Hadith #438

Arabic Text

English Translation

Ismāʿīl narrated to us, Ayyūb informed us, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from ʿAmr ibn Wahb al-Thaqafī who said: We were with al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah and he was asked: 'Did anyone from this ummah lead the Prophet ﷺ in prayer other than Abū Bakr?' He said: 'Yes.' He said — and this increased my confidence in it, what brought the ḥadīth close — he said: 'We were with the Prophet ﷺ on a journey. When it was the last part of the night, he struck the heel of my riding camel, and I thought he had a need. I turned aside with him and we went until we were away from the people. He dismounted, then went off and disappeared from my sight for a long time. Then he came and said: "Do you need anything, O Mughīrah?" I said: "I have no need." He said: "Do you have water?" I said: "Yes." So I went to a water-skin — or he said: a leather bag — hanging at the back of the saddle. I brought it to him and poured it for him. He washed his hands thoroughly — he said: and I am uncertain whether he said he rubbed them with earth or not — then he washed his face. Then he went to push back his hands, but he was wearing a narrow-sleeved Syrian cloak, so it was too tight. He pulled his hands out from underneath it and washed his face and hands — he said: the washing of the face comes twice in the ḥadīth, and I do not know if that is how it was or not — then he wiped his forelock and over the turban and over the leather socks. Then we mounted and caught up with the people. The prayer had been established, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf had led them in one rakʿah and they were in the second. I went to inform him but he stopped me. So we prayed the rakʿah we caught and made up the one we missed.'