the Exalted knows that whenever I passed by two men disputing and invoking Allah’s name, I would go back home and offer expiation on their behalf, for I disliked that Allah be mentioned except in truth.’

The narrator continued: ‘Ayyūb would go out to relieve himself, and once he had finished, his wife would take him by the hand and lead him home. One day he was late in returning, and it was revealed to him, “Strike [the ground] with your foot; here is a cool spring for bathing and drinking” (Q 38:42). Because he was delayed, his wife set out to look for him. She met him on the way, and Allah had removed every trace of his affliction—he looked better than he ever had. When she saw him she exclaimed, “May Allah bless you! Have you seen the Prophet of Allah who has been tried? By Allah, no one in his days of health resembled him more than you do now.” He replied, “I am he.”

‘Ayyūb owned two threshing floors—one for wheat and one for barley. Allah sent two clouds: when one hovered over the wheat floor it poured down gold until it overflowed, and when the other hovered over the barley floor it poured down silver until it overflowed.’

Abū Yaʿlā recorded this report in his Musnad (176/1–177/1) and Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilya (3/374–375) by two chains from Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam: “Nāfiʿ ibn Yazīd informed us, ʿUqayl from Ibn Shihāb, from Anas ibn Mālik,” traced back to the Prophet. Abū Nuʿaym remarked, ‘It is singular in the narrations of al-Zuhrī; no one narrated it from him except ʿUqayl. All of its transmitters are unanimously deemed upright, and Nāfiʿ alone related it.’

I say: Nāfiʿ is trustworthy, as he stated; Muslim narrated from him, and the remaining transmitters are those relied upon by the two Shaykhs. Therefore, the hadith is authentic.