Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said said, "Once Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Habban and I were sitting down, and Muhammad called a man over to him and said to him, 'Tell me what you have heard from your father.' The man replied that his father had told him that he went to Zayd ibn Thabit and asked him, 'What do you think of reciting the whole Qur'an in seven days?' Zayd said, 'That's good, but I prefer to recite it in two weeks, or ten days. Ask me why that is.' He said, 'I ask you then.' Zayd said, 'So that I can reflect on it and pause in it.' "

Allah's Apostle said, "Fasting is a shield (or a screen or a shelter). So, the person observing fasting should avoid sexual relation with his wife and should not behave foolishly and impudently, and if somebody fights with him or abuses him, he should tell him twice, 'I am fasting." The Prophet added, "By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, the smell coming out from the mouth of a fasting person is better in the sight of Allah than the smell of musk. (Allah says about the fasting person), 'He has left his food, drink and desires for My sake. The fast is for Me. So I will reward (the fasting person) for it and the reward of good deeds is multiplied ten times."

Once the Prophet was narrating (a story), while a bedouin was sitting with him. "One of the inhabitants of Paradise will ask Allah to allow him to cultivate the land. Allah will ask him, 'Are you not living in the pleasures you like?' He will say, 'Yes, but I like to cultivate the land.' " The Prophet added, "When the man (will be permitted he) will sow the seeds and the plants will grow up and get ripe, ready for reaping and so on till it will be as huge as mountains within a wink. Allah will then say to him, 'O son of Adam! Take here you are, gather (the yield); nothing satisfies you.' " On that, the bedouin said, "The man must be either from Quraish (i.e. an emigrant) or an Ansari, for they are farmers, whereas we are not farmers." The Prophet smiled (at this).

We were in our country when flags and banners were raised. I said: What is this?

The (the people) said: This is the banner of the Messenger of Allah (saws). So I came to him. He was (sitting) under a tree. A sheet of cloth was spread for him and he was sitting on it. His Companions were gathered around him. I sat with them.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) mentioned illness and said: When a believer is afflicted by illness and Allah cures him of it, it serves as an atonement for his previous sins and a warning to him for the future.

But when a hypocrite becomes ill and is then cured, he is like a camel which has been tethered and then let loose by its owners, but does not know why they tethered it and why they let it loose.

A man from among those around him asked: Messenger of Allah, what are illnesses? I swear by Allah, I never fell ill.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said: Get up and leave us. You do not belong to our number. When we were with him, a man came to him. He had a sheet of cloth and something in his hand.

He turned his attention to him and said: Messenger of Allah, when I saw you, I turned towards you. I saw a group of trees and heard the sound of fledglings. I took them and put them in my garment. Their mother then came and began to hover round my head. I showed them to her, and she fell on them. I wrapped them with my garment. They are now with me.

He said: Put them away from you. So I put them away, but their mother stayed with them.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said to his companions: Are you surprised at the affection of the mother for her young?

They said: Yes, Messenger of Allah. He said: I swear by Him Who has sent me with the Truth, Allah is more affectionate to His servants than a mother to her young ones. Take them back put them and where you took them from when their mother should have been with them. So he took them back.

Abu Dawud said : The version of Hisham was not narrated by anyone except Sa'id.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Hazm from Humayd ibn Nafi that Zaynab bint Abi Salama related these three traditions to him. Zaynab said, "I visited Umm Habiba, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when her father Abu Sufyan ibn Harb had died. Umm Habiba called for a yellowy perfume perhaps khaluq or something else. She rubbed the perfume first on a slave-girl and she then wiped it on the sides of her face and said, 'By Allah! I have no need of perfume but I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'It is not halal for a woman who trusts in Allah and the Last Day to abstain from adornment in mourning for someone who has died, for more than three nights, except for four months and ten days for a husband.' "

Malik said, "The best of what is heard about a slave-girl whom a man has intercourse with while he has a partner in her is that the hadd is not inflicted on him and the child is connected to him. When the slave-girl becomes pregnant, her value is estimated and he gives his partners their shares of the price and the slave-girl is his. That is what is done among us."

Malik said about a man who made his slave-girl halal to a man that if the one for whom she was made halal had intercourse with her, her value was estimated on the day he had intercourse with her and he owed that to her owner whether or not she conceived. The hadd was averted from him by that. If she conceived the child was connected to him.

Malik said about a man who had intercourse with his son's or daughter's slave-girl, "The hadd is averted from him and he owes the estimated value of the slave-girl whether or not she conceives."

I came to Medina when an epidemic had broken out. While I was sitting with `Umar bin Al-Khattab a funeral procession passed by and the people praised the deceased. `Umar said, "It has been affirmed to him." And another funeral procession passed by and the people praised the deceased. `Umar said, "It has been affirmed to him." A third (funeral procession) passed by and the people spoke badly of the deceased. He said, "It has been affirmed to him." I (Abu Al-Aswad) asked, "O chief of the believers! What has been affirmed?" He replied, "I said the same as the Prophet had said, that is: if four persons testify the piety of a Muslim, Allah will grant him Paradise." We asked, "If three persons testify his piety?" He (the Prophet) replied, "Even three." Then we asked, "If two?" He replied, "Even two." We did not ask him regarding one witness.

A man came to Allah's Apostle and said, "I am ruined." The Prophet asked, "What do you mean?" He said, "I had a sexual intercourse with my wife during Ramadan (while fasting)." The Prophet asked him, "Can you manumit a slave?" He replied in the negative. He then asked him, "Can you fast for two successive months continuously" He replied in the negative. The Prophet then asked him, "Can you feed sixty poor persons?" He replied in the negative. In the meantime an Ansari came with a basket full of dates. The Prophet said to the man, "Take it and give it in charity (as an expiation of your sin)." The man said "Should I give it to some people who are poorer than we O Allah's Apostle? By Him Who has sent you with the Truth, there is no family between Medina's two mountains poorer than we." Allah's Apostle told him to take it and provide his family with it."

The Prophet said, "The example of the person abiding by Allah's orders and limits (or the one who abides by the limits and regulations prescribed by Allah) in comparison to the one who do wrong and violate Allah's limits and orders is like the example of people drawing lots for seats in a boat. Some of them got seats in the upper part while the others in the lower part ; those in the, lower part have to pass by those in the upper one to get water, and that troubled the latter. One of them (i.e. the people in the lower part) took an ax and started making a hole in the bottom of the boat. The people of the upper part came and asked him, (saying), 'What is wrong with you?' He replied, "You have been troubled much by my (coming up to you), and I have to get water.' Now if they prevent him from doing that they will save him and themselves, but if they leave him (to do what he wants), they will destroy him and themselves."

On the day of (the battle) of Al-Yarmuk, the companions of Allah's Apostle said to Az-Zubair, "Will you attack the enemy so that we shall attack them with you?" Az-Zubair replied, "If I attack them, you people would not support me." They said, "No, we will support you." So Az-Zubair attacked them (i.e. Byzantine) and pierced through their lines, and went beyond them and none of his companions was with him. Then he returned and the enemy got hold of the bridle of his (horse) and struck him two blows (with the sword) on his shoulder. Between these two wounds there was a scar caused by a blow, he had received on the day of Badr (battle). When I was a child I used to play with those scars by putting my fingers in them. On that day (my brother) "Abdullah bin Az-Zubair was also with him and he was ten years old. Az-Zubair had carried him on a horse and let him to the care of some men.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (saws) say: If any of you can become like the man who had a faraq of rice, he should become like him. They (the people) asked: Who is the man who had a faraq of rice with him, Messenger of Allah ? Thereupon he narrated the story of the cave when a hillock fell on them (three persons), each of them said: Mention any best work of yours. The narrator said: The third of them said: O Allah, you know that I took a hireling for a faraq of rice. When the evening came, I presented to him his due (i.e. his wages). But he refused to take it and went away. I then cultivated it until I amassed cows and their herdsmen for him. He then met me and said: Give me my dues. I said (to him): Go to those cows and their herdsmen and take them all. He went and drove them away.

Malik related to me that Ishaq ibn Abdullah ibn Abi Talha heard Anas ibn Malik say, "Abu Talha had the greatest amount of property in palm-trees among the Ansar in Madina. The dearest of his properties to him was Bayruha which was in front of the mosque. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to go into it and drink from the pleasant water which was in it."

Anas continued, "When this ayat was sent down 'You will not obtain rightness of action until you expend of what you love,' (Sura 2 ayat l76), Abu Talha went to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, 'Messenger of Allah! Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted, has said, "You will not obtain until you expend of what you love." The property which I love the best is Bayruha. It is sadaqa for Allah. I hope for its good and for it to be stored up with Allah. Place it wherever you wish, Messengerof Allah. ' "

"The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'Well done! That is property which profits! That is property which profits. I have heard what you have said about it and I think that you should give it to your relatives.' Abu Talha said, 'I will do it, Messenger of Allah!' Abu Talha therefore divided it among his relatives and the children of his paternal uncle."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Zayd ibn Aslam from Ibrahim ibn Abdullah ibn Hunayn from his father Abdullah ibn Hunayn that Abdullah ibn Abbas and al-Miswar ibn Makhrama once had a disagreement at al-Abwa. Abdullah said that some one in ihram could wash his head, and al Miswar ibn Makhrama maintained that some one in ihram could not wash his head.

Abdullah ibn Hunayn continued, "Abdullah ibn Abbas sent me to Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, and I found him doing ghusl between the posts of a well, screened by a garment. I greeted him and hesaid, 'Who is that?' I replied, 'I am 'Abdullah ibn Hunayn. 'Abdullah ibn Abbas sent me to you to ask how the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to wash his head when he was in ihram.' "

He continued, "Abu Ayyub put his hand on the garment and pulled it down until I could see his head. He said to the man who was pouring out the water for him, 'Pour,' and he poured some over his head. Then he passed his hands over his head from the front to the back and then to the front again, and then said, 'I saw the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, doing it like this.' "

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab that Salim ibn Abdullah said, ''Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan wrote to al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf telling him not to disagree with Abdullah ibn Umar about anything to do with the hajj. Then, when the day of Arafa came Abdullah ibn Umar went to him just after noon, and I went with him. He called out to him outside his tent, 'Where is this man?' and a-lHajjaj came out to him, wearing a blanket dyed with safflower, and said to him, 'What's up with you, Abu Abd ar-Rahman?' He said, 'Hurry up, if you want to follow the sunna.' Al-Hajjaj said, 'At this hour?' and he said, 'Yes.' Al-Hajjaj said, 'Wait until I have poured some water over myself, and then I will come out.' So Abdullah dismounted and waited until al- Hajjaj came out. He passed between me and my father and I said to him, 'If you want to accord with the sunna today, then make the khutba short, do not delay the prayer and do the prayer quickly.' Then he began looking at Abdullah ibn Umar to see if he would say the same thing, and when Abdullah saw that, he said, 'What Salim is saying is true.' "

20.64 Doing the Prayer at Mina on the Eighth Day of Dhu-l-Hijja, and the Jumua at Mina and Arafa

Yahya related to me from Malik from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Said from Amr ibn Shuayb that when the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came back from Hunayn heading for al-Jiirrana, the people crowded around so much to question him that his she-camel backed into a tree, which became entangled in his cloak and pulled it off his back. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Return my cloak to me. Are you afraid that I will not distribute among you what Allah has given you as spoils. By He in whose hand my self is! Had Allah given you spoils equal to the number of acacia trees on the plain of Tihama, I would have distributed it among you. You will not find me to be miserly, cowardly, or a liar." Then the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, got down and stood among the people, and said, "Hand over even the needle and thread, for stealing from the spoils is disgrace, fire, ignominy on the Day of Rising for people who do it." Then he took a bit of camel fluff or something from the ground and said, "By He in whose hand my self is! What Allah has made spoils for you is not mine - even the like of this! - except for the tax of one fifth, and the tax of one fifth is returned to you."

That he differed with Al-Hur bin Qais Al-Fazari regarding the companion of Moses. Ibn `Abbas said that he was Al-Khadir. Meanwhile Ubai bin Ka`b passed by them and Ibn `Abbas called him saying, "My friend and I have differed regarding Moses' companion whom Moses asked the way to meet. Have you heard Allah's Apostle mentioning something about him?" He said, "Yes, I heard Allah's Apostle saying, 'While Moses was sitting in the company of some Israelites, a man came and asked (him), 'Do you know anyone who is more learned than you?' Moses replied, 'No.' So, Allah sent the Divine Inspiration to Moses: 'Yes, Our slave, Khadir (is more learned than you).' Moses asked how to meet him (i.e. Khadir). So, the fish, was made, as a sign for him, and he was told that when the fish was lost, he should return and there he would meet him. So, Moses went on looking for the sign of the fish in the sea. The servant boy of Moses said to him, 'Do you know that when we were sitting by the side of the rock, I forgot the fish, and t was only Satan who made me forget to tell (you) about it.' Moses said, That was what we were seeking after,' and both of them returned, following their footmarks and found Khadir; and what happened further to them, is mentioned in Allah's Book."

The Prophet (saws) said: A time is certainly coming to mankind when only the receiver of usury will remain, and if he does not receive it, some of its vapour will reach him. Ibn Isa said: Some of its dust will reach him.

Abu Salama reported on the authority of Abu Huraira that when Iqama was pronounced for the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him), the people occupied their places in the rows before the Apostle of Allah (way peace be upon him) stood up at his place.

'A'isha, the wife of the Apostle (may peace be upon him), said that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said the afternoon prayer (at the time) when the sun shone in her apartment and its shadow did not extend beyond her apartment.

Anas b. Malik reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) observed Qunut for one month Invoking curse upon Ri'l, Dhakwan, 'Usayya. those who disobeyed Allah and His Messenger (may peace be upon him).