al-Zuhri said: Thalabah ibn Abi Malik told me that Qays ibn Saʿd—who had been the Prophet’s standard-bearer—set out for the Hajj. He combed one side of his head, whereupon a young servant of his garlanded the sacrificial animal and Qays pronounced the talbiyah, while the other side of his head was still uncombed. (1)
ʿAsim ibn ʿUmar related that the Prophet ﷺ appointed Qays ibn Saʿd to oversee the collection of charity. (2)
In one of the transmission lines of the report about the huge fish called al-ʿAnbar, narrated from Jabir, it is said that their commander was Qays ibn Saʿd; the sound version, however, names Abu ʿUbaydah. (3)
ʿAmru ibn Dinar narrated—having heard it from Abu Salih al-Samman—that Qays ibn Saʿd slaughtered several she-camels for them during that expedition. (4)
Ibn ʿAsakir has shown that its chains of transmission are reliable. (5)
(1) Ibn Asakir, vol. 14, p. 227a, and similar passages.
(2) Ibn Asakir, vol. 14, p. 227a.
(3) Ibn Hajar states in Fath al-Bari, 8/62, after attributing the version that names Qays b. Saad as commander to Ibn Abi Asim: “The reliable wording, agreed upon by the two Sahihs, is that the commander was Abu Ubayda. One of the transmitters apparently inferred from Qays b. Saad’s action—slaughtering the camels he had bought during that expedition—that he was the leader, but this is incorrect.”
The report concerns the detachment in which the Messenger of Allah sent Abu Ubayda b. al-Jarrah at the head of three hundred men from the Muhajirun and the Ansar, among them Umar b. al-Khattab, against a clan of Juhaynah near the Red Sea coast. On the march they suffered severe hunger and ate khabt (leaves of the acacia), hence the expedition was called the “Khapt Detachment.” The sea then cast ashore a huge fish known as al-anbar (ambergris whale), from which they ate for half a month.
For the full account see: al-Bukhari, 8/63-64 (Maghazi, “Raid of Sif al-Bahr”); Muslim, no. 1935 (Kitab al-Sayd); Abu Dawud, no. 3840; al-Nasa’i, 7/207-208; Ahmad, 3/309. See also the Salafi edition of al-Bukhari, nos. 2483, 2983, 4360-4362, 5493-5494.
(4) See al-Humaydi, no. 1244; al-Bukhari, 8/64; and Ibn Asakir, vol. 14, p. 227b.
(5) See his Tarikh, vol. 14, pp. 227b-228a.