At al-Ḥijr, once the Prophet ﷺ had encamped there, the people drew water from its well. When they moved on, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Do not drink any of its water, nor use it for ablution. Whatever dough you have mixed with it, feed to the camels and eat none of it. And let none of you go out tonight unless he is accompanied by a companion.”

The people complied with what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had ordered—except for two men of Banū Sāʿidah. One went out to relieve himself, and the other went to look for his camel. The one who went to relieve himself was choked on the way, while the one who sought his camel was swept up by the wind and cast upon the mountains of Ṭayy.

When this was reported to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said:

“Did I not forbid anyone to go out unless he had a companion with him?”

He prayed for the man who had been stricken while relieving himself, and the man recovered. As for the other, he eventually reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on his return from Tabūk—though in the narration of Ziyād from Ibn Isḥāq it states that some people of Ṭayy brought him as a gift to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he returned to Madinah.

Ibn Isḥāq said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr told me that al-ʿAbbās ibn Sahl named the two men for him but asked him to keep their names confidential, so he did not tell me who they were.

Imām Aḥmad (1) said: ʿAffān related to us; Wahīb ibn Khālid related to us; ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us, from al-ʿAbbās ibn Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī, from Abū Ḥumayd al-Sāʿidī, who said:

We set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the year of Tabūk until we reached Wādī al-Qurā. We found a woman in her orchard, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to his Companions, “Estimate its produce.” The people estimated it, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ estimated it at ten wasqs. He then said to the woman, “Keep a record of what it yields until I return to you, if Allah wills.”

He proceeded until he arrived at Tabūk, where the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Tonight a fierce wind will blow upon you. Let no one stand up in it, and whoever owns a camel should fasten its hobble firmly.”

Abū Ḥumayd said: We secured our camels. During the night a violent wind struck us; a man stood up in it and the wind hurled him onto a mountain of Ṭayy.

The king of Eilat then came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and presented him with a white mule. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ clothed him with a mantle and granted him a written charter concerning their seacoast. He then set out, and we set out with him, until we reached Wādī al-Qurā.

He said to the woman, “How much has your orchard produced?” She replied, “Ten wasqs—the very amount estimated by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I am in haste; whoever among you wishes to hasten, let him do so.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ departed, and we departed with him. When he came within sight of Madinah he said, “This is Ṭābah.” When he saw Mount Uḥud he said, “This is Uḥud, a mountain that loves us and we love it. Shall I tell you which quarters of the Anṣār are the best?” We said, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah.” He said, “The best quarters of the Anṣār are the Banū Najjār, then the quarter of Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal, then the quarter of Banū Sāʿidah; and there is goodness in every quarter of the Anṣār.”

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim (2) also narrated this through several chains from ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā in similar wording.

Imām Mālik (3), may Allah have mercy on him, likewise transmitted—from Abū al-Zubayr, from Abū al-Ṭufayl ʿĀmir ibn Wāthilah—that Muʿādh ibn Jabal