let him come near you.”

She said, “By Allah, he has no desire for anything at all, and, by Allah, he has not stopped weeping from the day his affair began until this very day.”

Some of my relatives then said to me, “Why do you not ask the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) for permission regarding your wife? He has already allowed the wife of Hilāl ibn Umayyah to serve him.”

I replied, “Shall I seek the Messenger of Allah’s permission concerning her? I do not know what he would say were I to ask him, and I am a young man!”

Thus another ten nights passed, and the full fifty nights had elapsed since people were forbidden to speak to us.

On the morning of the fiftieth night I performed the dawn prayer on the roof of one of our houses. While I sat there in the state Allah has described—my soul constricted and the vast earth feeling narrow beneath me—I heard the voice of a herald who had mounted Mount Salʿ, calling at the top of his lungs, “O Kaʿb ibn Mālik, rejoice!” I fell down in prostration, for I knew that relief had arrived.

When the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) completed the dawn prayer, he announced to the people that Allah had accepted our repentance. They rushed out to give us the glad tidings. Some hastened to my two companions; a man galloped off on horseback, while another runner from the tribe of Aslam sped on foot and climbed the mountain—the voice outpaced the horse.

When the man whose voice I had heard reached me with the good news, I removed my two garments and clothed him with them in gratitude; by Allah, I owned nothing else that day. I then borrowed two other garments, put them on, and set out to meet the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace). People received me in groups, congratulating me on Allah’s acceptance of my repentance and saying, “Congratulations—may Allah accept your repentance,” until