His daughter’s descendants could still be traced until the year 130 AH.

In that very year an earthquake struck Greater Syria, its fiercest shocks hitting Jerusalem. A great many of the Anṣār and others who lived there perished, and Shaddād’s house collapsed on those inside. Muḥammad survived, but one of his legs was lost beneath the rubble (1).

The Prophet’s sandal (2)—a matched pair—had been left by Shaddād in the care of his children and eventually passed to Muḥammad ibn Shaddād. When his sister Khazraj saw the calamity that had befallen him and his family, she came and took one of the two sandals, saying,

“My brother, you have no offspring, whereas I have been blessed with a child. This is an honoured relic of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and I should like my child to share in its blessing.”

She took the sandal from him at the very beginning of the earthquake, and it remained with her until her children reached maturity. When the caliph al-Mahdī came to Jerusalem, they brought the sandal to him and explained its lineage back to Shaddād. He acknowledged that, accepted it, and granted each of the two men a thousand dinars, ordering an estate for each of them. He then summoned Muḥammad ibn Shaddād, who had to be carried in because of his disability (3). Al-Mahdī asked him about the sandal, and he confirmed the account the two men had given.

Al-Mahdī said to him, “Bring me the other sandal.”

Muḥammad wept and implored him by Allah; the caliph’s heart softened, and he allowed him to keep it.

Muʿān ibn Rifāʿah narrates from Abū Yazīd al-Ghawthī, from an unnamed source, from Abū al-Dardāʾ, who said:

“Every nation has its jurist, and the jurist of this nation is Shaddād ibn Aws.” (4)

This report is not authentic.