Hadith #76

Arabic Text

English Translation

Ḥammād narrated to us, from Yazīd, from Salamah, who said: ʿĀmir was a man who composed poetry. He dismounted and began chanting the ḥidāʾ [travel song], saying: "O Allāh, were it not for You we would not have been guided, nor given charity, nor prayed. So forgive us — may our souls be Your ransom — for what we have committed. And make firm our feet if we meet [the enemy]. And cast tranquility upon us. Indeed, when the battle cry is raised upon us, we come. And with the battle cry, they have relied upon us." The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: "Who is this chanter?" They said: Ibn al-Akwaʿ. He said: "May Allāh have mercy on him." A man said: It has become obligatory [martyrdom], O Messenger of Allāh — if only you had let us benefit from him longer. He said: Then he was struck. He went to strike a Jewish man, but the tip of his own sword hit the back of his knee and killed him. The people said: His deeds are nullified — he killed himself. He [Salamah] said: I came to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ after he had returned to Madīnah while he was in the mosque, and I said: O Messenger of Allāh, they claim that ʿĀmir's deeds are nullified. He said: "Who says that?" I said: Men from the Anṣār, among them so-and-so and so-and-so. He said: "Whoever said that has lied. He has two rewards" — with his two fingers — "and he is indeed a striver, a mujāhid. Rarely has an Arab walked upon it [the land] who excelled him."