muslims passing it on — the poet Hassan ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him), Mistah ibn Uthatha (may God be pleased with him) and Hamna bint Jahsh (may God be pleased with her) — and Aisha lay ill a month knowing nothing of the talk but for the Prophet ﷺ's unusual coolness until Umm Mistah told her. Her weeping grew severe and she moved to her parents' house until revelation came down from above the seven heavens in ten verses of Surat al-Nur clearing Aisha, declaring her purity and exposing the slanderers — as in verse 24:11 — and the Prophet ordered the slander penalty of eighty lashes on those who waded in; and Abu Bakr forgave Mistah and restored his allowance in obedience to God's command.