The order that the three keep apart from their wives

Forty nights of the boycott passed, then the Prophet's messenger came to Ka'b ordering him to keep apart from his wife; he sent her to her family until God would decide, while Hilal's wife was given leave to serve him. ¹

Ka'b said: when forty of the fifty nights had passed, a messenger of the Messenger of God came to me and said: the Messenger of God orders you to keep apart from your wife. I said: divorce her or what? He said: no — keep apart from her and do not go near her; and he sent the like to my two companions. ¹

He said to his wife: go to your family and stay with them until God decides this matter as He will decide. ¹

Hilal ibn Umayya's wife came to the Prophet and said that Hilal was an old, helpless man with no servant — would he dislike her serving him? He said: no — but he is not to come near you. She said he had no stirrings toward her and had not stopped weeping since his affair began, and she feared for his sight. ¹

Some of his family said to him: if only you had asked the Messenger of God's leave for your wife, as Hilal's wife was given leave. He said he would not ask his leave for her — that he was a young man who did not know what he might say. Then they endured ten more nights, completing fifty since the Prophet forbade the Muslims to speak to them. ¹

• The text names neither the messenger who carried the order nor Ka'b's and Hilal's wives.
• Hilal ibn Umayya's description of himself as aged is spoken through his wife (p. 179).