come to love it.
He then brought him 400,000 (dirhams) from Bahrayn, whereupon ʿUmar asked, “How much of that have you set aside for yourself?”
He replied, “Twenty thousand.”
ʿUmar said, “How did you come by it?”
He answered, “I used to trade.”
ʿUmar said, “Work out the capital you invested and the lawful profit that is yours; take that, and put the rest in the Bayt al-Mal, the public treasury. (1)
Abu Hurayrah, moreover, used to recite aloud in his prayer the phrase ‘Bismillah al-Raḥmān al-Raḥīm’—‘In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate.’ (2)
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abu Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: I heard Abu al-Maʿmar al-Mubārak ibn Aḥmad say, I heard Abu al-Qāsim Yūsuf ibn ʿAlī al-Zanjānī, the jurist, say, I heard the jurist Abu Isḥāq al-Fayrūzābādī say, I heard the judge Abu Ṭayyib say:
“We were sitting in the deliberation council at the Manṣūr Mosque when a young man from Khurāsān came and asked about the ruling on the muṣarrāh (an animal left with an over-full udder to mislead the buyer). He insisted on proof until someone cited as evidence the hadith of Abu Hurayrah transmitted on the matter, (3)
(1) Its transmitters are trustworthy, yet the chain is broken: Ishaq b. Abd Allah never met Umar. In the printed edition the name “Hammam” has been corrupted to “Hisham.” The report appears in al-Tabaqat, 4/335–336.
(2) What is firmly established is that the Prophet ﷺ did not recite it aloud, nor did Abu Bakr, Umar or Uthman. See: Fath al-Bari 2/188; al-Tirmidhi 246; Muslim 399; Ahmad 3/264; Sharh Maani al-Athar 1/119; al-Daraqutni, p. 119; al-Nasa’i 2/135; Ibn Khuzayma 498. Ahmad 4/85, al-Tirmidhi 244 and al-Nasa’i 2/135 relate from Ibn Abd Allah b. Mughaffal: “My father heard me say: Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. He said, ‘My son, avoid innovations. I prayed behind the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman, and never heard any of them pronounce it. When you pray, therefore, say: al-hamdu lillahi rabb al-alamin (Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds).’”
(3) Al-musarrah is a she-camel, cow, or ewe whose milk is intentionally retained in the udder so that, when sold, the buyer imagines it to be high-yielding and therefore pays more; after milking it once or twice he discovers the deception. Abu Hurayra’s hadith on the subject is in al-Muwatta 2/683-684, Book of Sales, chapter “What is forbidden in bargaining and selling.” It is also reported by al-Bukhari 4/309 through Abd Allah b. Yusuf, and by Muslim 1515 (11) through Yahya b. Yahya, both from Malik, from Abu’l-Zinad Abd Allah b. Dhakwan, from al-Araj, from Abu Hurayra: “Do not tie the udders of camels or sheep. Whoever buys such an animal may, after milking it, choose the better of two options: if satisfied, he keeps it; if displeased, he returns it along with one saʿ of dates.” In other words, he returns the animal because of the concealed defect and compensates with one saʿ of dates for the milk he has taken. This is the view of Malik, al-Shafi‘i, al-Layth b. Saʿd, Ahmad, Ishaq, Abu Ubayd and Abu Thawr.