While we were in the company of the Prophet in a tent he said, ''Would it please you to be one fourth of the people of Paradise?" We said, "Yes." He said, "Would It please you to be one-third of the people of Paradise?" We said, "Yes." He said, "Would it please you to be half of the people of Paradise?" We said, "Yes." Thereupon he said, "I hope that you will be one half of the people of Paradise, for none will enter Paradise but a Muslim soul, and you people, in comparison to the people who associate others in worship with Allah, are like a white hair on the skin of a black ox, or a black hair on the skin of a red ox."

The Prophet said, "Allah will say (on the Day of Resurrection), 'O Adam.' Adam will reply, 'Labbaik wa Sa`daik', and all the good is in Your Hand.' Allah will say: 'Bring out the people of the fire.' Adam will say: 'O Allah! How many are the people of the Fire?' Allah will reply: 'From every one thousand, take out nine-hundred-and ninety-nine.' At that time children will become hoary headed, every pregnant female will have a miscarriage, and one will see mankind as drunken, yet they will not be drunken, but dreadful will be the Wrath of Allah." The companions of the Prophet asked, "O Allah's Apostle! Who is that (excepted) one?" He said, "Rejoice with glad tidings; one person will be from you and one-thousand will be from Gog and Magog." The Prophet further said, "By Him in Whose Hands my life is, hope that you will be one-fourth of the people of Paradise." We shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" He added, "I hope that you will be one-third of the people of Paradise." We shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" He said, "I hope that you will be half of the people of Paradise." We shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" He further said, "You (Muslims) (compared with non Muslims) are like a black hair in the skin of a white ox or like a white hair in the skin of a black ox (i.e. your number is very small as compared with theirs).

Ibn `Umar used to kill snakes, but afterwards he forbade their killing and said, "Once the Prophet pulled down a wall and saw a cast-off skin of a snake in it. He said, 'Look for the snake. 'They found it and the Prophet said, "Kill it." For this reason I used to kill snakes. Later on I met Abu Lubaba who told me the Prophet said, 'Do not kill snakes except the short-tailed or mutilated-tailed snake with two white lines on its back, for it causes abortion and makes one blind. So kill it.' "

The Prophet (saws) said: I wish I had a white loaf made from tawny and softened with clarified butter and milk. A man from among the people got up and getting one brought it. He asked: In which had it been? He replied: In a lizard skin. He said: Take it away.

Abu Dawud said: This is a munkar (rejected) tradition.

Abu Dawud said: Ayyub, the narrator of this tradition, is not (Ayyub) al-Sakhtiyani.

(the wife of the Prophet) One of our sheep died and we tanned its skin and kept on infusing dates in it till it was a worn out water skin.

On the day (of the battle) of Uhad when (some) people retreated and left the Prophet, I saw `Aisha bint Abu Bakr and Um Sulaim, with their robes tucked up so that the bangles around their ankles were visible hurrying with their water skins (in another narration it is said, "carrying the water skins on their backs"). Then they would pour the water in the mouths of the people, and return to fill the water skins again and came back again to pour water in the mouths of the people.

`Adi took a white rope (or thread) and a black one, and when some part of the night had passed, he looked at them but he could not distinguish one from the other. The next morning he said, "O Allah's Apostle! I put (a white thread and a black thread) underneath my pillow." The Prophet said, "Then your pillow is too wide if the white thread (of dawn) and the black thread (of the night) are underneath your pillow! "

When the above verses were revealed: 'Until the white thread appears to you, distinct from the black thread,' I took two (hair) strings, one black and the other white, and kept them under my pillow and went on looking at them throughout the night but could not make anything out of it. So, the next morning I went to Allah's Apostle and told him the whole story. He explained to me, "That verse means the darkness of the night and the whiteness of the dawn."

I said, "O Allah's Apostle! What is the meaning of the white thread distinct from the black thread? Are these two threads?" He said, "You are not intelligent if you watch the two threads." He then added, "No, it is the darkness of the night and the whiteness of the day.''

The Prophet forbade the drinking of water directly from the mouth of a water skin .

The Prophet forbade the drinking of water direct from the mouth of a water-skin.

The Prophet said, "May Allah bestow His Mercy on the mother of Ishmael! Had she not hastened (to fill her water-skin with water from the Zamzam well). Zamzam would have been a stream flowing on the surface of the earth." Ibn `Abbas further added, "(The Prophet) Abraham brought Ishmael and his mother (to Mecca) and she was suckling Ishmael and she had a water-skin with her.'

Anas b. Malik did not like that a person should pick out his white hair from his head or beard, and Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) did not dye, and there was some whiteness in his hair at his chin, on his temples and very little on his head.

Allah's Apostle ordered me to distribute the saddles and skins of the Budn which I had slaughtered.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said: Keep to every dark bay horse with a white blaze and white on the legs, or sorrel with a white blaze and white on the legs , or black with a white blaze and white on the legs.

When the following verses were revealed: 'Eat and drink until the white thread appears to you, distinct from the black thread' and of dawn was not revealed, some people who intended to fast, tied black and white threads to their legs and went on eating till they differentiated between the two. Allah then revealed the words, 'of dawn', and it became clear that meant night and day.

Allah's Apostle ordered me to give in charity the skin and the coverings of the Budn which I had slaughtered.

The Prophet passed by a dead goat and said, "There is no harm if its owners benefit from its skin."

Anas reported that the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) was not accustomed to raice his hands in any supplication he made except when praying for rain. (He would then raise [his hands] high enough) that the whiteness of his armpits became visible. 'Abd al-A'la said that (he was in doubt whether it was) the whiteness of his armpit or armpits.

Allah's Apostle forbade the bending of the mouths of water skins for the sake of drinking from them.

I heard Abii Juhaifa saying, "I saw the Prophet, and Al-Hasan bin `Ali resembled him." I said to Abu- Juhaifa, "Describe him for me." He said, "He was white and his beard was black with some white hair. He promised to give us 13 young she-camels, but he expired before we could get them."

Allah's Apostle was neither very tall nor short, neither absolutely white nor deep brown. His hair was neither curly nor lank. Allah sent him (as an Apostle) when he was forty years old. Afterwards he resided in Mecca for ten years and in Medina for ten more years. When Allah took him unto Him, there was scarcely twenty white hairs in his head and beard.

from the black thread." was revealed, but: '... of dawn' was not revealed (along with it) so some men, when intending to fast, used to tie their legs, one with white thread and the other with black thread and would keep on eating till they could distinguish one thread from the other. Then Allah revealed' ... of dawn,' whereupon they understood that meant the night and the day.

The Prophet allowed `Abdur-Rahman bin `Auf and Az-Zubair to wear silken shirts because they had a skin disease causing itching.

I prepared the journey-food for Allah's Apostle in Abu Bakr's house when he intended to emigrate to Medina. I could not find anything to tie the food-container and the water skin with. So, I said to Abu Bakr, "By Allah, I do not find anything to tie (these things) with except my waist belt." He said, "Cut it into two pieces and tie the water-skin with one piece and the food-container with the other (the subnarrator added, "She did accordingly and that was the reason for calling her Dhatun-Nitaqain (i.e. twobelted woman)).

The Prophet said, "Kill the snake with two white lines on its back, for it blinds the on-looker and causes abortion."

The Prophet was neither conspicuously tall, nor short; neither, very white, nor tawny. His hair was neither much curled, nor very straight. Allah sent him (as an Apostle) at the age of forty (and after that) he stayed for ten years in Mecca, and for ten more years in Medina. Allah took him unto Him at the age of sixty, and he scarcely had ten white hairs on his head and in his beard.

Allah's Apostle was shrouded in three Yemenite white Suhuliya (pieces of cloth) of cotton, and in them there was neither a shirt nor a turban."