Abū Bakr said, “It is yours; I shall not take a single thing from it.” In another wording he said, “I have bestowed it upon you.” ʿUmar then remarked, “Only now has it become lawful and wholesome.” Muʿādh thereupon departed for Syria. (1)

Al-Dhuhli transmitted the report through ʿAbd al-Razzāq from Maʿmar, who cited—in place of the words “I was being dragged toward the Fire”—the statement: “It was as though I were in water, afraid of drowning, and you delivered me.”

Al-Wāqidī reported: ʿĪsā ibn al-Nuʿmān related to us, from Muʿādh (2) ibn Rifāʿah, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said:
“Muʿādh was one of the most handsome of people in face, the finest in character, and the most open-handed. He incurred a debt, and his creditors beset him until he hid himself for several days …,” and he narrated the rest of the account. In it he said: “He returned with a number of slave boys.” (3)

Al-Aʿmash narrated from Shaqīq:
“Muʿādh came back from Yemen with slaves. He met ʿUmar in Mecca, who asked, ‘What are these?’ He replied, ‘They were presented to me.’ ʿUmar said, ‘Turn them over to Abū Bakr.’ He refused, spent the night, and saw in a dream that he was being dragged toward the Fire while ʿUmar was pulling him back. When morning came he said, ‘Son of al-Khaṭṭāb, I see that I must obey you.’ … Abū Bakr then turned the slaves back over to him. The next morning he found them performing the prayer. He asked, ‘For whom are you praying?’ They answered, ‘For Allah.’ He said, ‘Then you belong to Allah.’ (4)

Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn Abī al-Abyad informed us, from Abū Ḥāzim, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab:
“ʿUmar sent Muʿādh as the collector over Banū Kilāb—or another clan—and he distributed their fayʾ (state revenues) among them until nothing remained, so that he came back with nothing but the saddle-pad with which he had set out, draped across his neck.”