Hadith #123

Arabic Text

English Translation

Abū al-Qamūṣ Zayd ibn ʿAlī narrated: One of the delegation that came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from ʿAbd al-Qays told me: We presented to him among our gifts a waterskin of taʿḍūḍ or barnī dates. He said: 'What is this?' We said: 'This is a gift.' I think he looked at one of the dates, put it back, and said: 'Deliver these to the family of Muḥammad.' The people asked him about various things until they asked about drinks. He said: 'Do not drink from gourds (dubbāʾ), green-glazed jars (ḥantam), hollowed tree trunks (naqīr), or pitch-coated vessels (muzaffat). Drink from the lawful — the tied waterskin.' One of us said: 'O Messenger of Allah, how do you know what dubbāʾ, ḥantam, naqīr, and muzaffat are?' He said: 'Do I not know what they are? Which fortress of Hajar is the strongest?' We said: 'Al-Mushaqqar.' He said: 'By Allah, I have entered it and taken its keys.' Then — I had forgotten part of his hadith, so ʿUbaydullāh ibn Abī Jarwah reminded me — he said: 'I stood at ʿAyn al-Zārah.' Then he said: 'O Allah, forgive ʿAbd al-Qays, for they embraced Islam willingly, not unwillingly, neither disgraced nor bereaved — while some peoples refuse to submit until they are humiliated and bereaved.' He turned his face toward the qiblah — meaning to the right of the qiblah — then faced it directly and supplicated for ʿAbd al-Qays. Then he said: 'The best people of the East are ʿAbd al-Qays.'