Burd ibn Sinān narrated, on the authority of Isḥāq ibn Qabīṣah ibn Dhuʾayb, from his father:
ʿUbādah once objected to something Muʿāwiyah had done and declared, “I will not remain in the same land with you.” He therefore departed for Madinah.
ʿUmar asked him, “What has brought you here?” ʿUbādah explained what Muʿāwiyah had done, whereupon ʿUmar said to him (1), “Return to your post. May Allah disfigure a land in which you and those like you are absent. He holds no authority over you.” (2)
Ibn Abī Uways related, from his father, from al-Walīd ibn Dāwūd ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit (3), from his cousin ʿUbādah ibn al-Walīd, who said:
ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit was once with Muʿāwiyah when the call to prayer was made. A speaker rose to praise Muʿāwiyah and heap commendations upon him. ʿUbādah scooped up some earth in his hand and stuffed it into the speaker’s mouth, and Muʿāwiyah became angry.
ʿUbādah said to him, “You were not with us when we pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at al-ʿAqabah, promising to hear and obey in vigor and weariness, in hardship and ease, even when others are preferred over us; that we would not dispute the leadership with those entitled to it; and that we would uphold the truth wherever we might be, fearing for Allah’s sake the reproach of no critic. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also said, ‘When you see those who indulge in flattery, throw dust in their faces.’” (4)
(1) This additional wording is taken from Tarikh al-Islam.
(2) All the transmitters in the chain are trustworthy.
(3) The manuscript reads the name as “al-Walid,” but I found no biographical entry for him in the critical hadith works; it may be a scribal error for “al-Numan.” Al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 8/447, lists: al-Numan ibn Dawud ibn Muhammad ibn Ubadah ibn al-Samit al-Ansari, who narrated from Ubadah ibn al-Walid ibn Ubadah ibn al-Samit; Abu Nuʿaym transmitted from him, and I heard my father attest to that.
(4) The chain is sound, except for al-Walid ibn Dawud ibn Muhammad, whom I have not identified. The hadith is also reported by Ahmad 5/314, 316; al-Bukhari 13/167 (Ahkam, “How people pledge allegiance to the Imam”); and al-Nasaʾi 7/137–138 (“The First Pledge”) through the route of Ubadah ibn al-Walid, from his father, from Ubadah ibn al-Samit. He said: “We pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (on the night of al-ʿAqabah) to listen and obey in hardship and ease, in enthusiasm and reluctance, not to dispute the authority of its holders, and to speak—or stand—for the truth wherever we were, fearing no blame for Allah’s sake.”
There is another pledge narrated by Ubadah that occurred after the conquest of Mecca, following the revelation of the verse in Surat al-Mumtahana; al-Bukhari 12/74 and Muslim (1709), both in the Book of Hudud, chapter “Hudud as expiation,” record it through the chain of Ibn ʿUyaynah, from ...