until I forbid you. (1)

It was transmitted by Sufyān al-Thawrī and Zāʾidah on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allah.

In another wording: “that you may lift the curtain and listen to my siwādī (private talk).”

It was also reported by Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from ʿAmr, from a man he named, from Ibrāhīm ibn Suwayd, from ʿAbd Allah; this isnād is interrupted. The same narration occurs with Ibn Mahdī, from Sufyān, on the authority of al-Ḥasan.

As for the word siwād, it means confidential discourse, and some hold that it simply means conversation.

In the Musnad of Aḥmad, through the route of Ibn ʿAwn, from ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd, from Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, it is related that Ibn Masʿūd said: “I was never barred from the Prophet’s private counsel, nor from such-and-such and such-and-such.” (2)

ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUtbah said: “Ibn Masʿūd was the attendant of the Messenger of Allah’s siwād—that is, his secrets—his pillow (meaning his bedding), his siwāk, his sandals, and his water for purification, and this was during travel.” (3)

Ibn Saʿd relates: Abū Nuʿaym told us; al-Masʿūdī told us, from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said: “ʿAbd Allah would put the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ sandals on him, then walk ahead of him carrying a staff. When they reached the place where the Prophet would sit, he would remove the sandals, tuck them under his arm, hand him the staff, and he would enter…"