A Tradition Invented 61 CONCLUSION Through the foregoing analysis, we obtain a picture of the transmission of religious knowledge of a range of women: Muhammad’s wives, his female kin, and other women who participated in the life of the early Muslim community in various ways. There is also a significant minority (a little over 25 percent of the women included in this study) who do not appear to have acquired any such prominence. This arena was thus a field open to women from various backgrounds. To some extent, it was the utility of the traditions for later legal discourses, rather than the prominence of the transmitters, that determined the inclusion of traditions in the hadith compilations. We also arrive at a clearer understanding of how Muhammad’s wives navigated the transmission of reports in spite of their divinely mandated seclusion. Most of them are not credited with numerous reports. Their networks are largely comprised of women and men belonging to their mahram or clientage circles. The two exceptions are ‘A’isha and Umm Salama. ‘A’isha, the most prolific and prominent female Companion, was highly involved in the life of the community. An unrivaled source of information about Muhammad’s preferences and practices, she is depicted as a legal authority as well as a transmitter of reports. Umm Salama’s profile is similar to that of ‘A’isha, except that she is more reserved in her role as a traditionist. The picture we gain of Muhammad’s wives, aside from ‘A’isha and Umm Salama, conforms to the ideal image of them as secluded from the society at large. There is some ambivalence as to how stringently ‘A’isha and, to a lesser extent, Umm Salama may have observed the hi jab strictures. The debate on rida ' al-kabir portrays Umm Salama as more concerned than ‘A’isha with observing seclusion. Reports that various Companions who were not their mahram sought their advice in legal disputes do not provide clear indications as to whether bijab rulings were strictly observed by ‘A’isha and Umm Salama. Further, reports ascribed to ‘A’isha, such as those in which she has direct contact with a blind man (Hassan b. Thabit) and a male slave belonging to someone else, reveal ambiguity in the sources about the extent of ‘A’isha’s participation without bijab. Finally, her position that rida ‘ al-kabir was a valid means for establishing mahram relations suggests that she attempted to utilize one of Muhammad’s precedents to facilitate her function as a transmitter of religious knowledge, and beyond that, to be more engaged in the life of the umma.