…is that the fighting began in year eleven and ended in year twelve, and Allah knows best.
When the delegations (1) of Banū Ḥanīfah came to al-Ṣiddīq, he said to them, “Recite for me something of Musaylima’s ‘Qur’an.’” They answered, “Will you excuse us, O Successor of the Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “That will not do.” So they said:
“He used to say:
‘O frog, daughter of two frogs, croak as you always croak; neither do you muddy the water nor bar the drinker. Your head is in the water and your tail is in the clay.’
“He also used to say:
‘By those who scatter seed for sowing,
by the reapers reaping,
by the winnowers winnowing wheat,
by the grinders grinding,
by the bakers baking bread,
by those who crumble it into broth,
by the swallowers swallowing,
with melted fat (2) and ghee!
You have surpassed the people of fur tents,
and none of the people of mud-brick houses outstripped you.
Guard your travelling companion; shelter the petitioner (3);
and comfort the mourner.’
“They recounted other specimens of this gibberish—stuff even children at play would be ashamed to utter. It is said that al-Ṣiddīq remarked to them, ‘Woe to you! Where could your reason have gone? Such words could never have issued from a man of honor.’ (4)
Musaylima would also say:
‘By the elephant—and what will make you know what the elephant is? He has a long trunk.’ (5)
And he would say:
‘By the pitch-black night,
by the whispering wolf,
no lion has eaten of fresh or dry.’
Earlier we cited his saying:
‘Allah has indeed favored the pregnant woman: He brought forth from her a living soul that moves between the pelvic bones and the belly,’
—and other passages of this feeble, insipid, and repulsive speech.
Abū Bakr ibn al-Bāqillānī (6) (may Allah have mercy on him) included in his book Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān examples of the utterances of these ignorant pretenders—Musaylima, Tulayḥah, al-Aswad, Sajāḥ, and others—demonstrating the weakness of their minds and of the minds of those who followed them in their misguidance and folly.
We have also transmitted that ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ visited Musaylima during the Days of Ignorance. Musaylima asked him, “What has been revealed to your companion lately?” ʿAmr replied, “A brief yet eloquent sūrah.” Musaylima said, “What is it?” He answered:
‘By Time (1),
indeed man is in loss (2),
except those who believe and do righteous deeds and exhort one another to the truth and exhort one another to patience.’ (Qur’an, al-ʿAṣr 1–3)
Musaylima pondered for a while, then raised his head and said, “Something like it has been revealed to me as well.” ʿAmr replied…