Zainab said: I visited Umm Habibah when her father, Abu Sufyan, died. She called for perfume containing yellow saffron, or something similar, and applied it to a young girl. Then she touched her own cheeks and said: By Allah, I have no need for perfume, but I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: "It is not lawful for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to mourn for a dead person beyond three nights, except for a husband: four months and ten days."
Zainab said: I also visited Zainab bint Jahsh when her brother died. She called for perfume and applied it, then said: By Allah, I have no need for perfume, but I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say while he was on the pulpit: "It is not lawful for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to mourn for a dead person beyond three nights, except for a husband: four months and ten days."
Zainab said: I heard my mother, Umm Salamah, say: A woman came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and said: O Messenger of Allah, my daughter's husband has died and her eyes are ailing; may we apply antimony (kohl) to them? The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "No,"—repeating it twice or thrice—and every time he said: "No." Then the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "It is only four months and ten days, whereas in the pre-Islamic period of ignorance (Jahiliyyah) one of you would throw a piece of dung at the end of a year."
Humayd said: I asked Zainab: What is throwing a piece of dung at the end of a year? Zainab replied: When a woman's husband died, she would enter a small dwelling, wear her worst clothes, and not touch any perfume or anything else until a year passed. Then an animal—a donkey, a sheep, or a bird—would be brought to her, and she would break her mourning state (tفتش) with it; and rarely would she break her mourning state with something without it dying. Then she would come out, be given a piece of dung, throw it, and thereafter she could return to whatever perfume or other things she desired.
Abu Dawud said: Al-hafsh is a small house.