has already gone on to the water.’

Among the company were Abu Bakr and ʿUmar. They said, ‘People, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would never reach the water before you and leave your weak ones behind. If the people obey Abu Bakr and ʿUmar they will be rightly guided.’ They repeated this three times.

When the midday heat became severe, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came into view. The people cried, ‘Messenger of Allah, we are ruined! We are dying of thirst—our throats are splitting!’ He replied, ‘You are not ruined.’ Then he said, ‘Abu Qatadah, bring me the miḍaʾah (water-skin).’ I brought it to him. He said, ‘Untie my ghamr—meaning his cup—for me,’ so I untied it. He began to pour [water] into it and give the people to drink, saying, ‘Fill it well, for every one of you will depart fully quenched.’

The people drank until none remained but me and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He poured for me and said, ‘Drink.’ I said, ‘You drink first, Messenger of Allah.’ He replied, ‘The one who serves a people is the last of them to drink.’ So I drank, then he drank after me, and about the same amount remained in the water-skin as had been there at the start. On that day we were three hundred.

ʿAbdullah [ibn Rabah] said: ‘ʿImran ibn Husayn heard me narrating this ḥadith in the mosque and asked, “Who is that man?” I said, “ʿAbdullah ibn Rabah al-Ansari.” He said, “The people know their own reports best; be careful how you narrate it, for I was one of the seven present that night.” When I had finished he said, “I never thought anyone besides me had preserved this ḥadith.” Bakr ibn ʿAbdullah al-Muzani also transmitted it from ʿAbdullah ibn Rabah. Muslim recorded it.

Al-Awzaʿi said: Ishaq ibn ʿAbdullah ibn Abi Talhah narrated to me; he said that Anas reported: ‘A time of drought struck the people during the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ life. While he was delivering the Friday sermon from the pulpit, a Bedouin came and said, “Messenger of Allah, our wealth has perished and our dependents are hungry; pray to Allah for us.” The Prophet raised his hands while we could not see so much as a patch of cloud in the sky. By Him in whose hand is my soul, he had not lowered them before a cloud, massive as mountains, surged forth, and he had not stepped down from the pulpit before I saw the rain trickling…’