My husband, Aws ibn as-Samit, pronounced the words: You are like my mother. So I came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), complaining to him about my husband. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) disputed with me and said: Remain dutiful to Allah; he is your cousin. I continued (complaining) until the Qur’anic verse came down: “Certainly has Allah heard the speech of the one who argues with you, till the prescription of expiation. He then said: He should set free a slave. She said: He cannot afford it. He said: He should fast for two consecutive months. She said: Messenger of Allah, he is an old man; he cannot keep fasts. He said: He should feed sixty poor people. She said: He has nothing which he may give in alms. At that moment an araq (i.e. date-basket holding fifteen or sixteen sa’s) was brought to him. I said: I shall help him with another date-basked (‘araq). He said: You have done well. Go and feed sixty poor people on his behalf, and return to your cousin. The narrator said: An araq holds sixty sa’s of dates. Abu Dawud said: She atoned on his behalf without seeking his permission. Abu Dawud said: This man (Aws b. al-Samit) is the brother of ‘Ubadah b. al-Samit.
The tradition mentioned above has been transmitted by Sulaiman bin Yasar. This version has “Then some dates were brought to the Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) and he gave it him. They measured about fifteen sa’s “. He said “Give them in alms”. He said “Is there anyone needier than I and my family. Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ)?” The Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) said “Eat them, you and your family.”
A tradition similar to that of Sufyan has been transmitted by ‘Ikrimah from the Prophet(ﷺ) through a different chain of narrators.
I heard Abu ‘Amr al-Auza’i say: The word sirrahu means beginning of the month.
A man came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said: I am undone. He asked him: What has happened to you ? He said: I had intercourse with my wife in Ramadan (while I was fasting). He asked: Can you set a slave free ? He said: No. He again asked: Can you fast for two consecutive months ? He said: No. He asked: Can you provide food for sixty poor people ? He said: No. He said: Sit down. Then a huge basket containing dates (‘araq) was brought to the Prophet (ﷺ). He then said to him: Give it as sadaqah (i.e. alms). He said: Messenger of Allah, there is no poorer family than mine between the two lave plains of it (Medina). The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) laughed so that his eye-teeth became visible, and said: Give it to your family to eat. Musaddad said in another place: “his canine teeth”.
When it was mentioned to Ibn Shihab (al-Zuhri) that fasting on Saturday had been prohibited, he would say: This is a Himsi tradition.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to command us to fast the days of the white (nights): thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth of the month. He said: This is like keeping perpetual fast.
The sunnah for one who is observing i’tikaf (in a mosque) is not to visit a patient, or to attend a funeral, or touch or embrace one’s wife, or go out for anything but necessary purposes. There is no i’tikaf without fasting, and there is no i’tikaf except in a congregational mosque.
Abu Musa said “A beduoin came to the Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) and said “One man fights for reputation, one fights for being praised, one fights for booty and one for his place to be seen. (Which of them is in Allaah’s path?)”. The Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) replied “The one who fights that Allaah’s word may have pre-eminence is in Allaah’s path.”
Amr ibn Uqaysh had given usurious loans in pre-Islamic period; so he disliked to embrace Islam until he took them. He came on the day of Uhud and asked: Where are my cousins? They (the people) replied: At Uhud. He asked: Where is so-and-so? They said: At Uhud. He asked: Where is so-and-so? They said: At Uhud. He then put on his coat of mail and rode his horse; he then proceeded towards them. When the Muslims saw him, they said: Keep away, Amir. He said: I have become a believer. He fought until he was wounded. He was then taken to his family wounded. Sa’d ibn Mu’adh came to his sister: Ask him (whether he fought) out of partisanship, out of anger for them, or out of anger for Allah. He said: Out of anger of Allah and His Apostle. He then died and entered Paradise. He did not offer any prayer for Allah.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If one enters a horse with two others when he is not certain that it cannot be beaten, it is not gambling; but when one enters a horse with two others when he is certain it cannot be beaten, it is gambling.
Ibrahim said: Ad-Dahhak ibn Qays intended to appoint Masruq as governor. Thereupon Umarah ibn Uqbah said to him: Are you appointing a man from the remnants of the murderers of Uthman? Masruq said to him: Ibn Mas’ud narrated to us, and he was trustworthy in respect of traditions, that when the Prophet (ﷺ) intended to kill your father, he said: Who will look after my children? He replied: Fire. I also like for you what the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) liked for you.
Salih ibn Muhammad ibn Za’idah (AbuDawud said: This Salih is AbuWaqid) said: We entered the Byzantine territory with Maslamah. A man who had been dishonest about booty was brought. He (Maslamah) asked Salim about him. He said: I heard my father narrating from Umar ibn al-Khattab from the Prophet (ﷺ). He said: When you find a man who has been dishonest about booty, burn his property, and beat him. He beat him. He said: We found in his property a copy of the Qur’an. He again asked Salim about it. He said: Sell it and give its price in charity.
Wahb said: I asked Jabir about the condition of Thaqif when they took the oath of allegiance. He said: They stipulated to the Prophet (ﷺ) that there would be no sadaqah (i.e. zakat) on them nor Jihad (striving in the way of Allah). He then heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say: Later on they will give sadaqah (zakat) and will strive in the way of Allah when they embrace Islam.
The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Mu’awiyah through a different chain of narrators to the same effect as narrated by Abu Taubah. This version has “I have nothing to pay from me. The Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) thereupon kept silence and this displeased me.”
When we went out along with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to at-Ta’if we passed a grave. I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: This is the grave of AbuRighal. He was in this sacred mosque (sanctuary) protecting himself (from punishment). When he came out, he suffered the same punishment which his people suffered at this place, and he was buried in it. The sign of it is that a golden bough was buried with him. If you dig it out, you will find it with him. The people hastened to it and took out the bough.
We were in our country when flags and banners were raised. I said: What is this? The (the people) said: This is the banner of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). So I came to him. He was (sitting) under a tree. A sheet of cloth was spread for him and he was sitting on it. His Companions were gathered around him. I sat with them. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) mentioned illness and said: When a believer is afflicted by illness and Allah cures him of it, it serves as an atonement for his previous sins and a warning to him for the future. But when a hypocrite becomes ill and is then cured, he is like a camel which has been tethered and then let loose by its owners, but does not know why they tethered it and why they let it loose. A man from among those around him asked: Messenger of Allah, what are illnesses? I swear by Allah, I never fell ill. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Get up and leave us. You do not belong to our number. When we were with him, a man came to him. He had a sheet of cloth and something in his hand. He turned his attention to him and said: Messenger of Allah, when I saw you, I turned towards you. I saw a group of trees and heard the sound of fledglings. I took them and put them in my garment. Their mother then came and began to hover round my head. I showed them to her, and she fell on them. I wrapped them with my garment. They are now with me. He said: Put them away from you. So I put them away, but their mother stayed with them. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to his companions: Are you surprised at the affection of the mother for her young? They said: Yes, Messenger of Allah. He said: I swear by Him Who has sent me with the Truth, Allah is more affectionate to His servants than a mother to her young ones. Take them back put them and where you took them from when their mother should have been with them. So he took them back.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) visited me while I was sick. He said: Be glad, Umm al-Ala’ for Allah removes the sins of a Muslim for his illness as fire removes the dross of gold and silver.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: No one of you should wish for death for any calamity that befalls him, but he should say: O Allah! cause me to live so long as my life is better for me ; and cause me to die where death is better for me.
I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say: If any Muslim dies and forty men associate nothing with Allah stand over his bier. Allah will accept them as intercessors for him.
I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) forbid to sit on the grave, to plaster it with gypsum, and to build any structure over it.
To the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was brought man wearing ihram who was thrown by his she-camel and has his neck broken and had died. He then said: Shroud him in his two garments, was him with water and lotus leaves, but do not cover his head, for he will be raised on the Day of Resurrection saying the talbiyah. Abu Dawud said: I heard Ahmad b. Hanbal say: There are five rules of the law (sunan) in this tradition: “Shroud him in his two garment,” that is, the dead should be shrouded in his two garments. “Wash him with water and lotus leaves,” that is, washing all times should be with lotus leaves. Do not bring any perfume near him. The shroud will be made from the property (of the dead).
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) forbade to make a vow. He said: It has not effect against fate, it is only from the miserly that it is means by which something is extracted. Musaddad said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: A vow does not avert anything (i.e. has no effect against fate).
The Prophet (ﷺ) as saying: No vow must be taken to do an act of disobedience, and the atonement for it is the same as for an oath.
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) forbade muhaqalah and muzabanah. Those who cultivate land are three: a man who has (his own) land and he tills it: a man who has been lent land and he tills the one lent to him; a man who employs another man to till land against gold (dinars) or silver (dirhams).
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: No one withholds goods till their price rises but a sinner. I said to Sa’id (b. al-Musayyab): You withhold goods till their price rises. He said: Ma’mar used to withhold goods till their price rose. Abu Dawud said: I asked Ahmad (b. Hanbal): What is hoarding (hukrah) ? He replied: That on which people live. Abu Dawud said: Al-Auza’i said: A muhtakir (one who hoards) is one who withholds supply of goods in the market.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The contractual obligation of a slave is three days.
When one of you asks permission for inserting a wooden peg in his wall, he should not prevent him. So they (the people) lowered down their heads. Then he (Abu Hurairah) said: What is the matter ? I am seeing you are neglecting (to hear this tradition), I shall spread it among you. Abu Dawud said:This is the tradition of Ibn Abi Khalaf is more perfect.
Malik ibn AbuMaryam said: AbdurRahman ibn Ghanam entered upon us and we discussed tila’ and he said: AbuMalik al-Ash’ari told me that he heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: Some of my people will assuredly drink wine calling it by another name.
I was eating with the Prophet (ﷺ) and snatching the meat from the bone with my hand. He said: bring the bone near your mouth, for it is more beneficial and wholesome. Abu Dawud said: ‘Uthman did not hear (traditions) from Safwan. This is a mursal tradition.
The bone dearer to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was the bone of sheep.
I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and his Companions were sitting as if they had birds on their heads. I saluted and sat down. The desert Arabs then came from here and there. They asked: Messenger of Allah, should we make use of medical treatment? He replied: Make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, with the exception of one disease, namely old age.
If anyone emancipates his share in a slave, he is to be completely emancipated by his money if he has money. But if he has no money, a fair price for the slave should be fixed, and the slave is required to work for his master according to the proportion of his price, but he must not be overburdened. Abu Dawud said: In the version of both the narrators the words are “he will be required to work and must not be overburdened”. This is the version of ‘Ali.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not ride on silk stuff and panther skins. AbuSa’id said to us: AbuDawud said to us: The name of AbulMu’tamir is Yazid ibn Tahman. He lived in al-Hirah.
The woman who supplies fake hair and the one who asks for it, the woman who pulls out hair for other people and the woman who depilates herself, the woman who tattoos and the one who has it done when there is no disease to justify it have been cursed. Abu Dawud said: Wasilah means the woman who adds false hair to the hair of women. Mustawsilah means the one who asks for adding the hair to her hair. namisah means a woman who plucks hair from the brow until she makes it thin; mutanammisah means the woman who depilates herself ; washimah is a woman who tattoos in the face with antimony or ink ; mustawshimah is a woman with whom it is done.
Khalid ibn Dihqan said: When we were engaged in the battle of Constantinople at Dhuluqiyyah, a man of the people of Palestine, who was one of their nobility and elite and whose rank was known to them, came forward. He was called Hani ibn Kulthum ibn Sharik al-Kinani. He greeted Abdullah ibn Zakariyya who knew his rank. Khalid said to us: Abdullah ibn AbuZakariyya told us: I heard Umm ad-Darda’ say: I heard AbudDarda’ say: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: It is hoped that Allah may forgive every sin, except in the case of one who dies a polytheist, or one who purposely kills a believer. Hani ibn Kulthum ar-Rabi’ then said: I heard Mahmud ibn ar-Rabi’ transmitting a tradition from Ubadah ibn as-Samit who transmitted from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who said: If a man kills a believer unjustly, Allah will not accept any action or duty of his, obligatory or supererogatory. Khalid then said to us: Ibn AbuZakariyya transmitted a tradition to us from Umm ad-Darda’ on the authority of AbudDarda’ from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who said: A believer will continue to go on quickly and well so long as he does not shed unlawful blood; when he sheds unlawful blood, he becomes slow and heavy-footed. A similar tradition has been transmitted by Hani ibn Kulthum from Mahmud ibn ar-Rabi’ on the authority of Ubadah ibn as-Samit from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Disagreement will occur at the death of a caliph and a man of the people of Medina will come flying forth to Mecca. Some of the people of Mecca will come to him, bring him out against his will and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. An expeditionary force will then be sent against him from Syria but will be swallowed up in the desert between Mecca and Medina. When the people see that, the eminent saints of Syria and the best people of Iraq will come to him and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. Then there will arise a man of Quraysh whose maternal uncles belong to Kalb and send against them an expeditionary force which will be overcome by them, and that is the expedition of Kalb. Disappointed will be the one who does not receive the booty of Kalb. He will divide the property, and will govern the people by the Sunnah of their Prophet (ﷺ) and establish Islam on Earth. He will remain seven years, then die, and the Muslims will pray over him. Abu Dawud said: Some transmitted from Hisham “nine years” and some “seven years”.
I went to the Prophet (ﷺ) while two men who were Ash’ arIs were with me. One of them was on my right and the other on my left side. Bothe of them asked him for employment. The prophet (ﷺ) was silent. He asked : What do you say Abu Musa, or ‘Abd Allah b. Qais (Abu Musa’s name)? I replied: By him who has sent you with truth, they did not inform me of what they had in their hearts, and I did not know that they would ask for an employment. He said : I have the scene before my eyes that he had his toothstick below his lip which receded. He (the prophet) said: We will never or will not put in charge of our work anyone who asks for it. But go, ye, Abu Musa, or ‘Abd Allah b. Qais. He then sent him as a Governor of the Yemen, After him he sent Muadh b. Jabal. When Muadh came to him, he said: come down , and he put a cushion for him. He saw that a man was chained with him. He asked : What is this? He replied: He was a Jew and he accepted Islam. He then converted to his religion, an evil religion. He said: I will not sit until he is killed according to the decision of Allah and his Apostle (ﷺ). He said: Yes, be seated. He said: I will not sit until he is killed according to the decision of Allah and his Apostle (peace be upon him). He said it three times. He then commanded for it and he was killed. Both of them then discussed the question of prayer and vigilance at night. One of them, probably Muadh, said : So far as I am concerned, I sleep and I keep vigilance: I keep vigilance and I sleep: I hope for the same reward for my sleep as for my vigilance.
On his father’s authority, said that his grandfather reported that the value of the blood-money at the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was eight hundred dinars or eight thousand dirhams, and the blood-money for the people of the Book was half of that for Muslims. He said: This applied till Umar (Allah be pleased with him) became caliph and he made a speech in which he said: Take note! Camels have become dear. So Umar fixed the value for those who possessed gold at one thousand dinars, for those who possessed silver at twelve thousand (dirhams), for those who possessed cattle at two hundred cows, for those who possessed sheep at two thousand sheep, and for those who possessed suits of clothing at two hundred suits. He left the blood-money for dhimmis (protected people) as it was, not raising it in proportion to the increase he made in the blood-wit.
The bloodwit for what resembled intentional murder should be forty pregnant she-camels in their fifth year, thirty she-camels in their fourth year, and thirty she-camels in their third year. The bloodwit for unintentional murder is thirty she-camels in their fourth year, thirty she-camels in their third year, and twenty she-camels in their second year.
The Prophet (ﷺ) fixed the bloodwit for the slain woman to be paid by the relatives of the woman who had slain her, on the father’s side. Abu Dawud said: In a similar way it has been transmitted by al-Hakam from Mujahid from al-Mughirah.
A woman threw a stone at another woman and she aborted. The dispute was brought to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He gave judgment that five hundred sheep should be paid for her (unborn) child, and forbade throwing stones. Abu Dawud said: The version of this tradition goes in this way, i.e. five hundred sheep. What is correct is one hundred sheep. Abu Dawud said: ‘Abbas transmitted this tradition this way, but it is misunderstanding.
The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Anas b. Malik from the Prophet (ﷺ) through a different chain of narrators in a similar way.
Nafi’ said: Ibn Umar heard a pipe, put his fingers in his ears and went away from the road. He said to me: Are you hearing anything? I said: No. He said: He then took his fingers out of his ears and said: I was with the Prophet (ﷺ), and he heard like this and he did like this. AbuAli al-Lu’lu said: I heard AbuDawud say: This is a rejected tradition.
We went out one rainy and intensely dark night to look for the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to lead us in prayer, and when we found him, he asked: Have you prayed?, but I did not say anything. So he said: Say, but I did not say anything. He again said: Say, but I did not say anything. He then said: Say. So I said: What am I to say? He said: Say: “Say, He is Allah, One,” and al-Mu’awwadhatan three times in the morning and evening; they will serve you for every purpose.