42 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us—Muhammad ibn Idris transmitting—; Ahmad ibn Abi al-Hawari narrated to us; Zayd ibn ʿUbayd, from Khulayد, from al-Hasan, reported:

Some thatched huts in Basra caught fire, yet a single hut standing in their midst was left unscathed. The governor of Basra at that time was Abu Musa al-Ashʿari. When the matter reached him, he sent for the owner of the spared hut. The man was brought before him—an elderly gentleman—and Abu Musa asked, “Old man, how is it that your hut did not burn?”

The man replied, “I swore by my Lord that He would not let it burn.”

Abu Musa then said, “Indeed, I heard the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—say: ‘In my community there will be men with disheveled hair and soiled clothes; were they to swear an oath by Allah, He would surely fulfill it for them.’”