…Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Maimūnī related to us; al-Firyābī related to us; ʿAbbād ibn Kathīr, from al-Aʿraj (1), from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

“By Allah, besides whom there is no deity, had Abū Bakr not been made caliph, Allah would not have been worshipped.” He repeated this a second time, then a third, whereupon someone said to him, “Enough, Abū Hurayrah!”

He replied, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched Usāmah ibn Zayd with seven hundred men to Syria. When they reached Dhī Khushub (2), the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away and the Arab tribes around Madinah apostasised. The Companions of the Messenger ﷺ then gathered around Abū Bakr and said, ‘Abū Bakr, recall these troops. Will you send them against the Byzantines when the Arabs around Madinah have rebelled?’ He answered, ‘By Him besides whom none is worthy of worship, even if dogs were dragging the feet of the wives of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I would not recall an army the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had dispatched, nor would I undo a banner he had tied.’ He therefore sent Usāmah on his way.

“Whenever the detachment passed by a tribe inclined toward apostasy, the people would say, ‘If these men did not possess real strength, such a force would never have left their town; let us wait until they meet the Romans.’ They met the Romans, routed and killed them, and returned unharmed, so the people remained firm upon Islam.”

This ʿAbbād ibn Kathīr is, I believe, al-Barmakī, for al-Firyābī transmits from him, and his reports are reasonably sound. As for [ʿAbbād ibn Kathīr] al-Basrī al-Thaqafī, his ḥadith is rejected. Allah knows best.

Saif ibn ʿUmar (3) also narrated—from Abū Ḍamrah, Abū ʿAmr, and others—on the authority of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī: When Abū Bakr resolved to dispatch Usāmah’s army, some of the Anṣār said to ʿUmar, “Ask him to appoint someone other than Usāmah over us.” ʿUmar conveyed this to Abū Bakr, whereupon—so it is said—Abū Bakr seized his beard and exclaimed, “May your mother lose you, son of al-Khaṭṭāb! Shall I appoint any commander other than the one appointed by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?”

He then went himself to al-Jurf, reviewed Usāmah’s army, and ordered them to depart. He walked on foot while Usāmah rode, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf led the camel of the Ṣiddīq. Usāmah said, “O Successor of the Messenger of Allah, either mount or let me dismount.” Abū Bakr replied, “By Allah, you will not dismount and I will not mount.” Abū Bakr then asked Usāmah to release ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—who had been listed in his army—and Usāmah did so. For this reason ʿUmar never afterwards met Usāmah without saying, “Peace be upon you, O commander!”

The Slaying of al-Aswad al-ʿAnsī, the lying claimant to prophethood

Abū Jaʿfar ibn Jarīr (4) said: ʿUmar ibn Shabbah (5) al-Numayrī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad—meaning al-Madaʾinī—narrated to us, from Abū Maʿshar, Yazīd ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn Juʿdubah (6), Ghassān ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, and Juwayriyyah ibn Asmāʾ, from their elders, who said: