The people changed toward us, until the very land seemed unfamiliar to me; it was no longer the land I had known. We remained in that state for fifty nights. As for my two companions, they gave in and remained in their homes weeping. But I was the youngest and strongest of the three, so I would go out, attend the prayer with the Muslims, and walk through the marketplaces, yet no one would speak to me. I would come to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, greet him while he was sitting in his gathering after the prayer, and say to myself, “Did his lips move in returning my greeting, or not?” Then I would pray near him and steal glances at him. Whenever I turned my attention to my prayer, he would look toward me; but whenever I looked toward him, he would turn away from me.
When the people’s coldness became too much for me, I went and climbed over the wall of the enclosed garden of Abu Qatadah, who was my cousin and the dearest of people to me. I greeted him, but by Allah, he did not return my greeting. So I said, “O Abu Qatadah, I adjure you by Allah: do you know that I love Allah and His Messenger?” He remained silent. I repeated my appeal, and he remained silent. I appealed to him once more, and he said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” My eyes overflowed with tears, and I turned away and climbed back over the wall.
He said: While I was walking through the marketplace of Medina, a Nabatean from among the Nabateans of Syria, who had brought food to sell in Medina, was asking, “Who can direct me to Kaʿb ibn Malik?” The people began pointing him toward me. When he came to me, he handed me a letter from the king of Ghassan. I read it, and it said:
“To proceed: I have learned that your companion has treated you harshly. Allah has not placed you in a land of humiliation or neglect. So come and join us, and we shall comfort you.”
When I read it, I said, “This too is part of the trial.” Then I went straight to the oven and burned it.
After forty of the fifty nights had passed, a messenger from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came to me and said, “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, commands you to keep away from your wife.” I asked, “Should I divorce her, or what should I do?” He said, “No; merely keep away from her and do not approach her.” He sent the same instruction to my two companions. So I said to my wife, “Go and stay with your family until Allah decides this matter.”
Kaʿb said: The wife of Hilal ibn Umayyah came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, “O Messenger of Allah, Hilal ibn Umayyah is a helpless old man with no servant. Would you disapprove if I were to serve him?” He said, “No, but he must not approach you.” She said, “By Allah, he has no inclination toward anything. By Allah, he has done nothing but weep from the time this matter befell him until this very day.”
Kaʿb said: Some of my family said to me, “Why do you not ask the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for permission concerning your wife, just as he permitted the wife of Hilal ibn Umayyah to serve him?” I said, “By Allah, I will not ask the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for permission concerning her. How do I know what the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, might say to me if I asked him about her, when I am a young man?”
I remained like that for another ten nights, until fifty nights had been completed since the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, had forbidden people from speaking to us. After I had performed the dawn prayer on the morning of the fiftieth night, while I was sitting on the roof of one of our houses, in the state Allah had described—my very soul had become constricted, and the earth, vast as it was, had closed in on me—I heard the voice of a caller who had climbed Mount Salʿ, crying at the top of his voice, “O Kaʿb ibn Malik, rejoice!”
I fell prostrate before Allah, knowing that relief had come. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, announced Allah’s acceptance of our repentance after performing the dawn prayer. The people went out to bring us the good news, and messengers went to my two companions. A man rode swiftly toward me on horseback, while another man from Aslam ran and climbed the mountain; and the voice was faster than the horse. When the man whose voice I had heard came to me with the good news, I took off my two garments and gave them to him.