Riyad al-Salihin - Al-Nawawi - (1/81)

Riyad al-SalihinAl-Nawawi

79 – The fifth: Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that he campaigned with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ toward the highlands of Najd. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned back (1) he did so along with them, and the midday rest overtook them in a valley thick with ʿiḍāh trees. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dismounted, and the people scattered to seek shade beneath the trees. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ lay down beneath a samura tree, hung his sword on it, and we dozed for a while. Suddenly the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called us, and a Bedouin was standing beside him. He said, “This man drew my sword while I was asleep; I awoke to find it unsheathed in his hand, and he said, ‘Who will protect you from me?’ I replied, ‘Allah’—three times.” He neither punished the man nor harmed him, but merely sat down. Agreed upon.

In another wording Jābir said, “We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Dhāt al-Riqāʿ (2). Whenever we came upon a shady tree we would leave it for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. A man from the idolaters came while the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ sword was hanging on the tree; he drew it and said, ‘Do you fear me?’ He answered, ‘No.’ The man then asked, ‘Who will protect you from me?’ He replied, ‘Allah.’”

In the version recorded by Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī in his Ṣaḥīḥ, the man asked, “Who will protect you from me?” He replied, “Allah,” whereupon the sword fell from the man’s hand. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ picked up the sword and said, “Who will protect you from me now?” The man said, “Be the best of those who take.” He asked, “Will you testify that there is no god but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah?” The man said, “No, but I pledge that I will not fight you, nor will I side with any people who fight you.” The Prophet ﷺ let him go, and the man returned to his people saying, “I have come to you from the best of men.”

His words: qafala (returned); al-ʿiḍāh (thorny trees); al-samura—with the sīn opened and the mīm rounded—refers to a talḥ tree, one of the largest of the thorny trees; akhtaraṭa al-sayf (he drew the sword from its sheath); ṣalatan means “unsheathed,” and it may be pronounced with either an open or a closed ṣād.

(1) Meaning: he went back. The term al-ʿidah (with a kasra on the undotted consonant) is said to denote the um ghaylan tree and, more broadly, any large thorny tree; the commentator adopts the latter sense, as will be shown below. (2) That is, the Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa. It was called this either because they raised their banners during it, because the soldiers’ feet became blistered and they wrapped them with rags, or for other reasons that have been mentioned.

٧٩ - الخامس : عن جابر رضي الله عنه أنه غزا مع رسول الله ﷺ قبل نجد ، فَلَمَّا قَفَلَ (١) رسول الله ﷺ قَفَلَ معهم ، فَأَدْرَكَتْهُمُ الْقَائِلَةُ فِي وَادٍ كَثِيرِ الْعِضَاهِ ، فَنَزَلَ رسول الله ﷺ وَتَفَرَّقَ النَّاسُ يَسْتَظِلُّونَ بِالشَّجَرِ ، وَنَزَلَ رسول الله ﷺ تَحْتَ سَمُرَةٍ فَعَلَّقَ بِهَا سَيْفَهُ وَنِمْنَا نَوْمَةً ، فَإِذَا رسول الله ﷺ يَدْعُونَا وَإِذَا عِنْدَهُ أَعْرَابِيٌّ ، فَقَالَ : « إِنَّ هَذَا أَخْتَرَطَ عَلَيَّ سَيْفِي وَأَنَا نَائِمٌ فَاسْتَيْقَظْتُ وَهُوَ فِي يَدِهِ صَلْتًا ، قَالَ : مَنْ يَمْنَعُكَ مِنِّي ؟ قُلْتُ : الله - ثَلَاثًا - » وَلَمْ يُعَاقِبْهُ وَجَلَسَ ، متفق عليه . وَفِي رِوَايَةٍ قَالَ جَابِرٌ : كُنَّا مَعَ رسول الله ﷺ بِذَاتِ الرِّقَاعِ (٢) ، فَإِذَا أَتَيْنَا عَلَى شَجَرَةٍ ظَلِيلَةٍ تَرَكْنَاهَا لرسول الله ﷺ ، فَجَاءَ رَجُلٌ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ وَسَيْفُ رسول الله ﷺ مُعَلَّقٌ بِالشَّجَرَةِ فَاخْتَرَطَهُ فَقَالَ : تَخَافُنِي ؟ قَالَ : « لَا » ، فَقَالَ : فَمَنْ يَمْنَعُكَ مِنِّي ؟ قَالَ : « الله » . وَفِي رِوَايَةِ أَبِي بَكْرٍ الْإِسْمَاعِيلِيِّ فِي صَحِيحِهِ فَقَالَ : مَنْ يَمْنَعُكَ مِنِّي ؟ قَالَ : « الله » . قَالَ : فَسَقَطَ السَّيْفُ مِنْ يَدِهِ ، فَأَخَذَ رسول الله ﷺ السَّيْفَ فَقَالَ : « مَنْ يَمْنَعُكَ مِنِّي ؟ » . فَقَالَ : كُنْ خَيْرَ آخِذٍ . فَقَالَ : « تَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا الله وَأَنِّي رسول الله » ؟ قَالَ : لَا ، وَلَكِنِّي أُعَاهِدُكَ أَنْ لَا أُقَاتِلَكَ ، وَلَا أَكُونَ مَعَ قَوْمٍ يُقَاتِلُونَكَ ، فَخَلَّى سَبِيلَهُ ، فَأَتَى أَصْحَابَهُ فَقَالَ : « جِئْتُكُمْ مِنْ عِنْدِ خَيْرِ النَّاسِ » . قَوْلُهُ : « قَفَلَ » أَي رَجَعَ . وَ « الْعِضَاهُ » الشَّجَرُ الَّذِي لَهُ شَوْكٌ ، وَ « السَّمُرَةُ » بِفَتْحِ السِّينِ وَضَمِّ الْمِيمِ : الشَّجَرَةُ مِنَ الطَّلْحِ ، وَهِيَ الْعِظَامُ مِنْ شَجَرِ الْعِضَاهِ ، وَ « أَخْتَرَطَ السَّيْفَ » أَي سَلَّهُ وَهُوَ فِي يَدِهِ . « صَلْتًا » أَي مَسْلُولًا ، وَهُوَ بِفَتْحِ الصَّادِ وَضَمِّهَا .

(١) أي : رجع . و( العضاه ) بكسر المهملة : شجر أم غيلان ، وكل شجر عظيم له شوك ، والثاني هو المعتمد عند المصنف كما يأتي . (٢) أي بغزوة ذات الرقاع ، وسميت بذلك لأنهم رفعوا فيها راياتهم ، وقيل : لأن أقدامهم نقبت ، فكانوا يلفون عليها الخرق ، وقيل غير ذلك .