The expedition of Abou Oubayda to the seashore: the army of dried leaves

Imam Malik reports, from Wahb ibn Kaysan, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah sent a company toward the shore, appointing Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah over them, and they were three hundred. Jabir said: I was among them. We went out, and when we were partway the provisions ran out; they brought Abou Oubayda the provisions of that army, all of it gathered: it was two sacks of dates. He would give us from it day by day little by little until it ran out, so that nothing reached us but a date, a date. I said: what good is a date? He said: we felt its loss when it ran out! Then we reached the sea, and behold, a fish like a great dune. That army ate of it eighteen nights; then Abou Oubayda ordered two of its ribs taken and erected, and ordered a mount ridden: it passed beneath them without touching them. The two Sahihs reported it from Malik.

It is in the two Sahihs also through Soufyan ibn Ou’yayna, from Amr ibn Dinars, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah sent us in three hundred riders, our commander Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah, to watch for a caravan of Quraysh. Severe hunger beset us, until we ate the shrivelled leaves, and that army was named the army of the leaves. A man slaughtered for us three camels, then three, then three, until Abou Oubayda forbade him. Then the sea cast up a creature called the Anbar: we ate of it half a month and anointed ourselves with it, until our bodies firmed up and mended. Then he relates the story of the ribs. His word in the hadith: we watched for a caravan of Quraysh, is evidence that this expedition was before the truce of Houdaybiya. And Allah is most knowing. The man who slaughtered the camels for them was Qays ibn Sa’d ibn Oubada.

The Bayhaqi reports, through Abou Khaythama Zouhayr ibn Mou’awiya, from Abou az-Zoubayr, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah sent us, appointing Abou Oubayda over us, to receive a caravan of Quraysh, and provisioned us with a sack of dates, finding nothing else for us; and Abou Oubayda would give us a date, a date. Jabir said: how did you use them? He said: we would suck it as an infant sucks, then drink water over it, and it would suffice us from our day to the night; and we would strike the leaves of the trees with our staves, soak them in water and eat them. We went to the shore of the sea: there was raised for us on the seashore the like of a great sand-hill. We came to it, and it was a creature called the Anbar. Abou Oubayda said: it is carrion. Then he said: no; rather we are the envoys of the Messenger of Allah, in the path of Allah, and you are in dire need: eat.

We stayed by it a month, three hundred of us, until we grew fat; we would scoop with the buckets the oil from its eye, and cut from it chunks of fat like a bull, or the size of a bull. Abou Oubayda took thirteen of us and seated them in its eye, and took one of its ribs and set it up, then had the greatest of camels laden pass under it, and it passed. We provisioned ourselves with its meat for the road. When we came to Medina we went to the Messenger of Allah and related it to him, and he said: "It is provision Allah brought out for you: have you any of its meat to feed us?" We sent to the Messenger of Allah, and he ate of it. Mouslim reported it through Yahya ibn Yahya and Ahmad ibn Younous, and Abou Dawoud through an-Noufayli, all three from Abou Khaythama. We say: the purport of most of these accounts is that this expedition was before the truce of Houdaybiya; but we relate it here following the hafiz al-Bayhaqi, who relates it after Mouta and before the Ghazwa of the conquest. And Allah is most knowing.

The Boukhari reports, after the Ghazwa of Mouta, the expedition of Usama ibn Zayd to al-Houraqat of Jouhayna, whose hadith we have already related and discussed. He also reports, through Yazid ibn Abi Ubayd, from Salama ibn al-Akwa’: I campaigned with the Messenger of Allah seven campaigns, and went out with nine of the companies he sent: once we were commanded by Abou Bakr, and once by Usama ibn Zayd. Then the Bayhaqi mentions here the death of the Negus of Abyssinia upon Islam, the Messenger of Allah’s announcing it to the Muslims, and his prayer over him. Malik reports, from az-Zouhri, from Sa’id ibn al-Moussayyab, from Abou Hourayra, that the Messenger of Allah announced to the people the death of the Negus on the day he died, went out with them to the place of prayer, arrayed them in rows and pronounced four takbirs. The two Sahihs reported it from Malik, and from al-Layth, from Ouqayl, from az-Zouhri, from Sa’id and Abou Salama, from Abou Hourayra, similarly. Ibn Jourayj reports, from Ata’, from Jabir, that the Messenger of Allah said:

"A righteous man died today!" And they prayed over al-Aschama. These hadiths have been related before, and the discussion upon them given, and to Allah belongs praise. We say: the apparent is that the death of the Negus was long before the conquest: in the Sahih of Mouslim, when he wrote to the kings of the horizons, he wrote to the Negus, and he was not then a Muslim; and others, like the Waqidi, claim it was he. And Allah is most knowing. The Bayhaqi reports, through Moussa ibn Oqba, from his father, from Oum Koulthoum, who said: when the Prophet married Oum Salama he said: "I have sent to the Negus ounces of musk and a garment, and I think he has died, and that the gift will be returned to me; if it be returned, I shall divide it among you." It was as the Messenger of Allah said: the Negus died and the gift was returned. When it was returned to him he gave each woman of his wives an ounce of that musk, and gave the rest to Oum Salama, and gave her the garment: and Allah is most knowing.

As for the conversion of Nudayr of Jouhayna: he relates that he had gone out with his people of Quraysh to Hunayn, still bent upon their religion, saying: we intended, had the wheel turned against Mohamed, to aid against him, but that was not granted us. When he was at al-Ji’rana, said Nudayr: I was upon what I was upon; had I sensed aught but the Messenger of Allah, he called: "Need you aid?" I answered: at your service. He said: "This is better than what you intended on the day of Hunayn, which Allah barred between you and it." I hastened to him, and he said: "It is time you saw where you were setting your feet." I said: I see that were there with Allah another, it would have availed something; and I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, alone without partner. The Messenger of Allah said: "O Allah, increase him in firmness!" Nudayr said: by Him who sent him with truth, my heart became as a stone, firm in the religion and clear-sighted in the truth. And the Messenger of Allah said: "Praise belongs to Allah who guided him."