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Is the Hadith: "The woman approaches in the image of a devil and retreats in the image of a devil. So if one of you sees a woman and she pleases him, let him go to his wife, for she has the like of what she has," among the Ahadith criticized in the Two Sahihs, especially since Muslim narrated it with the chain "from Abu Al-Zubair from Jabir," and Abu Al-Zubair is a Mudallis (one who practices tadlis, i.e., conceals defects in narration) and narrated with 'an'anah (using the phrasing "from so-and-so")? And are there other authentic طرق (transmission paths) for it?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

This hadith was not criticized by Muslim scholars. It was mentioned by Al-Iraqi, An-Nawawi, and Ibn Hajar, none of whom criticized it. It was authenticated by At-Tirmidhi, Al-Arna'ut, and Al-Albani. The 'an'anah (narration with the phrase "on the authority of") of Abu Az-Zubayr in this hadith does not cause harm, because 'an'anah in Al-Bukhari and Muslim is considered evidence of continuous connection through other means. Al-Albani mentioned that the hadith was narrated through several chains and has supporting evidence, both mursal (missing a Companion in the chain) and mawsool (fully connected). The text of the hadith in Sahih Muslim is: "Indeed, a woman approaches in the image of a devil and departs in the image of a devil. So, if one of you sees a woman, let him go to his wife, for that will repel what is in his heart."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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