Hadith #261

Arabic Text

English Translation

ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd al-Azraq narrated: ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir al-Juhanī used to go out shooting every day, and he would ask him to accompany him. It was as if he was about to grow tired of it, so ʿUqbah said: "Shall I not tell you what I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?" He said: "Yes." He said: I heard him say: "Allah عز وجل admits three people to Paradise by a single arrow: its owner who intends good in its making, the one who equips it in the cause of Allah, and the one who shoots it in the cause of Allah." And he said: "Shoot and ride, and that you shoot is better than that you ride." And he said: "Everything that the son of Adam amuses himself with is falsehood except three: his shooting with his bow, his training of his horse, and his playing with his wife, for these are from the truth." He said: ʿUqbah died owning sixty or seventy bows, with each bow a quiver and arrows, and he bequeathed them all in the cause of Allah. [A second isnād narrates the same ḥadīth.]