He related that they had marched with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during the campaign of Tabūk, and that he would combine the Ẓuhr with the ʿAṣr prayers and the Maghrib with the ʿIshāʾ.
He said: One day he delayed the prayer, then came out and performed Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr together, went back inside, then came out again and performed Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ together. He then said:
“Tomorrow, if Allah wills, you will arrive at the spring of Tabūk. You will not reach it until the forenoon is well advanced. Whoever gets there must not touch any of its water until I arrive.”
He continued: We reached it, and two men had already preceded us. The spring was no wider than a sandal-strap, trickling only a little water. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked them,
“Have you taken any of its water?”
They answered, “Yes.” He cursed them and said to them whatever Allah willed him to say. The people then scooped up the water in their hands—little by little—until some was collected in a vessel. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ washed his face and hands in it, then poured it back into the spring. It gushed forth with abundant water, and the people drew from it.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said,
“O Muʿādh, it is likely that, if you live long enough, you will see this very place filled with orchards.”
Muslim (1) recorded this through the narration of Mālik.
***
His sermon ﷺ in Tabūk while leaning against a palm-tree
Imām Aḥmad (2) transmitted—through Abū al-Naḍr Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim, Yūnus ibn Muḥammad al-Muʾaddib, and Ḥajjāj ibn Muḥammad, all from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Khayr, from Abū al-Khiṭāb, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī—who said:
In the year of Tabūk, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ addressed the people while resting his back against a palm-tree and said:
“Shall I tell you who are the best of people and who are the worst? Among the best of people is a man who strives in the path of Allah, mounted on his horse, or on his camel, or on foot, until death overtakes him. And among the worst of people is a brazen libertine who recites the Book of Allah yet is restrained by nothing in it.”
Al-Nasāʾī (3) also narrated it—from Qutaybah, from al-Layth—with the same wording, and he remarked, “I do not know Abū al-Khiṭāb.”
Al-Bayhaqī (4) related—through Yaʿqūb ibn Muḥammad al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿImrān, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muṣʿab ibn Manẓūr ibn Jamīl ibn Sinān narrated to us, from his father, who said: I heard ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir al-Juhanī say:
We set out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the expedition of Tabūk. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ slept soundly and did not wake until the sun had risen a spear’s length above the horizon.
He said: