What Barīrah and ʿAlī Said

"Usāmah spoke well of me and then said, 'Messenger of Allah, this is about your family, about whom we know nothing but good. It's all foolish lies.'" This was the opinion of Usāmah. "ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said, 'Messenger of Allah, there are plenty of women; you can exchange them'" — in other words, if there is something wrong, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is saying, you could divorce ʿĀ'ishah and marry somebody else — "'Ask the slave girl; she will speak the truth to you.' So the Messenger of Allah called for Barīrah to ask her. ʿAlī went up to her and struck her violently, saying, 'Speak the truth to the Messenger of Allah.' Barīrah replied, 'I swear by Allah, I know nothing but good. I never found fault with ʿĀ'ishah at all, except that when I knead dough and ask her to watch over it, she may fall asleep and the pet lamb comes and eats it'" — meaning that ʿĀ'ishah is young and she is naive, and that is the only thing that Barīrah can see wrong with her; otherwise, everything else is fine with ʿĀ'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her).

ʿĀ'ishah said: "Then the Messenger of Allah came to me. I had with me both my parents and an Anṣārī woman. I was weeping, and so was she. He sat down, gave praise and thanks to Allah, and then said, 'ʿĀ'ishah, you have been informed what people have been saying about you. Fear Allah. If you have indeed done wrong as they say, then repent to Him. Allah accepts repentance from His servants.' As soon as he said this, my tears dried up so that I could feel nothing of them. I waited for my parents to respond on my behalf to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), but they didn't speak. I swear to Allah, I thought myself too humble and unimportant for Allah to send down a verse of Qur'an about me, one that would be recited and used for the prayer. But I had hoped that the Prophet would have some vision in his sleep by which Allah would prove my veracity from His knowledge of my innocence and would give some information. But as for a verse of Qur'an being revealed about me, I swear I thought myself too insignificant for that.

"When I saw that my parents weren't going to respond on my behalf, I asked them, 'Will you not reply to the Messenger of Allah?' They replied, 'By Allah, we don't know what to reply.' I swear I don't know any household that ever suffered so much as did that of Abū Bakr through those days. When they were unable to respond for me, I burst out crying again. Then I said, 'By Allah, I'll never repent to Allah for what you refer to. I swear I well know that if I were to affirm what people say while Allah knew me to be innocent of it, I would be affirming what hadn't happened. And if I were to deny what they say, you wouldn't believe me.' I then tried to remember the name of Yaʿqūb, but I couldn't remember it, so I said, 'But I will speak as did the father of Yūsuf: Patience is fine, and Allah's help is to be sought against what you describe.'" So she recited this āyah of the Qur'an, the words of Yaʿqūb (peace be upon him): "So, patience is best. It is Allah whose help is sought against what you describe" (12:18).