Abu al-Zahiriyyah related that Abu al-Dardaʾ said, “We smile broadly in some people’s faces while our hearts are cursing them.” (1)
Umm al-Dardaʾ said, “When Abu al-Dardaʾ lay on his deathbed he kept repeating, ‘Who has worked for a day like mine? Who has prepared for a resting-place like mine?’ ”
Abu al-Maʿali Ahmad ibn Ishaq informed us; al-Fath ibn ʿAbd al-Salam informed us; Muhammad ibn ʿUmar the judge, Muhammad ibn ʿAli, and Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Taraʾiqi informed us; they said: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Muslima informed us, from ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, from Jaʿfar al-Firyabi, from Muhammad ibn ʿAʾidh, from al-Haytham ibn Humayd, from al-Wadin ibn ʿAṭaʾ, on the authority of Yazid ibn Mazyad, who said:
The Antichrist (al-Dajjal) was mentioned in a gathering where Abu al-Dardaʾ was present. Nauf al-Bikali (2) remarked, “I fear something other than the Antichrist more than I fear the Antichrist himself.”
Abu al-Dardaʾ asked, “And what is that?”
He replied, “I am afraid my faith might be snatched away from me without my even noticing.”
Abu al-Dardaʾ said, “May your mother be bereaved of you, son of al-Kindiyyah! And is there—”
(1) Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, 13/391/2; al-Bukhari merely cites it in his Sahih, 10/437, Book of Manners, chapter “Showing tact with people.” Ibn Hajar notes that the uninterrupted chain is supplied by Ibn Abi Dunya, by Ibrahim al-Harbi in Gharib al-Hadith, and by al-Dinawari in al-Mujalasa through Abu al-Zahriyya, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, from Abu al-Dardaʾ, with the additional phrase: “and we laugh with them.” He (al-Dinawari) records it with the wording “to curse,” yet his chain omits Jubayr ibn Nufayr. Abū Bakr ibn al-Maqri transmits it in his Fawaʾid via Kamil Abū al-ʿAlaʾ, from Abū Salih, from Abū al-Dardaʾ: “We certainly bare our teeth to people …,” but the isnad is broken. Abū Nuʿaym includes it in Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ through Khalf ibn Hushab, who relates it from Abū al-Dardaʾ; this chain is likewise interrupted.
al-kashr denotes the exposure of the teeth, usually when laughing; the noun is kashra, on the same pattern as ʿashara.
(2) Nauf al-Bikali was the son of the wife of Kaʿb al-Ahbar. He appears in both Sahih collections in the narration of Saʿid ibn Jubayr from Ibn ʿAbbas, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, concerning Moses’ encounter with al-Khidr. Ibn Hibban lists him among the trustworthy narrators, remarking that he related popular stories. Al-Bukhari, in his al-Awsat, places him among those who died between ninety and one hundred years old. The scholar al-Ibyari became confused about him, deleted his name, and substituted “Ibn al-Kindiyya.”