narrated to us Abu al-Rabiʿ, who said: “I heard Abu Yaʿmur in Rayy say:
‘Ayyub was on the road to Mecca when the company was seized by such thirst that they feared for their lives. Ayyub asked, “Will you keep what you are about to see to yourselves?”
They replied, “Yes.”
He then gathered up his cloak, supplicated, and water burst forth. They watered their camels and drank to satiety; after that he passed his hand over the spot and it returned to its original state.
Abu al-Rabiʿ continues: When I returned to Basra I told Hammad ibn Zayd the story, and he said, “ʿAbd al-Wahid ibn Zayd told me that he had been with Ayyub on that very journey in which this occurred.”’
Ahmad ibn Salamah informed us in writing, from Abu al-Makārim al-Labbān; Abu ʿAli reported to us; Abu Nuʿaym narrated to us; ʿUthman ibn Muhammad al-ʿUthmani narrated to us; Khalid ibn al-Naḍr narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Musa al-Harashi narrated to us; al-Naḍr ibn Kathir al-Saʿdi narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Wahid ibn Zayd, who said:
‘I was with Ayyub al-Sikhtiyani on Mount Hira. I became so desperately thirsty that it showed on my face, and I said to him, “I fear for my life.”
He asked, “Will you keep this to yourself?”
I answered, “Yes.”
He bound me by an oath, and I swore that I would not tell anyone so long as he was alive. Then he pressed his foot upon Hira and water sprang forth. I drank until I was satisfied and carried some of the water away with me.’
I (the author) say: This report is not reliable, and ʿUthman is utterly unsound (1).
Through this same chain to Abu Nuʿaym: Faruq narrated to us; Hisham ibn ʿAli narrated to us; ʿAwn ibn al-Hakam al-Bahili narrated to us; Hammad ibn Zayd narrated:
‘Maimun Abu Hamzah came to me early on Friday before the prayer and said, “Last night I saw Abu Bakr and ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them—in a dream. I asked them, ‘What has brought the two of you here?’ They said, ‘We have come to perform the funeral prayer over Ayyub al-Sikhtiyani.’”
He had not yet heard of Ayyub’s death. Then someone said to him, “Ayyub passed away last night.”’
Abu Nuʿaym the hadith-scholar said: Ayyub transmitted with a connected chain from Anas ibn Malik, ʿAmr ibn Salamah, Abu al-ʿAliyah, Abu Rajaʾ, and others.
(1) Translator’s note: The word tālif denotes a narrator whose reports are considered worthless.