He set before them the parable of the two men and the parable of worldly life.

Khabbāb said, “We would sit with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and when the moment came for him to rise, we would rise and leave him until he himself got up.”

Ibn Mājah relates (1): Yḥyā ibn Ḥakīm narrated to us; Abū Dāwūd narrated to us; Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated to us, from al-Miqdām ibn Shurayḥ, from his father, from Saʿd, who said: “This verse was revealed concerning six of us—about me, Ibn Masʿūd, Ṣuhayb, ʿAmmār, al-Miqdād, and Bilāl. Quraysh said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, we are not satisfied to follow these men, so drive them away from you.’ Something of that entered the heart of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as Allah willed, and Allah—exalted is He—then revealed: ‘Do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face’ (al-Anʿām 52).”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī said: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Iṣfahānī informed us; Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Aʿrābī informed us; Abū al-Ḥasan Khalaf ibn Muḥammad al-Wāsiṭī—Kardūs—narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us; Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān al-Ḍubʿī narrated to us; al-Muʿallā—meaning Ibn Ziyād—narrated to us, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Bashīr al-Muzanī, from Abū al-Ṣiddīq al-Nājī, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī who said:

“I was seated in a company of the Emigrants, some of us shielding ourselves with others because of our lack of clothing, and a reciter among us was reciting the Qur’an while we listened to the Book of Allah. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came and said, ‘Praise be to Allah who has placed in my community those with whom I have been commanded to keep myself patient.’ The circle tightened and their faces became visible. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ recognised none of them except me and said, ‘Rejoice, O band of poor Emigrants! You will be illumined on the Day of Resurrection; you will enter before the wealthy by half a day—that is, five hundred years.’” (2)

Imām Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Tirmidhī also transmit—through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Ḥumaid, from Anas—who said: “There was no person dearer to them than the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, yet when they saw him they would not stand up, knowing how much he disliked that.” (3)

Section: His Worship ﷺ and His Earnest Devotion

ʿĀʾishah said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would fast until we thought he would never break his fast, and he would refrain from fasting until we thought he would never fast.” (4)