Muwatta 134

Malik opens the chapter "on tayammum" with the hadith of Aisha about her necklace, which was lost on a journey. As the hadith tells it, this is the occasion of the revelation of the verse on tayammum in Surat al-Ma'ida. He transmits it from Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Qasim, from his father al-Qasim ibn Muhammad, from Aisha ¹.

Aisha went out with the Prophet ﷺ on one of his journeys. When they reached al-Bayda or Dhat al-Jaysh, her necklace broke. The Prophet stayed to look for it, and the people stayed with him, though they were not at water and had no water with them. The people came to Abu Bakr to complain about what Aisha had done. Abu Bakr came while the Prophet was sleeping with his head on her thigh. He rebuked her and said what God willed him to say, and he kept jabbing her in the side with his hand, but she did not move, because the Prophet's head was on her thigh. The Prophet slept until morning without water, and God sent down the verse of tayammum. Usayd ibn Hudayr said: "This is not the first of your blessings, O family of Abu Bakr." Then they sent the camel that Aisha had been riding, and found the necklace beneath it ^{1 2}.

The editor notes the transmitters from Malik: Abu Mus'ab al-Zuhri; Isma'il ibn Abi Uways in al-Bukhari (4607, 6844); Suwayd ibn Sa'id; al-Qa'nabi, whose version is carried by Abu Awana and Ibn Hibban (1300); Ibn Wahb in Ibn Khuzayma (262); Abdallah ibn Yusuf al-Tinnisi in al-Bukhari (334, 5250); Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi in Ahmad (6/179); Abd al-Razzaq (880); Qutayba ibn Sa'id in al-Bukhari (3672) and al-Nasa'i (1/163); al-Shafi'i; Muhammad ibn al-Hasan; and Yahya ibn Yahya al-Naysaburi in Muslim (1/191). See also al-Tamhid (19/265). ²

The hadith is a foundation among Sunnis for the occasion of the revelation of the verse on tayammum, and from it the lawfulness of tayammum when water is absent is drawn. It also gives a picture of life in the Prophet's household on a journey. ²