(1) N and M read: “and in the *Sahīh*.” (2) The words “so that they would annihilate them” are omitted from N. (3) The hadith is narrated with similar wording from Muʿādh ibn Jabal—may Allah be pleased with him—in *al-Musnad*, al-Halabī ed., 5:247. Its text reads: Muʿādh said: “The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—performed a prayer, perfecting its standing, humble devotion, bowing, and prostration. He then said: ‘It was a prayer of hope and fear. During it, I asked Allah for three things. He granted me two and withheld one from me. I asked Him not to send against my ummah an enemy from outside their own ranks who would annihilate them, and He granted that request. I asked Him not to send upon them a famine that would kill them through starvation, and He granted that request. I asked Him not to turn their violence against one another, but He declined that request.’” Al-Suyūtī also cites the hadith in *al-Jāmiʿ al-Saghīr* with similar wording: “I asked Him not to annihilate you with a punishment such as befell those before you, and He granted me that. I asked Him not to give an enemy power over your community as a whole, thereby annihilating it, and He granted me that. I asked Him not to divide you into factions and make some of you taste the violence of others, but He withheld that from me.” Al-Suyūtī gives its sources as Abū Yaʿlā’s *Musnad*, al-Tabarānī’s *al-Kabīr*, and al-Diyāʾ, from Khālid al-Khuzāʿī; and Ahmad’s *Musnad*, al-Tirmidhī’s *Sunan*, al-Nasāʾī’s *Sunan*, Ibn Hibbān’s *Sahīh*, and al-Diyāʾ, from Khabbāb. Al-Albānī graded the hadith authentic in *Sahīh al-Jāmiʿ al-Saghīr*, 2:309–10. Muslim narrates in his *Sahīh* one hadith from Thawbān and another from Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqās, both with similar meanings. See Muslim, 4:2215–16 (Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Hour, chapter “The Destruction of This Ummah at the Hands of One Another”). Thawbān’s hadith also appears in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4:138–39 (Book of Tribulations and Battles, chapter “Account of Tribulations and Their Signs”), and *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 3:319–20 (Book of Tribulations, chapter “The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—Asked Three Things Concerning His Ummah”). Al-Tirmidhī also narrates a hadith from Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt—may Allah be pleased with him—and states: “This is a sound and authentic hadith.” Reports on this subject are also narrated from Saʿd and Ibn ʿUmar. Saʿd’s hadith—may Allah be pleased with him—appears in *al-Musnad*, al-Maʿārif ed., 3:60–61, 86. A “general famine” means a drought affecting all Muslim lands.