Hadith #552

Arabic Text

English Translation

Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, he said: al-Jurayrī narrated to us, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Shaqīq, from Ibn Ḥawālah who said: I came to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ while he was sitting in the shade of a doum palm tree, and with him was a scribe to whom he was dictating. He said: "Shall we register you, O Ibn Ḥawālah?" I said: "I do not know what Allāh and His Messenger have chosen for me." He turned away from me. Ismāʿīl said once in the first narration: "Shall we register you, O Ibn Ḥawālah?" I said: "I do not know for what, O Messenger of Allāh." He turned away from me and leaned over his scribe, dictating to him. Then he said: "Shall we register you, O Ibn Ḥawālah?" I said: "I do not know what Allāh and His Messenger have chosen for me." He turned away from me and leaned over his scribe, dictating. I looked and saw in the register the name ʿUmar. I said: "ʿUmar is only registered for something good." Then he said: "Shall we register you, O Ibn Ḥawālah?" I said: "Yes." He said: "O Ibn Ḥawālah, how will you act in a tribulation that emerges at the ends of the earth, as if they are the horns of cattle?" I said: "I do not know what Allāh and His Messenger have chosen for me." He said: "And how will you act in another that comes after it, making the first seem like the startling of a rabbit?" I said: "I do not know what Allāh and His Messenger have chosen for me." He said: "Follow this man." A man was turning away at that moment. I went and ran, seized him by the shoulders, turned his face toward the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, and said: "This one?" He said: "Yes." And it was ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān رضي الله تعالى عنه.