What is the authenticity of the hadith: “Whoever loves to encircle his beloved with a ring of fire”?

Question:
This is a question from the listener: Ali 'Abd al-Mashhur, from Jizan, Samtata. He says: I was reading the book *Adab al-Zafaf* (Etiquette of the Wedding) by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, and I found in this book a hadith whose degree of authenticity I do not know. It is the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): -and in another narration: It was narrated by Abu Dawud, and this is a good chain of narration. Is this hadith authentic?
If that is the case, then its meaning is the prohibition of gold for women. Since Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani has prohibited it, please inform us about that. May Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
There is a point of consideration regarding the authenticity of this report. A group of scholars have graded it as authentic, but the correct view is that it is anomalous (shadh) and not authentic. Even if we assume its authenticity, it is abrogated by the consensus of the scholars. The scholars have unanimously agreed that gold is permissible for women and forbidden for men. This report falls between two possibilities:
Either it is anomalous, having contradicted the authentic hadiths. The ruling on an anomalous hadith is the same as the ruling on weak hadiths. Even if its chain of narration is sound, whenever it contradicts authentic hadiths, it becomes anomalous, and its ruling is the same as that of weak hadiths. This is because one of the conditions for a hadith to be authentic is that it not be anomalous. If a hadith is anomalous by contradicting authentic hadiths that are more authentic than it, then its ruling is the same as that of weak hadiths, and it is judged to be weak. This case falls under this category.
Furthermore, in addition to this, it is abrogated. If its chain of narration were sound and it were free from anomaly, it would still be abrogated by the consensus of the scholars, which indicates that gold is lawful for women and forbidden for men, and that what came regarding the prohibition of it was before that and was then abrogated. We have written an article on this matter, which we published recently, and a response that we sent to the magazine *Al-Da'wah* and other publications, explaining this ruling. We stated that this hadith and similar ones regarding the prohibition of gold for women are all, even assuming their authenticity, abrogated by the consensus reported by the scholars. The Imam al-Jassas, al-Bayhaqi, al-Nawawi, and a group of others have reported the consensus of the scholars on the permissibility of gold for women and its prohibition for men.
As for these reports that contain indications of its prohibition for women, they are reports that are either anomalous or abrogated, as we explained in the article.
Our brother, the distinguished scholar Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, erred in this matter. May Allah forgive him. He thought that the encircled (gold) is forbidden for women, while the non-encircled is not, but this is not correct.
The correct view is that all types of gold, whether encircled or not, are permissible for women. It is established from him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he permitted women to wear bracelets and to wear a gold ring, which is encircled, and bracelets that are encircled.
The point is that the correct view in this matter is that this hadith falls between two possibilities: its weakness due to its anomaly, or its abrogation, if we assume its authenticity, by the consensus of the scholars and by the authentic hadiths indicating its permissibility for women. What our brother, the distinguished scholar Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, mentioned in *Adab al-Zafaf* regarding reconciling the hadiths in this chapter by interpreting the hadiths containing the prohibition as referring to encircled gold, and the hadiths indicating permissibility as referring to non-encircled gold, is not correct. We have explained this in the article we wrote out of advice and to clarify the correct view in this chapter.
He is undoubtedly a scholar who exercises independent legal reasoning (mujtahid) — may Allah reward him with good and bless him — but everyone makes mistakes and hits the mark, and every scholar has errors and mistakes. We ask Allah to guide everyone to what is right in intention and action. Yes.

The presenter: May Allah preserve you and reward you.