“and the most virtuous of the two.’
He then said, “If you are asked, ‘Which of the two daughters did he marry?’ say: ‘The younger of the two.’ ” (1)
Al-Bazzār and Ibn Abī Ḥātim have also transmitted—through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lahīʿah, from al-Ḥārith ibn Yazīd al-Ḥaḍramī, from ʿUlayy ibn Rabāḥ, from ʿUtbah ibn al-Nuddar—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Moses hired himself out in return for safeguarding his chastity and for food to fill his stomach.”
When the appointed term was completed, it was asked, “Messenger of Allah, which of the two terms did he fulfill?” He replied, “The most righteous and the most complete of the two.”
When Moses desired to part from Shuʿayb, he asked his wife to request her father to grant them some of his sheep so that they might live on them. Shuʿayb therefore gave her every lamb born that year with streaked coloring (2), even though his flock consisted of beautiful black sheep.
Moses, peace be upon him, then took a staff, split its tip, placed it at the lower end of the watering-trough, drove the flock to drink, and stood opposite the trough. No ewe emerged without his tapping its flank, one by one. They all conceived, grew plump, produced milk (3), and gave birth to streaked lambs—every one of them except one or two. Among them there was neither a fashūsh nor a dabūb nor an ʿazūz nor a thaʿūl, nor a kamsah (4) too small to be grasped by the hand.
The Prophet ﷺ said, “If you were to enter Greater Syria, you would still find remnants of that flock; they are the Samaritan sheep.”
Ibn Lahīʿah explained:
• al-fashūsh: one whose milk streams out in a broad gush (5);
• al-dabūb: one whose udder is so long that it drags on the ground (6);
• al-ʿazūz: one whose milk flow is narrow and constricted (7);
• al-thaʿūl: one with an udder so small it resembles two nipples (8);
• al-kamsah: one whose udder is so tiny a hand cannot grasp it (9).
The soundness of attributing this report to the Prophet ﷺ is questionable; it may in fact be a companion’s statement, as Ibn Jarīr said. He narrated: Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā told us, Muʿādh ibn Hishām told us, my father told us, from Qatādah, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: “When the Prophet of Allah Moses invited his companion …”