88 – ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib narrated from his father, from Ibn ʿAmr, who said:

The sun was eclipsed on the day Ibrāhīm, the son of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, passed away. People began to say, “The sun has been eclipsed because of Ibrāhīm’s death.” The Prophet ﷺ then stood in prayer for a very long time—so long that they thought he would never bow. He finally bowed, and his bowing lasted about as long as his standing. He then raised his head, and his standing afterward was about as long as his bowing. Next he prostrated for roughly the same length of time as his standing, and his sitting between the two prostrations was about as long as his prostration. He then prostrated again for about the length of his sitting. He performed the second rakʿah in exactly the same manner. When he reached its final prostration he wept, and his weeping grew intense; we heard him saying, “Did You not promise me that You would not punish them while I am among them?” He then sat, recited the tashahhud, concluded the prayer, faced the people and said:

“The sun and the moon are two of Allah’s signs by which He frightens His servants; they are not eclipsed because of anyone’s death or life. When you witness that, you must pray. I was shown Paradise so near that, had I wished to pluck a branch from one of its trees, I could have done so; and I was shown the Fire so near that I began to draw back from it. In it I saw the thief of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

In another wording: “I saw the burglar of the house of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ being tortured in the Fire. I also saw ʿAbd ibn Daʿdaʿ, who used to steal from the pilgrims with his hooked staff; and I saw there a dark-skinned Ḥimyarite woman being punished because of a cat she had tied up—she neither fed it nor let it loose to eat from the vermin and insects of the earth.”

Another report conveys something similar, and it includes: “Indeed, I saw ʿAbd ibn Daʿdaʿ, the thief of the pilgrims with his hooked staff; whenever he was out of sight he would make off with something, and when anyone noticed him he would say, ‘It only caught on my staff.’”

Yet another narration states: “Whenever something was hidden from him he would seize it, and when it became apparent to others he would say, ‘It only caught on my staff.’”