—Umm Salamah. He reported from Umm Salamah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, that she said:

“I used to hear people speak about the Pool, yet I never heard that from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself. One day, while a young girl was combing my hair, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say,

‘O people!’

So I said to the girl, ‘Step back from me.’

She replied, ‘He has only called the men; he has not called the women.’

I said, ‘I am surely one of the people.’

Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

‘I shall precede you at the Pool. Let none of you be brought to me only to be driven away from me as the stray camel is driven away. I will ask, “Why is this?” and it will be said, “You have no knowledge of what they introduced after you.” Then I will say, “Away with them!” ’

Muslim and al-Nasāʾī also transmitted this ḥadīth through Aflah ibn Saʿīd, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Rāfiʿ, from her. (1)

Narration from a brother of Zayd ibn Arqam

Imam Aḥmad said: ʿAbd al-Razzaq narrated to us, from Maʿmar, from Maṭar, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Buraydah, who said:

ʿUbayd Allah ibn Ziyād had doubts concerning the Pool, so he sent for Zayd ibn Arqam and questioned him about it. Zayd related to him an attractive report that pleased him. He then asked, ‘Did you hear this from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?’ [Zayd replied,] ‘No, but my brother narrated it to me.’ (2)

From all of these mass-transmitted aḥādīth the description of this magnificent Pool, this noble watering-place, emerges: it is supplied from the drink of Paradise, from the River Kawthar. It is whiter than milk, colder than snow, sweeter than honey, and more fragrant than musk. Immense in size, its width and length are equal, and each of its corners spans the distance of a month’s journey.

Some of the aforementioned narrations add that it continues to increase in breadth; that its bed—its very soil—is musk; that its pebbles are pearls; that rods of gold grow along its banks and bear fruits of many-coloured gems. Glory be to Allah, the Creator to whom nothing is impossible. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

It is mentioned that every prophet has a pool, and that the Pool of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ—may peace be upon them all—is the greatest, the most splendid, and the one with the largest number of visitors. May Allah Most High make us among those who reach it and grant us to drink from it a draught after which we shall never thirst; and we seek refuge in Allah, Exalted is He, from being turned away from it.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā said in his book “al-Ahwāl”: Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Asadī narrated to us