and I said, “Messenger of Allah, we have slaughtered a young goat of ours and I have ground one sāʿ of barley. Please come—-you and a handful of men with you.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then raised his voice and called out, “People of the trench! Jabir has prepared a banquet (sūr); come at once!” He added, “Do not take your pot off the fire, and do not bake your dough until I arrive.”

So I hurried back, while the Prophet ﷺ came at the head of the people. When I got to my wife she cried, “What have you done—what have you done!” I replied, “I have done exactly what you told me.” She produced the dough, and he spat(1) into it and invoked blessing; then he went to our cooking-pot, spat into it and invoked blessing. He said, “Call a woman who knows how to bake so she can bake with you, and keep ladling from your pot without lowering it.”

There were one thousand men. By Allah, they ate until they were satisfied and dispersed, yet our pot was still bubbling as it had been and our dough was still being baked just as before.

His statement, “a kudyah blocked the way”—with a ḍammah on the kāf, a silent dāl, and a yāʾ below the line—refers to a thick, solid patch of ground in which an axe is of no use. Al-kathīb originally means a sand-hill; here it means that it turned to fine soil, which is the sense of the word ahyal. Al-athāfī are the stones on which a cooking pot is set. Tadāghaṭū means they crowded together. Al-majāʿah, with a fatḥah on the mīm, means hunger; al-khamṣ—with a fatḥah on the khāʾ and the mīm—also means hunger. Ankafaʾat means it turned back and returned. Al-bahīmah, with a ḍammah on the bāʾ, is the diminutive of bahmah and refers to a young she-goat (ʿanāq, with a fatḥah on the ʿayn). Dājin is a domesticated animal accustomed to the household. Sūr is the food to which people are invited—the term is Persian. Hayyahallā means “come!” Her words “bika wa bika” indicate that she argued with and scolded him, thinking what she had would not suffice; she felt embarrassed, unaware of the manifest miracle and brilliant sign with which Allah, Exalted is He, honored His Prophet ﷺ. Basaqa means “he spat”; it is also pronounced baṣaqa and bazaqa—three accepted forms. ʿamada—with a fatḥah on the mīm—means “he intended / set out.” Aqdiḥī means: