30 Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam ‘Umar for ordering women to undo their braids before performing the major ritual ablution ( gbusl ), presumably so that their hair would be thoroughly cleaned. To this she responds derisively, “How strange that Ibn ‘Umar orders women to loosen their hair when performing gbusl. Why doesn’t he just order them to shave their heads? The Prophet and I used to wash using the same vessel, and I would pour no more than three handfuls of water on my hair.” In another example, Shayba b. ‘Uthman (d. 59/679) seeks her counsel on the matter of disposing of material used to cover the Ka‘ba. Shayba reports to her that the material was being buried so that ritually unclean people would not fashion garments from the sacred cloth. Pragmatically, ‘A’isha points out that it is more profitable to sell the covering and give the proceeds as alms for the poor. As she reasons, once the material is removed from the Ka'ba, there should be no problem if menstruating women or otherwise ritually impure people wear it. ''' ‘A’isha also stands out as a female Companion who derived legal rulings from Muhammad’s precedents. While her reasoning was not universally accepted, her presence was such that other Companions and Successors had to contend with her views. There are several instances in which ‘A’isha is said to have stood apart from prominent Companions in her legal deductions. They include the following opinions ascribed to her: she permitted those who had been born out of wedlock (walad al-zind) to lead prayers as long as they were qualified; she permitted women to travel for the Hajj without a mahram (male guardian according to Islamic legal guidelines) as long as they could be assured of their safety; and she permitted mahram bonds to be established between adults through a practice known as ridd ‘ al-kablr. While the first two opinions concurred with those of a few other early fuqahd ’, the third was a more isolated view. Literally translated as “adult nursing,” ridd ' al-kabir referred to expressing breast milk and giving it to another person in a container. In her ruling 38 IbnHanbal, Musnad, 6:52, #24153; Ibn Maja, Sunan, 1 :1 98; and al-Nasa’I, Sunan, 1:203. 39 al-Zarkashi, al-Ijaba, 149. For Shayba b. ‘Uthman’s biography, see Ibn Hajar, Tahdhlb alTahdblb, 4:342. 40 See Dukhayyil, Mawsii ‘at Fiqh A ’isha, 531-52, for a discussion of these and other issues on which she issued opinions different from those of prominent Companions. Additional reports of her opinion on ridd ‘ al-kablr occur in Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat, 8:339 (in the biography of Umm Kulthum bint Abl Bakr), and Malik b. Anas, al-Muwatta ’ (Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islaml, 1996), 2:123-26. The issue of mahram bonds is discussed further later in the chapter. 4 1 While the literal translation of rida ' is nursing, I translate the term as “to give milk to” in the context of a woman giving her breast milk to an adult male. It is clear from the classical