It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "I have married a woman of the Ansar for a dowry of eight uqiyah." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was astonished at this and said: "It is as though you people carve silver out of the side of this mountain (that is, such a large dowry)! Did you see her (beforehand)? For there is something (a particular defect or colouring) in the eyes of the Ansar." He said: "Yes, I have seen her." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "We have nothing (to give you), but we will send you on an expedition, and I hope that you will obtain some good from it." So he (peace and blessings be upon him) included him among some people setting out towards a clan of Banu Abs. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered a she-camel for them, on which they loaded their belongings, but it had gone only a little way when it became exhausted and sat down, and it would not get up despite the people's efforts. There was no one in that party younger than this (newly married) man, so he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he (peace and blessings be upon him) was lying reclining in the mosque. He stood at his head, not wishing to wake him (peace and blessings be upon him). Then, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) woke up, he said: "O Prophet of Allah, we would like you to raise the she-camel you gave us to ride." So the Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave him his right hand, took his cloak with his left hand, put it over his shoulder, and walked until he reached the she-camel. He (peace and blessings be upon him) struck it with the sole of his foot, and by the One in whose hand is the soul of Abu Hurayrah, after that the she-camel would get ahead even of the one leading it. Then they reached the enemy, who had lit fires. The Muslims surrounded them on all sides and all raised the takbir together as one man, and Allah Almighty defeated them, and some of their people were taken captive. This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), but they did not record it with these words. Imam Muslim recorded only this much, through the hadith of Shu'bah, that a man married and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Did you see her?" And its narrator Abu Isma'il is Bashir bin Salman, whom both Shaykhs used as evidence.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hadrad al-Aslami (may Allah be pleased with him) that he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) seeking help with his wife's dowry. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "How much dowry have you fixed?" He said: "Two hundred dirhams." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Even if you were carving silver out of the valley of Buthan, you would not have fixed more than this (that is, this dowry is far too much for your means)." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about the saying of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic: "And heaped-up treasures" [Surah Al Imran: 14] , and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A qintar is equal to two thousand uqiyah." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), but they did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The most blessed of women is the one whose dowry is the easiest (and least)." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Sahl bin Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) married a man to a woman in return for an iron ring whose stone was of silver. This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyidah Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever is struck by a calamity should say: 'Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un, Allahumma 'indaka ahtasibu musibati, fa'jurni fiha wa abdilni khayran minha' (We belong to Allah and to Him we return; O Allah, with You I seek the reward for my calamity, so reward me for it and give me something better than it in exchange)." Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her) relates: When Abu Salamah died, I said these words, but whenever I reached the part "give me something better than it in exchange," I would say to myself: "Who could be better than Abu Salamah?!" Yet I still recited it. When her waiting period ('iddah) was complete, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) to her with a proposal of marriage. She said to her son: "O Umar, get up and marry me to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)," and so he performed the marriage. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would come to her in order to consummate the marriage, but whenever she saw him (peace and blessings be upon him), she would pick up her daughter Zaynab and seat her in her lap, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would go back (out of modesty). Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him), who was her foster brother, came to know of this, so he came and said: "Where is this wretched little girl who has been standing in the way of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?" Then he picked her up and took her away. After that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came and entered the house; he (peace and blessings be upon him) cast his eyes around the corners of the house and asked: "What has become of Zunab (little Zaynab)?" She said that Ammar had come and taken her away. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) consummated the marriage with her and said: "I will not give you any less in the dowry than what I gave so-and-so (another wife), namely: two hand-mills, two water jars, and a leather cushion stuffed with palm fibre." And he (peace and blessings be upon him) also said: "If I stay with you for seven days, then I will have to stay seven days each with all my wives." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that Sayyiduna Abu Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him) sent a proposal of marriage to Umm Sulaym (may Allah be pleased with her). She said: "O Abu Talhah, do you not know that the deity you worship is merely a piece of wood that grew out of the ground, which an Abyssinian slave of such-and-such tribe carved?! If you accept Islam, I will want nothing else from you as dowry." He said: "(Give me time) until I think over my affair." The narrator says: He went away, then came back and said: "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." Then Umm Sulaym (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "O Anas, get up and marry Abu Talhah (to me)." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it. It also has a supporting narration (shahid) that is sahih on the condition of the two Shaykhs:

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that Umm Sulaym (may Allah be pleased with her) married Sayyiduna Abu Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him), taking his acceptance of Islam as her dowry.

It is narrated from Alqamah bin Qays that some people came to Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) and said: "A man among us married a woman but did not fix a dowry for her, and he died before the marriage was consummated (what is the ruling on this?)." Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said to them: "Since I parted from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I have not been asked a question harder for me than this; go to someone else." The narrator says: They kept coming to him about it for a month, then finally they said: "If we do not ask you, whom shall we ask, when you are the most trusted pillar of the Companions of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in this city?" So he said: "I will give my opinion on this matter with my utmost effort of reasoning (ijtihad). If it is correct, it is from Allah alone, who has no partner; and if it is wrong, it is from me, and Allah and His Messenger are free of it. My opinion is that she should have a dowry like the dowry of the women of her family (mahr al-mithl), with neither decrease nor excess; she will also receive a share of the inheritance, and she must observe a waiting period ('iddah) of four months and ten days." The narrator says: Some people of the tribe of Ashja' were present there; they stood up and said: "We bear witness that you have given exactly the same judgement as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave concerning a woman of ours, Barwa' bint Washiq." The narrator says: Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) was never seen as happy about anything, after his acceptance of Islam, as he was that day. Then he said (out of humility): "O Allah, if this judgement is correct, it is from You alone; and if it is wrong, it is from me and from Satan, and Allah and His Messenger are free of it." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ya'qub al-Hafiz that he heard this statement of Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him): "If the hadith of Barwa' bint Washiq is proven authentic, I will adopt it as my position." Abu Abdullah said: "Had I been in the time of Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah be pleased with him), I would have stood before his students and said: 'This hadith has indeed been proven authentic, so now adopt the position according to it.'" Imam al-Hakim says: Imam al-Shafi'i withheld judgement on its authenticity because, although this narration was sound, the verdict was that of Abdullah bin Mas'ud, and (at that time) the chain went back to some unknown people of the tribe of Ashja'; whereas our Shaykh Abu Abdullah ruled it authentic because a trustworthy narrator explicitly named a reliable Companion in it, namely Ma'qil bin Sinan al-Ashja'i (may Allah be pleased with him). What I have mentioned is supported by the following: