in Unays’s favor, so he came back with our herd of camels and another herd like it.

He (Abu Dharr) continued, “My nephew, I had already been performing the prayer for three years before I ever met the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.”

I asked, “For whom were you praying?”

He replied, “For Allah.”

I said, “And toward what did you face?”

He answered, “I faced wherever my Lord directed me. I would pray at night, and when the last part of the night arrived I would throw myself down like a discarded hide and remain so until the sun rose over me.”

Unays then said, “I have some business in Mecca; look after things for me while I am gone.” So Unays set out until he reached Mecca and stayed there for quite a while. When he finally returned I asked, “What did you do?”

He said, “I met a man in Mecca who is upon your religion and claims that Allah has sent him.”

I said, “What are the people saying about him?”

He replied, “They say: ‘A poet, a soothsayer, a sorcerer.’” (Unays himself was one of the poets.)

Unays added, “By Allah, I have heard the utterances of the soothsayers, and his words are nothing like theirs. I have compared his speech with the finest compositions of the poets, and it does not fit the meter of any poet who will ever recite after me that it is poetry. By Allah, he is truthful and they are the liars.”

I said, “Mind things for me so that I can go and see for myself.” He agreed, so I went to Mecca and singled out a man among them whom I thought weak.

I asked him, “Where is this man who…"