ʿUmar said, “He has spoken the truth. While I was asleep beside their idols, a man came with a calf and sacrificed it. Then a herald cried out—never have I heard a voice louder—saying:
‘O Jalīḥ! An auspicious affair, an eloquent man,
proclaiming: “There is no god but Allah.”’
The people leapt to their feet, but I said, ‘I will not leave until I know what lies behind this.’ The herald called again:
‘O Jalīḥ! An auspicious affair, an eloquent man
proclaiming: “There is no god but Allah.”’
I rose, and before long someone announced, ‘This is a Prophet.’ Al-Bukhārī is the sole transmitter of this report.
That man was Sawād ibn Qārib al-Azdi—some say al-Sadūsi—from the district of al-Sharāt in the mountains of al-Balqāʾ. He was a Companion who came as a delegate to the Prophet.
Abū Ḥātim and Ibn Mandah state that Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī narrated from him. Al-Bukhārī likewise affirms his Companionship.
Aḥmad ibn Hārūn ibn Rūḥ al-Baradhʿī the ḥāfiẓ, al-Dāraquṭnī, and others also list him among the Companions.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Saʿīd al-Miṣrī noted that the name should be read Sawād ibn Qārib, with the consonant lightly pronounced.
ʿUthmān al-Waqāṣī related from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī that “he was one of the nobles of Yemen,” a detail recorded by Abū Nuʿaym in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah.
His report is also transmitted through other chains in versions longer and more detailed than the one recorded by al-Bukhārī.
= “on the camels’ backs under the saddlebags.” This hemistich is not metered; in al-Baqir’s version it reads “wa rahalaha al-ays bi ahlasaha,” which is metered. Fath al-Bari (7/180–181).
(1) “Jalih in the meter called wazn azim”: it denotes an insolent, combative person. Ibn at-Tin suggested it may have referred to a specific man or generally to anyone possessing that trait. Ibn Hajar notes that most narrations actually read “O people of Durayh,” a famous Arab clan (Fath al-Bari 7/181). Al-Suhaili adds (al-Rawd 1/242) that some of our masters claim it is the name of a devil, and that in Arabic jalih denotes the down that flies off the tops of plants, light like mushrooms.
(2) In manuscripts H and T it appears as “as-Sarat” with a non-emphatic s. This is confirmed by Mukhtasar Ibn Manzur (10/211) and Mu‘jam al-Buldan (1/489: Balqa; 3/331–332: Sharah). Al-Balqa is a district of the Damascus province between ash-Sham and Wadi al-Qura, its qaṣbah being Amman; within Balqa lies the town of Sharah ash-Sham, a well-known region said by some to contain the Cave and al-Raqim.
(3) A useful addition, as it is attributed to his grandfather, al-Bardiji (d. 301 AH), author of Tabaqat al-Asma’ al-Mufrada.
(4) Al-Muwtalif wa al-Mukhtalif (vol. 3, p. 1233).
(5) See Al-Muwtalif wa al-Mukhtalif by Abd al-Ghani, p. 71.
(6) Dalail al-Nubuwwah by Abu Nu‘aym (vol. 1, pp. 111–112), al-Qalqaji edition, 1406 AH.
(7) The author presents some of these proofs below, and I have cited their locations. They are further discussed in Abu Nu‘aym’s Dalail al-Nubuwwah (1/137–142), al-Bayhaqi’s Dalail (2/248–254), and al-Hakim’s Mustadrak (3/608–610). Ibn Hajar, in al-Isabah, records the report under Suwad from Ibn Abi Khaythama and al-Ruwaniy via Abu Ja‘far al-Baqir; it also appears in Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr’s al-Isti‘ab and in al-Haythami.