They mentioned the two of them to me as well. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then forbade anyone to speak to us three, out of all those who had stayed behind. So people shunned us—or, he said, their attitude toward us changed—until the very earth itself became alien to me(1); it was no longer the land I knew. We remained like that for fifty nights.
As for my two companions, they became broken-hearted(2) and stayed in their houses, weeping. I, however, was the youngest of the group(3) and the strongest, so I would go out, attend the prayer with the Muslims, and wander through the markets, yet no one spoke to me. I would come to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, greet him while he was sitting with the people after the prayer, and say to myself, “Did he move his lips to return my greeting or not?” Then I would pray close by him and steal(4) a glance at him: when I was absorbed in my prayer he looked at me, but when I turned toward him he looked away.
When the Muslims’ aloofness had gone on so long that it weighed heavily upon me, I walked until I climbed over the wall of the orchard of Abu Qatadah(5)—my cousin and the dearest of people to me. I greeted him, but by Allah he did not answer. I said, “O Abu Qatadah, I adjure you by Allah(6), do you know that I love Allah and His Messenger ﷺ?” He was silent. I repeated my adjuration, and he was silent. I repeated it a third time, and he said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” My eyes overflowed with tears and I turned away, climbing back over the wall.
While I was walking in the marketplace of Madinah, a Nabatean from among the people of Syria(7)—one of those who had come with provisions to sell—was calling, “Who will direct me to Kaʿb ibn Mālik?” The people began pointing him toward me until he came and gave me a letter from the king of Ghassān. I was literate, so I read it, and in it was written: “To proceed: we have learned that your companion has shunned you, and Allah has not placed you in a land of humiliation or neglect. Come to us and we will honour you.” When I read it I said, “This too is part of the trial.” I took it to the oven(8) and burned it.
When forty of the fifty days had passed