Abū Muḥammad … carried the report on until it reached the episode of Suwāʿ. Rāshid said:
“Just before daybreak I found myself by an idol that stood opposite Suwāʿ when, without warning, a voice rang out from deep inside it:
‘Marvellous—truly marvellous! A Prophet has arisen from the descendants of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.
Fornication, usury, and the slaughtering of animals for idols are now curbed;
the heavens are under guard and we are pelted with shooting stars.
Marvellous—truly marvellous!’
“Then another idol called from within:
‘Al-Ḍimār—once worshipped—has been abandoned.
The Prophet Aḥmad has appeared; he performs the prayer and enjoins almsgiving, fasting,
righteousness, and kindness to relatives.’
“Yet a third idol proclaimed:
He who inherited prophecy and guidance
after Mary’s son is a rightly-guided man of Quraysh;
A Prophet who declares what has gone before
and what shall come—true today and tomorrow.
“At dawn I reached Suwāʿ itself and saw two foxes licking around it, eating the offerings placed for it, and then turning to urinate upon it. I thereupon recited:
Can a god be one on whose head the foxes pass water?
How debased is the object upon which the foxes urinate!
“This happened after the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had departed and emigrated to Madinah, and news of him had spread. I therefore set out until I reached the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—in Madinah, bringing with me a dog. My name at that time was Ẓālim (‘Oppressor’) and the dog’s name was Rāshid (‘Rightly Guided’).
“The Prophet—peace be upon him—asked, ‘What is your name?’ I said, ‘Ẓālim.’ He asked, ‘What is your dog’s name?’ I answered, ‘Rāshid.’ He said, ‘Your name is now Rāshid, and the dog’s name is Ẓālim,’ and he laughed.
“I pledged allegiance to the Prophet—peace be upon him—and stayed with him in Mecca. Later I requested from the Messenger of Allah—peace be upon him—a piece of land at Ruhāṭ, describing it to him. He granted it to me: from the high ground of Ruhāṭ, a horse’s run in length and three stone-throws besides. He also gave me a water-skin filled with water, spat into it, and said: ‘Pour it out at the highest point of the tract, and do not prevent the people from taking whatever surplus remains.’ I did so, and the water became a flowing spring that runs to this very day, and I planted date-palms around it.”