He said, “Tell me what is to come.”
He answered, “Affliction, wretchedness, famine, harshness, and headstrong valor have all passed away—save for a remnant that lingers among Khuzaʿah. Adversity, destitution, and debased character have vanished, except for a few among the Khazraj and the Aws. Arrogance and self-glorification, slander and treachery have disappeared, save for a residue in Banū Bakr—meaning the clan that springs from Hawāzin. Deeds that bring regret and acts that incur sin have gone, except for a remnant in Khathʿam.”
He said, “Inform me what will happen.”
He replied, “When rancor prevails and the jar is corked, leave the Land of Emigration; and when the greeting of peace is withheld and family ties are severed, depart from the Sacred Sanctuary.”
He said again, “Tell me what will happen.”
He said, “Were it not for an ear that hears and an eye that gleams, I would have told you what would make you panic.” Then he recited:
No slumber, lulled by bliss, have you granted me, O son of Ghūṭ,
nor has the dawn yet reached us.
He then let out a shrill whistle, like the whistle of a woman in labor; when dawn broke I went to look, and there lay a large lizard and a snake, both dead.
He said, “It was only through this report that I learned the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—had emigrated to Madinah.”
The author also transmitted it through Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar, from Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī, from al-Naḍr ibn Salamah, from Ḥassān ibn ʿUbādah ibn Mūsā, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bahrām, from Shahr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, who said:
“When we pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—on the Night of al-ʿAqabah, I travelled to Ḥaḍramawt on some errand. When I had concluded my business and was on my way back, I fell asleep along the road. In the middle of the night a crier startled me, saying:
O Abū ʿAmr, wakefulness has visited me;
sleep has fled, and slumber is gone—
—and he recounted the whole poem in full.”
Abū Nuʿaym said: ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī related to us; al-Naḍr ibn Salamah related to us