is a shield so long as it is not pierced (1), and whoever Allah tries with an affliction in his body, it will wipe away his sins for him (2).
A group of scholars informed us, saying: Ibn Tabarzad informed us; Ibn al-Ḥuṣayn informed us; Ibn Ghaylān informed us; Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad informed us; Muḥammad ibn Abān al-Wāsiṭī narrated to us; Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim narrated to me; Bashshār ibn Abī Sayf narrated to me; al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to me, from ʿIyāḍ ibn Ghutayf, who said:
Abū ʿUbaydah fell ill, so we entered to visit him, and he said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Fasting is a shield so long as it is not pierced (3).’”
The Prophet ﷺ put Abū ʿUbaydah in command on more than one occasion, among them the expedition during which his detachment—three hundred men—went hungry. Then the sea cast up for them a huge fish known as al-ʿAnbar. Abū ʿUbaydah said, “It is carrion.” He then reconsidered, saying, “No; we are the envoys of the Messenger of Allah, and we are on the path of Allah, so eat…,” and he recounted the remainder of the report.
The incident is recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (4).
(1) The autograph reads: “ma lam yujarriha,” yet we have adopted the wording preserved in al-Musnad, al-Mustadrak and al-Majmaʿ.
(2) No one declared Bashar b. Abi Sayf reliable except Ibn Hibban, while the rest of the transmitters are trustworthy. Ahmad (1/195) reports the narration through Bashar b. Abi Sayf → ʿIyad b. Ghutayf, omitting al-Walid b. ʿAbd al-Rahman, the intermediary between them; Ahmad repeats it correctly at 1/196. Al-Hakim (3/265) records it via Bashar → al-Walid b. ʿAbd al-Rahman → ʿIyad b. Ghutayf, and neither he nor al-Dhahabi comments on its grading. Al-Haythami, Majmaʿ (2/300), notes that Ahmad, Abu Yaʿla and al-Bazzar transmit it; the name “Bashar” is misread there as “Yasar.” He states that he found no assessment of Bashar, while the remainder of the chain is sound.
(3) Ahmad (1/196) also records it through: Jarir → Bashar b. Abi Sayf → al-Walid → ʿIyad b. Ghutayf; see the previous note.
(4) Reported by Malik, al-Muwattaʾ, “Description of the Prophet: Chapter on comprehensive traditions concerning food and drink,” no. 24; by Ahmad 3/303, 306, 311; and by al-Bukhari (2483), Kitab al-Shirkah, “Partnership in food, pooled provisions and goods.” The wording reads: “The Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, sent an expedition toward the seacoast and appointed Abu ʿUbayda b. al-Jarrah as commander. We were three hundred and I was among them. When the provisions ran out, Abu ʿUbayda gathered what remained—only two sacks of dates—and rationed them until but a single date a day reached us. We said, ‘What can one date do for a man?’ He replied, ‘We realised its value when even that was gone.’ He continued: Then …”