And here is our coat of mail placed in pledge—take it
for a month, if he fulfils the term, or for half a month.
He said, “A people have suffered thirst and hunger,
yet they have never been stripped of affluence by poverty.
So he hurried toward us at full speed,
exclaiming, ‘You have surely come with a purpose!’
In our right hands were bright, keen blades—
battle-tried, with which we cut down the unbelievers.
Then Ibn Muslima, famed for his valour, clasped him—
a lion bold against the disbelievers—
and, with his bare sword, closed in upon him;
Abu ʿAbs ibn Jabr struck him down. (1)
Allah was the sixth among us, and we returned
with the finest favour and the mightiest victory. (2)
ʿAbbad has only one transmitted hadith, related by Ibn Isḥāq: from Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Anṣārī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Thābit ibn al-Ṣāmit, from ʿAbbad ibn Bishr, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“O assembly of the Helpers! You are the inner lining, and the people are the outer cloak; so let me never be reached from your direction.” (3)
74 – Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr ibn Simāk ibn ʿAtīk al-Anṣārī,
son of Nāfiʿ ibn Imruʾ al-Qays ibn Zayd ibn ʿAbd al-Ashhal.*
(1) In the printed edition the word “salta” was misprinted as “salba,” and the name “Abas” as “Isa.”
(2) The verses are also found in al-Istiab, 5/313-314, which adds one more line not cited here:
wajaʾa bi-raʾsihi nafarun kiram * hum nahyuka min sidqin wa-birr
(“A noble group came carrying his head; they are all you could wish for in truthfulness and virtue.”)
(3) The documentation for this report has already been given on p. 338, note 3.
(*) Principal sources: Musnad Ahmad, 4:226, 351-52; Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat al-kubra, 3/2:135; Khalifa ibn Khayyat, al-Tabaqat, p. 77, and his Tarikh, p. 149; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-kabir, 2:47, and al-Tarikh al-saghir, 1:46; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-taʿdil, 2:310; Ibn Hibban, Mashahir ʿUlama al-amsar, p. 36; al-Istibsar, pp. 213-216; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istiab, 1:175-179; Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, 3/7/1; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-ghabah, 1:111-113; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-kamal, p. 115; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 2:33, and al-ʿIbar, 1:24; al-Haythami, Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 9:310; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-tahdhib, 1:347, and al-Isabah, 1:75-76; Khulasat tadhhib al-kamal, p. 38; al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-ʿummal, 13:277-280; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 1:31; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib Tarikh Ibn ʿAsakir, 3:53-61.