and this is the sounder view, for the span from the conquest of Khaybar to the Prophet’s death was four years and a few nights.
Abu Hurayrah suffered hunger and hardship and took up residence in the Mosque. When he first emigrated, he had a servant with him, but the man fled (1).
Ibn Sīrīn relates that Abu Hurayrah said, “I have seen myself collapse between the Prophet’s tomb and the pulpit from hunger, until people would say, ‘He has gone mad!’ (2)”
Hishām, transmitting from Muḥammad, said: “We were once with Abu Hurayrah when he blew his nose, wiped it with his cloak, and said, ‘Praise be to Allah who has let Abu Hurayrah blow his nose into linen! I remember when I would fall down between ʿĀ’ishah’s apartment and the pulpit, unconscious from hunger. A man would pass by and sit on my chest, and I would raise my head and say, “It is not what you think; it is only hunger.”’ (3)
= Abd Allah al-Awdi transmits from Humayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Humaydi: “I met a man from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ who stayed in his company for four years, the same length of time as Abu Hurayra.” Ibn Saad likewise records it in al-Tabaqat, 4/327, through the chain of Yaqub ibn Ishaq and Saeid ibn Mansur, from Abi Awana, from Dawud ibn Abd Allah al-Awdi, from Humayd ibn Abd al-Rahman, who says: “Abu Hurayra accompanied the Prophet ﷺ for four years.
(1) Al-Bukhari, 5/117, Kitab al-ʿItq, “Chapter: If someone says to his slave, ‘He belongs to Allah,’ intending manumission and bears witness to it,” on the authority of Ubayd Allah ibn Saeed, Abu Usama, Ismail ibn Abi Hazim, from Abu Hurayra: “When I reached the Prophet ﷺ I was reciting on the road: ‘O night—long and toilsome, yet she has delivered me from the domain of disbelief.’ One of my slaves had run away on the way. After I arrived and pledged allegiance, while I was sitting with the Prophet, the slave appeared. The Prophet said, ‘Abu Hurayra, here is your slave.’ I replied, ‘He is free for the sake of Allah,’ and I set him free.” Also recorded by Ibn Saad, al-Tabaqat, 4/325–326.
(2) Hilyat al-Awliya, 1/378.
(3) Al-Bukhari, 13/258, Kitab al-Iʿtisam, “Chapter: What the Prophet ﷺ mentioned and urged regarding the agreement of the scholars…”; al-Tirmidhi, no. 2367, Kitab al-Zuhd, “Chapter: On the livelihood of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ”; Ibn Saad, al-Tabaqat, 4/327.