85 – “Go and make preparations for your two companions, and work for your two companions! Come closer and eat.”

Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah narrated it in al-Musannaf (2/149/2), and al-Firyabi in al-Siyam (4/64/1), from him and his brother, Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah. They both said: Umar ibn Saʿd, Abu Dawud, narrated to us, from Sufyan, from al-Awzaʿi, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from Abu Salamah, from Abu Hurayrah, who said:

“Food was brought to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was at Marr al-Zahran. He said to Abu Bakr and Umar, ‘Come closer and eat.’ They said, ‘We are fasting.’ He said, ‘Go and make preparations for your two companions.’”

Al-Nasaʾi (1/315) and Ibn Duhaym in al-Amali (2/1) likewise recorded it through other chains from Umar ibn Saʿd, with the same chain.

Al-Nasaʾi then recorded it through Muhammad ibn Shuʿayb, who said: “Al-Awzaʿi informed me of it as a mursal report,” without mentioning Abu Hurayrah. He likewise recorded it through Ali—namely, Ibn al-Mubarak—from Yahya, with the same chain.

Perhaps the connected version is more likely to be correct, because the narrator who connected it—Sufyan, reporting from al-Awzaʿi—is trustworthy. An addition made by a trustworthy narrator is accepted so long as it does not contradict the account of someone more reliable than him.

I say: Its chain is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria. Ibn Khuzaymah also narrated it in his Sahih and said: “This contains evidence that a fasting person on a journey may break his fast after part of the day has elapsed.”