and maintenance.” So he ﷺ sent for him and said,
“What concern have you with the daughter of the house of Qays?”
He replied, “O Messenger of Allah, my brother has divorced her irrevocably by pronouncing the triple divorce at one time.”
She said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said,
“Listen, O daughter of Qays. Support and lodging are due to a woman from her husband only so long as he still has the right to take her back. Once he no longer has that right, there is neither support nor lodging. Leave, and stay with So-and-so.”
He then added,
“He will converse with her; instead, stay with Ibn Umm Maktūm, for he is blind and will not see you.”
He further said,
“Do not contract a marriage until I myself arrange one for you.”
She said: A man of Quraysh then sought my hand, so I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to seek his counsel. He said,
“Will you not marry someone who is dearer to me than he?”
I replied, “Indeed, O Messenger of Allah; marry me to whomever you wish.”
She said: He then married me to Usāmah ibn Zayd (1).
He said: When I was about to depart, she said, “Sit down, and I shall relate to you a report from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”
She said: One day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out, performed ṣalāt al-hājirah (the early-afternoon prayer at the height of the heat), then sat down, and the people became alarmed. He said,
“Be seated, O people. I have not taken this position because of any alarm; rather, Tamīm al-Dārī has just come to me and told me something that kept me from my midday rest out of joy and delight, and I wished to share with you the happiness of your Prophet. He told me that a party of his paternal cousins embarked upon the sea, and a fierce wind drove them until it cast them onto an island they did not recognize. They remained in a small boat from the ship until they landed on the island. There they came upon a creature covered with thick hair; they could not tell whether it was a man or a woman. They greeted it with salām, and it returned their salutation.
They said, ‘Will you inform us?’
It replied, ‘I will neither inform you nor question you, but in that monastery which you have reached (2) is someone who longs to hear your news and to give you his.’
They said, ‘Who are you?’
She said, ‘I am al-Jassāsah.’
They went on until they reached the monastery, where they found a man bound with strong chains, showing great sorrow and constant complaint. They greeted him with salām, and he returned their salutation.
He said, ‘Who are you?’
They replied, ‘We are Arabs.’
He said, ‘What has happened among the Arabs? Has their Prophet appeared yet?’ (3)
They said, ‘Yes.’
He said, ‘What did they do?’
They replied, ‘All good: they believed in him and affirmed him.’
He said, ‘That is better for them. Did he have an enemy, and did Allah grant him victory over them? So today the Arabs have one God, one Prophet, and their word is united?’
They answered, ‘Yes.’
He asked, ‘What has become of the spring of Zughar?’
They replied, ‘It is in good condition; its people drink from it and water their crops from it.’
He asked, ‘What of the date-palms between ʿAmmān and Bayṣān?’
They said, ‘They are thriving; every year they bear fruit.’
He asked, ‘What of Lake Tiberias?’
They said, ‘It is full.’
At that he sighed, then sighed again, and sighed a third time. Then he swore, ‘If I were to be released from this place, I would not leave a single land of Allah without treading upon it—except Ṭaybah, for I have no authority over it.’
He said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then declared, ‘At this point my joy has reached its end.’