The sending of Mu'adh ibn Jabal to Yemen and the Prophet's charge to him

The Prophet sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal, as commander over his messengers, to Yemen after the letter to the kings of Himyar, and gave him instructions when he sent him. ^{1 2}

The Prophet's letter to Himyar names his messengers: Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Abd Allah ibn Zayd, Malik ibn Ubada, Uqba ibn Nimr, and Malik ibn Murra and their companions, and that their commander was Mu'adh ibn Jabal, and that they were not to return except content. ¹

Ibn Ishaq relates from Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr that he was told that when the Prophet sent Mu'adh he instructed him and gave him charge, then said: "Make things easy and do not make them hard; give good news and do not drive people away." He said: you will come upon a people of the Book who will ask you what the key to Paradise is; say: the testimony that there is no god but God, alone without partner. ²

When Mu'adh came to Yemen he did what the Prophet had ordered him. A woman from Yemen came to him and asked: what is the right of a husband over his wife? He said: woe to you, a woman cannot fulfil her husband's right, so exert yourself in fulfilling his right as much as you can. She swore that if he was a companion of the Messenger of God he knew what the husband's right over the wife is; he answered her with a severe comparison of the greatness of that right. ² This answer is Mu'adh's words as Ibn Ishaq transmits them and is not quoted here in its wording; the editors explain "tanthana'u" as "to flow". ²

• The chain of the instruction is Ibn Ishaq from Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr, who "was told". ²
• Mu'adh's well-known report on judging by the Book, then the Sunna, then independent reasoning is not in this place in Ibn Hisham; it is in Ibn Sa'd and elsewhere. ³