Hadith #333

Arabic Text

English Translation

Affān narrated to us, Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, Abū Qaza‘ah al-Bāhilī informed us, from Ḥakīm ibn Mu‘āwiyah, from his father, who said: I came to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and said: ‘I did not come to you until I swore the number of these fingers of mine that I would never come to you’ — Affān showed us and clasped his palms together — ‘So by the One who sent you with the truth, what is it that you were sent with?’ He said: ‘Islam.’ He said: ‘And what is Islam?’ He said: ‘That your heart submits to Allāh ta‘ālā, that you direct your face toward Allāh ta‘ālā, that you perform the obligatory prayers, and that you pay the prescribed zakāh. Two brothers who support one another — Allāh ‘azza wa jall does not accept from anyone who associates partners [with Him] repentance after his Islam.’ I said: ‘What is the right of each of our wives upon us?’ He said: ‘You feed her when you eat, you clothe her when you clothe yourself, you do not strike her face, you do not revile her, and you do not abandon her except within the house.’ He said: ‘You shall be gathered here’ — and he gestured with his hand toward the direction of al-Shām — ‘walking, riding, and upon your faces. You shall be presented before Allāh ta‘ālā, and upon your mouths will be the fidām (muzzles), and the first thing that will speak from any of you is his thigh.’ And he said: ‘No mawlā (kinsman) comes to another mawlā of his and asks him for surplus he possesses, and he refuses to give him, except that Allāh ta‘ālā will make it into a serpent that bites him before the Judgment.’ Affān said: meaning by mawlā his paternal cousin. He [the Prophet ﷺ] said: ‘Indeed a man from those before you was bestowed by Allāh ta‘ālā with wealth and children, until an era passed and another came. When he was on his deathbed, he said to his children: What kind of father was I to you? They said: The best of fathers. He said: Will you obey me? Otherwise I shall take my wealth back from you. Look, when I die, burn me until I become charcoal, then crush me with a mortar’ — and the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ moved his hands around his knees — ‘then scatter me on a windy day, so that I might escape Allāh ta‘ālā.’ Thus said Affān. He [Imam Aḥmad’s father] said: And Muhannā Abū Shibl reported from Ḥammād: ‘so that I might escape Allāh.’ They did that, by Allāh, and there he was, standing in the grasp of Allāh ta‘ālā. He said: ‘O son of Ādam, what drove you to do what you did?’ He said: ‘Out of fear of You.’ So Allāh ta‘ālā pardoned him for it.”