, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he said:

“We observed a devotional retreat with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

He then related the hadith, which includes the Prophet’s words:

“Whoever has observed the retreat should return to his place of retreat, for I was shown this night, and I saw myself prostrating in water and mud.”

At its end, he said:

“I indeed saw traces of water and mud on his nose and its tip”—meaning on the morning of the twenty-first.

This makes clear that he prostrated on mud. His mosque was roofed with palm branches through which rain would fall, so its floor was bare earth.

Sometimes they would spread pebbles in it, as related in Sunan Abī Dāwūd from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Hārith, who said:

“I asked Ibn ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them both—about the pebbles that were in the mosque. He said: ‘It rained one night, and by morning the ground was wet. Men began bringing pebbles in their garments and spreading them beneath themselves. When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, finished the prayer, he said: “How good this is!”’”

Also in Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Abū Badr Shujāʿ ibn al-Walīd narrated from Sharīk, from Abū Husayn, from Abū Sālih, from Abū Hurayrah. Abū Badr said, “I believe he traced it back to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,” who said:

“A pebble pleads with the person who takes it out of the mosque.”

Thus, the Sunan collections and the Musnad relate from Abū Dharr that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When one of you stands to pray, he should not smooth the pebbles, for mercy is coming towards him.”

In another wording in Musnad Ahmad, he said:

“I asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, about everything, even about smoothing