Abū Hurayrah – may Allah be pleased with him – related from the Prophet ﷺ who said:
“The people of Yemen have come to you; they possess the softest hearts and the gentlest souls. Faith is Yemeni, and wisdom is Yemeni. Pride and arrogance are found among the owners of camels, while calmness and dignity are among the shepherds of sheep.”
Muslim (1) reports this through Shuʿbah, and al-Bukhārī (2) likewise transmits it from Abū al-Yamān, from Shuʿayb, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ with the wording:
“The people of Yemen have come to you—more tender-hearted and more compassionate. Understanding of the religion is Yemeni, and wisdom is Yemeni.”
It is also recorded (3) through Ismāʿīl, from Sulaymān, from Thawr, from Abū al-Ghayth (4), from Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Faith is Yemeni, and tribulation is here—here, where the horn of Satan rises.”
Muslim (5) narrates it as well, through Shuʿayb, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah.
Al-Bukhārī (6) further relates, via Shuʿbah, from Ismāʿīl, from Qays, from Abū Masʿūd, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Faith is here,” and he pointed with his hand toward Yemen, “while coarseness and hardness of heart are found among the faddādīn—those who cry out behind the tails of camels—from the quarter where the two horns of Satan rise: the tribes of Rabīʿah and Muḍar.”
Al-Bukhārī and Muslim likewise transmit it through Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, from Abū Masʿūd ʿUqbah ibn ʿAmr (8).
Another report (9) comes by way of Sufyān al-Thawrī, from Abū Ṣakhrah Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād, who said that Ṣafwān ibn Muḥriz narrated to us from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn:
The clan of Tamīm came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he said, “Rejoice, O sons of Tamīm!” They replied, “If you have given us glad tidings, then grant us something as well.” The face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ changed. Then some people from Yemen arrived, whereupon he said, “Accept the glad tidings, since Banū Tamīm have declined them.” They said, “We accept, O Messenger of Allah.”