being replenished except from up there, and he gestured with his hand toward the sky.” It was related by al-Nasa’i and al-Tirmidhi, who declared it “a fair and sound hadith.” It was also narrated by al-Darimi and by al-Hakim in his Sahih.

Al-Bukhari further records—on the authority of Abu Hurayrah—that he used to say:

“By Allah, besides whom there is no deity, I would sometimes press my body against the ground from hunger, and I would fasten a stone to my stomach because of hunger. One day I sat on the pathway from which they customarily emerged. Abu Bakr passed by, so I asked him about a verse from the Book of Allah; I had only asked so that he might invite me along, but he did not. Then ʿUmar passed by, and I asked him about a verse from the Book of Allah—again only so that he would invite me, but he went on without doing so. Then Abu al-Qasim passed by…"