Maymūnah bint Kardam said:
“I accompanied my father on the pilgrimage performed by the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ. I actually saw the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, and heard the people all around proclaiming, ‘The Messenger of Allah! The Messenger of Allah!’ so I kept my eyes fixed on him.
My father drew near while the Prophet was riding his camel, holding a small staff like those used by schoolteachers. I heard the Bedouins and the rest of the crowd calling out, ‘al-Ṭabṭabiyyah, al-Ṭabṭabiyyah!’
My father went up to him and grasped his foot. She continued, “The Prophet allowed him to do so, stopped, and listened to him. My father said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have vowed that if a son is born to me I will slaughter, at the head of Buwānah, in a mountain pass among the rugged hills, a number of sheep’—the narrator added, ‘I think she said fifty.’
The Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, asked, ‘Are any of the idols of the pre-Islamic period still found there?’ He replied, ‘No.’
The Prophet said, ‘Then fulfil…’
(1) The distinguished female Companion is Maimuna bint Kurdam al-Thaqafiyya, one of the younger Companions; a hadith of hers is recorded by Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah. See: Usd al-Ghabah 5:552–53; Taqrib al-Tahdhib 2:615 (entry 12, section “Women”). Her father, Kurdam ibn Sufyan ibn Aban al-Thaqafi, was himself a Companion. See: al-Isabah 3:290, no. 7390.
(2) The words “Messenger of Allah” are absent from manuscript A.
(3) The phrase “abaddahu basari” means: “I kept my gaze fixed on him without looking away.”
(4) Manuscript A reads “al-tantinat al-tantinat,” but the correct wording, following Abu Dawud, is “al-tabtabiya al-tabtabiya.” The term al-tabtabiya refers to a staff or whip, so the repetition “al-tabtabiya, al-tabtabiya” conveys “the staff, the staff!” as a warning. Others interpret it as onomatopoeia for the patter of feet as people hurried toward him. See Taj al-Arus 1:353 (with its marginalia).
(5) The word “walad” (child) is omitted in manuscripts C and D.
(6) Manuscript C reads “ʿuqbatahu.”
(7) Manuscript C has “al-niʿam” (camels), whereas the correct reading is “al-ghanam” (sheep).
(8) Both the printed edition and Abu Dawud read: “min al-awthan” (from among the idols).