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The question

To what extent is the hadith "A people who entrust their affairs to a woman will never prosper" authentic, and what is the wisdom behind adopting it despite it not being mutawatir and its narrator having received a legal punishment?

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Source: FtawySummarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

The one who challenges the hadith, "Never will a people who entrust their affairs to a woman succeed," erred because he contradicted established principles, including:

- Rejecting a hadith narrated by Abu Bakra despite the scholars' acceptance of his narration and the justice of all the Companions. - Weakening a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, which the Ummah has unanimously accepted.

The answer to this misconception depends on differentiating between those who are subjected to the legal punishment for slander (qadhf):

- If a person's slander was in the form of a testimony, this does not invalidate his trustworthiness, and his narration is accepted, just as people narrated from Abu Bakra. - If a person's slander was not in the form of a testimony, his narration is rejected until he repents.

As for the objector's argument that the hadith is not mutawatir (mass-transmitted), it is incorrect, because singular narrations (khabar al-wahid) establish beliefs and rulings. The testimony narrated by Al-Tabarani through the route of Abd al-Rahman ibn Amr ibn Jabalah should not be celebrated because he is accused of lying.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy