14 – Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad said: Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān narrated to us, from Zayd b. Ḥubbāb; ʿAbd al-Muʾmin b. Khālid al-Ḥanafī, a man of Marw, narrated to me; ʿAbd Allāh b. Buraydah al-Aslamī informed us, from Abū al-Aswad al-Duʾalī, who said:

I said to Muʿādh b. Jabal, “Tell me the story of the devil when you captured him.” He replied:

“The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—put me in charge of the Muslims’ charity, so I stored the collected dates in an upper room. Later I found that the stock had diminished, so I informed the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said, ‘It is Satan who is taking them.’

“I went into the room and shut the door. A great darkness descended and covered the doorway. Then he assumed a shape, then another, and slipped in through a crack. I tightened my waist-wrapper, and when he started eating the dates I sprang on him and seized him; my hands closed firmly around him and I said, ‘Enemy of Allah!’

“He pleaded, ‘Release me, for I am old, I have a family, and I am poor. I am one of the jinn of Naṣībīn. This village used to belong to us before your Companion was sent; when he was sent we were driven out. Let me go and I will never return to you.’ So I released him.

“Gabriel—peace be upon him—came and informed the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—of what had happened. When the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—led the dawn prayer, his caller announced, ‘Where is Muʿādh b. Jabal?’ I rose and came forward. He asked, ‘What has become of your captive?’ I told him. He said, ‘He will come back—so return (to guard it).’

“I went back into the room, locked the door, and he came again, entering through the same crack. He began eating the dates, so I treated him as I had the first time. He said, ‘Release me, for I will not come back to you.’

“I said, ‘Enemy of Allah, did you not say you would not return?’ He replied, ‘I will never return, and the sign of that is this: none of you recites the Closing Verses of al-Baqarah and then any one of us manages to enter his house that night.’ ”