”—repeating this three times, to someone reciting a report to me—“for they are among those who fear Allah most in this life and the Hereafter.”

Ka'b ibn al-Khudāriyya, one of Banū Abī Bakr ibn Kilāb, asked, “Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?”

He replied, “Banū al-Muntafiq—those among them who merit that description.”

He said: I turned towards him and asked, “O Messenger of Allah, is there any good in store for any of our people who died in their pre-Islamic ignorance?”

A man from among Quraysh said, “By Allah, your father al-Muntafiq is in the Fire.”

It felt as though heat had spread between the skin of my face and its flesh because of what he had said about my father before everyone. I was about to say, “And your father, O Messenger of Allah?” Then I reflected and found another expression more fitting, so I said, “And your family, O Messenger of Allah?”

He replied, “My family too, by Allah’s life. Whenever you come upon the grave of a polytheist from Quraysh or Banū 'Āmir, say, ‘Muhammad has sent me to you. Receive tidings that will distress you: you will be dragged on your face and belly in the Fire.’”

I said, “What, then, brought