a few mouthfuls that will keep his back straight. If he must—and there is no way around it—then a third is for his food, a third for his drink, and a third for his breath.’ Al-Tirmidhi narrated this and said: ‘A good (ḥasan) ḥadith.’ (1)

“Akalāt”: that is, small bites (morsels).

522 – Abu Umāmah, Iyās ibn Thaʿlabah al-Anṣārī al-Ḥārithī (may Allah be pleased with him) said: One day the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were discussing worldly matters in his presence. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Do you not hear? Do you not hear? Shabbiness is part of faith; shabbiness is part of faith,’—meaning austerity. Abū Dāwūd narrated it.

Al-badhādhah—with a single bāʾ and two dotted dhāls—denotes a shabby appearance and refraining from luxurious dress. As for al-taqaḥḥul, with qāf and ḥāʾ, the linguists say that the mutaqaḥḥil is a man whose skin has become tough through a harsh life and avoidance of ease.

523 – Abu ʿAbd Allāh Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent us out and placed Abū ʿUbaydah (may Allah be pleased with him) in command to intercept a Quraysh caravan. He supplied us with only one sack of dates; he found nothing else for us. Abū ʿUbaydah would give us one date each. Someone asked, ‘How did you manage with it?’ He said, ‘We would suck it the way a child sucks, then drink water over it, and it would get us through the day until nightfall. We would also beat the leaves of al-khabat with our sticks, moisten them with water, and eat them.

‘We proceeded along the seashore until something like a huge sand-dune rose before us. We drew near, and it turned out to be a sea creature called al-ʿanbar (a kind of whale). Abū ʿUbaydah said, “It is carrion.” Then he said, “No—we are envoys of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, we are on the path of Allah, and you have been driven by necessity, so eat.” We camped by it for a month—three hundred of us—until we grew heavy with flesh. I even saw us ladling fat from the socket of its eye with large vessels, and we would cut from it pieces of meat the size of a bull or as large as a bull. Abū ʿUbaydah then took from us three…"