are you?’ I said, ‘From Ghifār.’ He bent forward and placed his hand on his own forehead. I thought to myself, ‘He must have disliked the fact that I belong to Ghifār.’ I reached out to take his hand, but his companion restrained me—he understood him better than I did. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ raised his head and asked, ‘How long have you been here?’ I replied, ‘I have been here thirty days and nights.’ He said, ‘Who has been feeding you?’ I answered, ‘I have had no food except the water of Zamzam.’ He said, ‘It is blessed water; it serves as food that satisfies and a cure for illness.’ Abū Bakr then said, ‘Allow me, O Messenger of Allah, to host him for supper tonight.’ He granted permission, so the two of them set off and I went with them. Abū Bakr opened a door and began gathering for us some of the raisins of al-Ṭāʾif; that was the first food I ate in Mecca.

He (Abū Dharr) said: I remained for a time, then I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said, ‘I have been directed toward a land of palm-groves—I think it is Yathrib. Will you convey my message to your people so that Allah might benefit them through you and reward you on their account?’ I set off and reached my brother Anīs. He said, ‘What have you achieved?’ I replied, ‘I have embraced Islam and declared his message to be true.’ We then went to our mother, and she said, ‘I have no aversion to your religion.’ So she embraced Islam. After that we packed up and came to our tribe, Ghifār. Half of them accepted Islam before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Medina. Their prayer-leader was Khifāf ibn ʿImāʾ ibn Raḥda al-Ghifārī, who was their chief that day. The rest said, ‘When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reaches Medina, we shall become Muslim.’ When he did reach Medina, the rest of them accepted Islam.

The tribe of Aslam then came and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, our brothers have preceded us; we wish to accept Islam upon what they accepted.’ So they embraced Islam, and he said, ‘Ghifār—may Allah forgive her; and Aslam—may Allah grant her safety.’ Muslim transmitted this report from Hudbah, from Sulaymān.

It is also recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections through the narration of Mathnā ibn Saʿīd, from Abū Jamrah