Hadith #20

Arabic Text

English Translation

Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ sent us as an army unit of three hundred warriors under the command of Abu 'Ubaida to ambush a caravan of the Quraish. But we were struck with such severe hunger that we ate the Khabat (desert bushes), so our army was called the Army of the Khabat. Then the sea threw a huge fish called Al-`Anbar and we ate of it for half a month and rubbed our bodies with its fat till our bodies became healthy. Then Abu Ubaida took one of its ribs and fixed it over the ground and a rider passed underneath it. There was a man amongst us who slaughtered three camels when hunger became severe, and he slaughtered three more, but after that Abu 'Ubaida forbade him to do so