Among his camels was al-Qaswā’ (1), said to be the one he rode during his migration. There were also al-‘Adbā’ and al-Jad‘ā’. She had neither a slit nor a cut ear (2), but was simply given (3) these names. It is also said that her ear was slit and that she was named accordingly. Whether al-‘Adbā’ and al-Jad‘ā’ were one camel or two is disputed. Al-‘Adbā’ was never outrun, until a Bedouin came riding a young camel of his and outpaced her. This distressed the Muslims, so the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“It is indeed incumbent upon Allah that He raise nothing in this world without bringing it low” (4).
At Badr, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, took as booty a Mahrī camel belonging to Abū Jahl, with a silver ring in its nose. He presented it as a sacrificial offering at al-Hudaybiya to anger the polytheists.
He had forty-five milk-producing she-camels (5). He also had a Mahrī she-camel (6), which Sa‘d ibn ‘Ubāda sent him from the livestock of Banū ‘Uqayl.
(1) The word is written with alif maqsūra (final ā) in all manuscripts except Q and Mb. It was also written this way earlier in al-Tabarānī’s hadith in S, J, and ‘A. Al-Qādī mentions in al-Mashāriq (2:189) that al-‘Udhrī vocalized it with an initial u and without a final hamza in Jābir’s hadith in Sahīh Muslim; this is an error.
(2) ‘Adab means a slit in the ear; jad‘ means a cut in the ear.
(3) The author’s wording indicates that he mentioned al-‘Adbā’ and al-Jad‘ā’ as two names for a single she-camel, then noted the disagreement over this. The wording of Mukhtasar Ibn Jamā‘a (p. 139) indicates that al-Qaswā’ was also al-‘Adbā’ and al-Jad‘ā’, as Muhibb al-Dīn al-Tabarī states in his Khulāsa (p. 171). Al-Harbī affirmed this categorically, and al-Qādī supported it in al-Mashāriq (2:96), as did al-‘Irāqī in his Alfiyya (p. 142).
(4) Al-Bukhārī narrated it (nos. 2872, 6501) from Anas, may Allah be pleased with him.
(5) These comprise all the she-camels listed by al-Dimyātī in his Mukhtasar (p. 182). Ibn Sayyid al-Nās followed him in ‘Uyūn al-Athar (2:390–391), as did Ibn Jamā‘a (p. 141), from whom the author drew his account.
(6) Thus in the sources mentioned above. However, Tabaqāt Ibn Sa‘d (1:426) gives her name as Muhra.