The story of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s daughter

Question

Praise be to Allah.

The story of
the hairdresser of the daughter of Pharaoh is narrated as follows:

It was
narrated that Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The
Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“On the night on which I was taken on the Night Journey (Isra’), a beautiful
fragrance came to me. I said: O Jibreel, what is this beautiful fragrance?
He said: This is the fragrance of the hairdresser of Pharaoh’s daughter and
her children. I said: What is their story? He said: Whilst she was combing
the hair of Pharaoh’s daughter one day, the iron comb fell from her hand and
she said, ‘Bismillaah (in the name of Allaah).’ The daughter of Pharaoh
said: ‘My father?’ She said: ‘No. My Lord and the Lord of your father is
Allaah.’ She said: ‘I will tell him about that.’ She said: ‘Yes.’ So she
told him and he summoned her and said: ‘O So and so, do you have a Lord
other than me?’ She said: ‘Yes, my Lord and your Lord is Allaah.’ He ordered
that a baqarah (lit. “cow”) made of copper be heated up, then he
ordered that she and her children be thrown into it. She said: ‘I have a
request to make of you.’ He said: ‘What is your request?’ She said: ‘I would
like my bones and my children’s bones to be gathered together in one cloth
and buried.’ He said: ‘This will be done for you.’ He ordered that her
children be thrown into it in front of her, one by one, until they came to
the last one who was an infant boy who was still being breastfed. It was as
if she wavered because of him, but he said: ‘O mother, go ahead, for the
punishment of this world is easier to bear than the punishment of the
hereafter.’ So she went ahead.” Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him)
said: Four infants spoke: ‘Eesa ibn Maryam (peace be upon him), the
companion of Jurayj, the witness of Yoosuf and the son of the hairdresser of
Pharaoh’s daughter.

Narrated by
Imam Ahmad in al-Musnad (1/309), al-Tabaraani (12280), Ibn Hibbaan
(2903) and al-Haakim (2/496).

Al-Dhahabi
said in al-‘Aluw (84): This hadeeth has a hasan isnaad. Ibn Katheer
said in al-Tafseer (3/15): There is nothing wrong with its isnaad.
Its isnaad was classed as saheeh by the scholar Ahmad Shaakir in his
commentary on al-Musnad (4/295). Al-Arna’oot said in Takhreej
al-Musnad (5/30-31, no. 2821): Its isnaad is hasan.

Thus it is
clear that this story is saheeh and is proven from our Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and it is not taken from Jewish or
Christian sources.

With regard
to the phrase “He ordered that a baqarah (lit. “cow”) made of copper
be heated up”, Ibn al-Atheer said in al-Nihaayah (1/145): Al-Haafiz
Abu Moosa said: It seems to me that this does not refer to something that
was made in the shape of a cow, rather it may have been a vast pot or
kettle, which they called a baqarah, taken from the word tabaqqur
which means vastness, or it may have been something that could have held a
whole cow because of its large size, so it was called thus.

And Allaah
knows best.