What is the reason for the discrepancy in the numbers of women mentioned in the authentic Hadiths that speak of the intention of the Prophet of Allah, Sulaiman (peace be upon him), to procreate through them, despite those Hadiths meeting the conditions of authenticity?
The word "sixty" (ستين) is not among the terms of the hadith narrated in the Two Sahihs. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar, in his commentary on the hadith, mentioned that the sum of the narrations is sixty, seventy, ninety, ninety-nine, and one hundred. He explained that these can be reconciled by stating that the sixty were free women and those beyond that number were slave women, or vice versa, and that seventy is for hyperbole. As for ninety and one hundred, they were less than one hundred and more than ninety; so, whoever said ninety rounded down the fraction, and whoever said one hundred rounded it up. Furthermore, the narrators of the hadith did not pay attention to transmitting the precise number of something that did not involve a legal ruling. The intent is that Sulaiman circumambulated many women and did not make an exception, and this difference does not affect the authenticity of the narration.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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