Al-Darawardi related: Khuthaym ibn ʿIrāk reported to us, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, who said:
“The Prophet ﷺ had already gone out to Khaybar, and I reached Madinah as an emigrant. I performed the dawn prayer behind Sibāʿ ibn ʿUrfutah, whom the Prophet had left in charge. In the first prostration he recited Surah Maryam, and in the second he recited, ‘Woe to those who give short measure.’
So I exclaimed, ‘Woe to my father! Scarcely was there a man in the land of Azd who did not keep two different measures—one for himself and another with which he would cheat the people.’ (1)
Ibn Abī Khālid said: Qays narrated to us that Abu Hurayrah told us, ‘I kept the company of the Messenger of Allah for three years.’ (2)
Humaid ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Himyari, however, held that the period was four years.
(1) The chain of transmission is reliable. Yaqub ibn Sufyan records it in his Ta’rikh, 3/160, through Saʿid ibn Abi Maryam, from al-Darawardi; Ibn Kathir cites this in al-Bidaya, 8/104. Ibn Saʿd relates it in al-Tabaqat, 4/327-328, through Ahmad ibn Ishaq al-Hadrami, from Wahib, from Khathim ibn ʿArak ibn Malik, from his father, from a group of their tribe. In Ibn Hajar’s al-Isaba, no. 3074 (entry on Sibaʿ ibn ʿUrfa-ta al-Ghifari), Ibn Khuzayma, al-Bukhari in al-Tarikh al-Saghir, 1/18, and al-Tahawi all transmit, through Khathim ibn ʿArak, from his father, from Abu Hurayra: “I reached Medina while the Prophet ﷺ was at Khaybar and had appointed Sibaʿ ibn ʿUrfa-ta as acting governor. We prayed dawn behind him aloud, then went on to join the Prophet at Khaybar.” See also Fath al-Bari, 7/356. Al-Bazzar (quoted in Majmaʿ al-Zawa’id, 7/135) reports from Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ put Sibaʿ ibn ʿUrfa-ta in charge of Medina; he recited: “Woe to those who give short measure” (Q 83:1). I said: “So-and-so is ruined—he owns two measures: one for giving and a larger one for taking.” Al-Haythami comments: its transmitters are those of the Sahih except Ismaʿil ibn Masʿud al-Majdari, who is trustworthy.
(2) Ahmad, 2/475, transmits it through Yahya, from Ismaʿil ibn Abi Khalid, from Qays, from Abu Hurayra. Yaqub ibn Sufyan, 3/161, records it through Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr, from his father, from Ismaʿil ibn Abi Khalid, from Qays ibn Abi Hazim… He likewise relates it from al-Humaydi, from Sufyan, from Ismaʿil, from Qays…
(3) Yaqub ibn Sufyan, 3/161, transmits it through Saʿid ibn Mansur, from Abu ʿAwana, from Dawud ibn …