Mu’adh and Abu Musa sent to Yemen before the Farewell Pilgrimage

Al-Bukhari said: a chapter of the sending of Abu Musa and Mu’adh to Yemen before the Farewell Pilgrimage: Musa narrated to us: Abu Awana narrated to us: Abd al-Malik narrated to us, from Abu Burda, who said: the Prophet sent Abu Musa and Mu’adh ibn Jabal to Yemen, and appointed each of the two over a district, and Yemen has two districts. Then he said: ’Make things easy and do not make them hard; give glad tidings and do not repel’: and in a version ’cooperate and do not differ’: and each of the two went to his work. Each of the two, when he traveled in his district and was near his companion, would hold him to a covenant and greet him. Mu’adh traveled in his district near his companion Abu Musa and came riding his mule until he reached him, and there he was sitting with the people gathered around him, and there was a man whose hands had been bound to his neck.

Mu’adh said: O Abdallah ibn Qays, what is this? He said: this is a man who disbelieved after his Islam. He said: I shall not dismount until he is killed. He said: he was brought only for that, so dismount.

He said: I shall not dismount until he is killed. So he ordered him and he was killed; then he dismounted and said: O Abdallah, how do you recite the Quran? He said: I will excel it. He said: and how do you recite, O Mu’adh?

He said: I sleep at the first of the night, then rise having completed my portion of sleep, then recite what Allah has written for me, and I credit my sleep as I credit my wake. Al-Bukhari alone reports it, without Muslim, by this route.

Then al-Bukhari said: Ishaq narrated to us: Khalid narrated to us, from ash-Shaybani, from Sa’id ibn Abi Burda, from his father, from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari, that the Messenger of Allah sent him to Yemen and asked him of drinks made there, and said: what are they? He said: the bit’ and the mizr: and I said to Abu Burda: what is the bit’? He said: the infusion of honey, and the mizr is the infusion of barley: and he said: ’every intoxicant is forbidden.’ Jarir and Abd al-Wahid reported it, from ash-Shaybani, from Abu Burda; and Muslim reported it from the hadith of Sa’id ibn Abi Burda.

Al-Bukhari said: Hibban narrated to us: Abdallah informed us, from Zakariyya ibn Ishaq, from Yahya ibn Abdallah ibn Sayfi, from Abu Ma’bad, freedman of Ibn Abbas, from Ibn Abbas: the Messenger of Allah said to Mu’adh ibn Jabal when he sent him to Yemen: ’you will come to a people of the Book; when you come to them call them to testify that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; if they obey you in that, tell them Allah has prescribed five prayers upon them every day and night; if they obey you in that, tell them Allah has prescribed upon them a charity taken from their rich and returned to their poor; if they obey you in that, beware of the precious goods of them, and fear the supplication of the wronged, for there is no veil between it and Allah.’ Baqiyyat al-Jama’a reported it by multiple routes.

The Imam Ahmad said: Abu l-Mughira narrated to us: Safwan narrated to us: Rashid ibn Sa’d related to me, from Asim ibn Humayd as-Sakuni, from Mu’adh ibn Jabal, who said: when the Messenger of Allah sent him to Yemen he went out with him instructing him, Mu’adh riding and the Messenger of Allah walking beneath his mount. When he finished he said: ’O Mu’adh, you may not meet me after this year, and you may pass by this mosque of mine and my grave.’ Mu’adh wept profusely at the parting of the Messenger of Allah; then he turned his face toward Medina and said: ’the nearest of people to me are the God-fearing, whoever they are and wherever they are.’ He also reported it from Abu l-Yaman, from Safwan ibn Amr, from Rashid ibn Sa’d, from Asim ibn Humayd as-Sakuni, that when the Messenger of Allah sent Mu’adh to Yemen he went out with him instructing him, Mu’adh riding and the Messenger of Allah walking beneath his mount. When he finished he said: ’O Mu’adh, you may not meet me after this year,

and you may pass by this mosque of mine and my grave.’ Mu’adh wept profusely at the parting of the Messenger of Allah, and he said: ’weep not, O Mu’adh; weeping has its time; weeping is from the devil.’ The Imam Ahmad said: Abu l-Mughira narrated to us: Safwan narrated to us: Abu Ziyad Yahya ibn Ubayd al-Ghassani related to me, from Yazid ibn Qutayb, from Mu’adh, who used to say: the Messenger of Allah sent me to Yemen and said: ’you may pass by my grave and my mosque; I have sent you to a people soft of heart who will fight for the truth twice, so fight with whoever of them obeys you against whoever disobeys you, then they will overflow into Islam, until the woman precedes her husband and the child his father and the brother his brother; so camp between the two tribes, as-Sakun and as-Sakasik.’ This hadith contains indication and manifestation and an allusion that Mu’adh would not meet the Prophet after that, and so it occurred: he stayed in Yemen until the Farewell Pilgrimage, and his death, peace be upon him, was eighty-one days after the day of the Greater Pilgrimage.