Hishām, from Ziyād al-Bikālī, and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb, from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd—all of them—reported:
from Ibn Isḥāq, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Umm Salamah, from Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib:
that the Negus asked him, “What is your religion?”
He replied, “Allah has sent among us a Messenger …,” and he mentioned part of what has already been related.

Ibn Isḥāq alone preserved the uninterrupted chain, whereas ʿUqayl, Yūnus, and others transmitted it in mursal form (1).

Ibn Idrīs also related it from Ibn Isḥāq, saying: “from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and ʿUrwah, and ʿUbayd Allah, from Umm Salamah.”

This report is likewise transmitted from Abū Burdah ibn Abī Mūsā, from his father, and from ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, from his father (2).

Ibn Shābūr narrated it as well, from ʿUthmān ibn ʿAtāʾ, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, at full length.

“aʿlā bihim ʿaynan” means: “he fixed his gaze upon them.”

“lāhā Allah” is an oath; the Arabs say, “lāhā Allāhi dhā,” in which the pronoun hā replaces the wāw of the oath, meaning, “No—by Allah, this shall not be.” Another view holds that the wāw of the oath was omitted, the hāʾ separated from the demonstrative, placed before the divine name, which then appeared in the accusative (3) because the wāw of the oath was dropped.

“tanākhara”: al-nakhīr is a sound produced through the nose; it is also said to be a type (4) of speech.

Another version reads: “because of a sorrow we experienced.”

Her statement, “until we came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Mecca,” refers to herself and her husband. Likewise al-Zubayr, Ibn Masʿūd, and a group of those who had emigrated to Abyssinia came back to Mecca, having grown weary of living there.

Then another company set out for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when they learned that he had emigrated to