Thauban reported God's Messenger as saying, “If any woman asks her husband for divorce without some strong reason the odour of paradise will be forbidden to her.”
Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah and Darimi transmitted it.
The Prophet used to spend time with Zainab daughter of Jahsh and that he once drank honey at her house, so Hafsa and she agreed that the one whom the Prophet visited first should say, “I notice that you have an odour of the gum of the mimosa.* Have you eaten some?” When he visited one of them and she said that to him he replied, “Don’t worry; I drank some honey at the house of Zainab daughter of Jahsh, but I swear that I shall not do it again. Do not tell anyone of that.” desiring to please his wives, and then there came down, “O prophet, why do you hold to be forbidden what God has made lawful for you, desiring to please your wives? (Al-Qur’an 66:1).
*Maghafir; plural of Mughfur, is here used. It is the gum of a kind of mimosa called ‘urfut, the odour of which is unpleasant.
One makes atonement for something he has made unlawful for himself.* You have had a good example in God’s Messenger.
* i.e. something not in itself unlawful. It is treated like an oath for breaking which atonement must be made. The Prophet’s example refers to his withdrawing from his wives for a period.
