The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “Allah has not sent any prophet except that he was a shepherd of sheep.” His Companions asked, “And you as well, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “Yes. I herded them for the people of Mecca for a few qirāṭs.” Al-Bukhārī (1) related this through Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Makkī from ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā with the same chain.
Al-Bayhaqī (2) likewise transmitted—through al-Rabīʿ ibn Badr, who is weak (3)—from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “I hired myself out to Khadījah for two trading journeys in return for a she-camel” (4).
Al-Bayhaqī (5) also reported, through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that Khadījah’s father contracted her marriage to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—while—he (Ibn ʿAbbās) said, or so I think he said—he was intoxicated.
Al-Bayhaqī (6) further said: Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar reported to us; Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān (7) narrated: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Munḏir told me; ʿUmar ibn Abī Bakr al-Mawṣilī (8) told me; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī ʿUbaydah ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir told me, from his father, from Maqsam Abū al-Qāsim (9), the freedman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Nawfal, that ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith related: Whenever ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir heard what people said about the Prophet’s marriage to Khadījah and how much they embellished it, he would remark, “I am the most knowledgeable of people about his marrying her. I was his peer in age, his close companion and intimate friend (10). One day I went out with the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—until, when we reached al-Ḥazwarah (11), we passed by …”
(1) In his Sahih (No. 2262), under the chapter on leasing sheep by qirats, he explains: “It means one sheep per qirat, that is, the qirat which is a fraction of a dinar or dirham.” It is also reported by Ibn Mājah in his Sunan (2149), Book of Trade, chapter on handicrafts, and by Ibn Saʿd in al-Tabaqāt (1/125).
(2) In al-Dalāʾil (vol. 2, pp. 65–66).
(3) The phrase “and it is weak” does not occur in Bayhaqī’s Dalāʾil, so it reflects the compiler’s own view. Its weakness was confirmed by al-Rabīʿ in Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (2/38–39) and by Ibn Ḥajar in Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (3/239).
(4) “al-Qulus”: young camels (Lisan al-ʿArab, s.v. qalas).
(5) In al-Dalāʾil (vol. 2, p. 73).
(6) In al-Dalāʾil (vol. 2, p. 71).
(7) In al-Khabar fī al-Maʿrifa wa al-Tārīkh (3/253), in its missing section; the present text is transmitted from that lost portion.
(8) In both the h and t witnesses it reads al-Muʾmalī, whereas the reading adopted here is that confirmed by al-Dalāʾil and marginal note (3) on the previous page.
(9) In h: Muqsim ibn al-Qāsim; in t: Muqsim ibn Abī al-Qāsim—both are scribal errors. The reading confirmed by Bayhaqī’s Dalāʾil and Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (10/288) is Muqsim ibn Bijrah. He is also called Ibn Najdah Abū al-Qāsim, and others say Abū al-ʿAbbās, a freedman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Hārith ibn Nawfal.
(10) “al-Tirb”: al-liddah (postnatal bleeding), already explained (p. 33) in marginal note (4) of this volume. And al-Khidn: al-Siddīq (Mukhtar al-Siḥāḥ, s.v. khidn). The h copy adds “and we went out afterwards: wa khidnan,” probably a scribal error for another term; God knows best.
(11) “al-Ḥazūra”: pronounced with a fatḥa, then sukun, then fatḥa on the wāw before hāʾ; in the language it denotes the “small hill” (ar-rābiya as-saghīra). al-Daraqutnī remarked: “Thus…”