so be patient. Do you have anything?” She answered, “I have some barley and a young she-goat (1).”

I slaughtered the kid and ground the barley, and we put the meat into a cooking pot. I then went off to the Prophet ﷺ while the dough had already risen (2) and the pot, set between the hearth-stones, was almost done (3). I said, “Messenger of Allah, I have a little food of my own; please come—just you and one or two men.” He asked, “How much is it?” When I told him, he said, “It is plenty and good. Tell her not to take the pot off the fire or the bread out of the oven (4) until I arrive.”

Then he proclaimed, “Rise up!” and the Emigrants and the Helpers all stood with him. I rushed in to my wife and said, “Woe to you! The Prophet ﷺ has come with the Emigrants, the Helpers, and everyone with them!” She said, “Did he ask you?” I replied, “Yes” (5, 6).

He said, “Enter, but do not press upon one another.” He began to break the bread, place the meat upon it, and each time he took from the pot and the oven he would cover them again (7). He kept passing the bread and ladling the meat to his Companions, then returning to serve more, until they had all eaten their fill and food was still left over. He said, “Eat from this and give it away, for the people are suffering from hunger.” Agreed upon.

In another wording Jabir said: “When the trench was being dug I noticed severe hunger on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so I slipped away to my wife and asked, ‘Do you have anything? I can see that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is extremely hungry.’ She produced a leather bag containing one sāʿ of barley, and we had a domesticated animal; I slaughtered it, ground the barley, finished my work, and cut the meat into its pot. Then I went off to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and she said, ‘Do not disgrace me before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and those with him.’ I reached him and spoke to him privately…"