English translation
5843. Narrated Ibn 'Abbās رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا: For one year I wanted to ask 'Umar about the women who helped each other against the Prophet ﷺ, but I was afraid of him. One day he dismounted his riding animal and went among the trees of Arak to answer the call of nature, and when he returned, I asked him and he said, "(They were) 'Aishah and Hafsa." Then he added, "We never used to give significance to ladies in the days of the Pre-Islamic Period of Ignorance, but when Islām came and Allāh mentioned their rights, we used to give them their rights but did not allow them to interfere in our affairs. Once there was some dispute between me and my wife and she answered me back in a loud voice. I said to her, 'Strange! You can retort in this way?' She said, 'Yes. Do you say this to me while your daughter annoys Allāh's Messenger?' So I went to Hafsa and said to her, 'I warn you not to disobey Allāh and His Messenger.' I first went to Hafsa and then to Umm Salama and told her the same. She said to me, 'O 'Umar! It surprises me that you interfere in our affairs so much that you would poke your nose even into the affairs of Allāh's Messenger ﷺ and his wives.' So she rejected my advice. There was an Anṣārī man; whenever he was absent from Allāh's Messenger ﷺ and I was present there, I used to convey to him what had happened (on that day), and when I was absent and he was present there, he used to convey to me what had happened as regards news from Allāh's Messenger ﷺ. During that time all the rulers of the nearby lands had surrendered to Allāh's Messenger ﷺ except the king of Ghassān in Shām, and we were afraid that he might attack us. All of a sudden the Anṣārī came and said, 'A great event has happened!' I asked him, 'What is it? Has the Ghassānī (king) come?' He said, 'Greater than that! Allāh's Messenger ﷺ has divorced his wives!' I went to them and found all of them weeping in their dwellings, and the Prophet ﷺ had ascended to an upper room of his. At the door of the room there was a slave to whom I went and said, "Ask the permission for me to enter. He admitted me and I entered to see the Prophet ﷺ lying on a mat that had left its imprint on his side. Under his head there was a leather pillow stuffed with palm fibres. Behold! There were some hides hanging there and some grass for tanning. Then I mentioned what I had said to Ḥafṣa and Umm Salama and what reply Umm Salama had given me. Allāh's Messenger ﷺ smiled and stayed there for twenty nine days and then came down." (See Hadīth No.2468, Vol.3 for details)