“…from Heaven. Why did you not tell me so that I could give your two companions a drink?”

I answered, “Once you and I have drunk this blessing, I do not care whom it misses.”

Imām Aḥmad likewise relates the report through Abū al-Naḍr, from Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah, from Thābit, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, from al-Miqdād, recounting the same incident. In his wording it appears that al-Miqdād milked into a vessel in which they would never normally put milk, and he kept milking until the froth rose thick upon it. When he brought it, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Have you not already had your drink tonight, O Miqdād?”

I replied, “Drink, O Messenger of Allah.” (He drank and then handed the cup to me. I said, “Drink, O Messenger of Allah,” so he drank again.) He then passed it to me, and I took what remained and drank it. When I realized that the Messenger of Allah was fully quenched and that his supplication had reached me, I laughed so hard that I collapsed to the ground.

The Messenger of Allah said, “Up to your mischief again, O Miqdād!”

I explained, “O Messenger of Allah, such-and-such happened and I did such-and-such.”

He said, “This was nothing but Allah’s mercy. Why did you not seek my permission so that we could wake these two companions of yours and they too could share in it?”

I replied, “By Him Who sent you with the truth, once I had received it and received it with you, I cared not who else among the people might have it.”

This narration is also recorded by Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī through the chain of Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah.

Among that company was Muhājir, the freedman of Umm Salamah. Al-Ṭabarānī reports: Abū al-Zinbaʿ Rawaḥ ibn al-Faraj told us, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bukayr told us, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to me—I heard Bukayr say: I heard Muhājir, the freedman of Umm Salamah, say, “I served the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for years, and he never once said to me about something I had done, ‘Why did you do that?’ nor about something I had left undone, ‘Why did you leave it?’” In another wording he said, “I served him for ten years—or five.”

Among them as well was Abū al-Samḥ. Abū al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Thaqafī said: Mujāhid ibn Mūsā narrated to us, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī narrated to us,