Hadith Five
Rafiʿ ibn Khadij relates: “We were with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, at Dhu ʼl-Ḥulayfah in Tihamah. The people were overtaken by hunger and came upon some camels and sheep. The Prophet, peace be upon him, was at the rear of the caravan, so the people hurried, slaughtered the animals, and set the pots on the fire.
The Prophet then ordered that the pots be overturned, and they were. Afterward he divided the animals among the people, valuing every ten sheep as equal to one camel. One of the camels bolted and they gave chase, but it exhausted them.
Among the group were a few horses. One man loosed an arrow at the camel, whereupon Allah stopped it in its tracks. The Prophet said, ‘These livestock sometimes behave like the wild game of the desert; whenever any of them escapes from you, deal with it as you have just done.’
I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, tomorrow we will face the enemy and we have no knives with us. May we slaughter with reeds?’
He replied, ‘Whatever causes the blood to flow and over which the name of Allah is pronounced—eat of it, except for teeth and claws.’
He then added, ‘Shall I tell you why? A tooth is a bone, and a claw is the knife of the Abyssinians.’
Unfamiliar terms
• al-Ḥulayfah: a place name; its original form is ḥalifah, a well-known plant that once grew there.
• Tihamah: the lowland stretching from the foothills of the Hijaz mountains down to the Red Sea.
• nadd (to bolt): to run off, wandering aimlessly.
• aʿyāhum (it exhausted them): it proved too difficult for them to capture.
• awābid (sing. ābidah): creatures that withdraw and become wild; here it means that livestock may act skittishly like wild animals.
• midā ʼl-Ḥabashah: midā is the plural of midyah(1), a knife; the phrase denotes the knives used by the Abyssinians.
• anhara ʼl-dam: to make the blood gush forth.
• ‘except for teeth and claws’: teeth and claws are in the accusative because they are exceptions to the general rule.
Points derived from the hadith
- Part of the Prophet’s noble practice was to remain at the rear of the army in order to look after the weak and those who might fall behind.