Musnad Ahmad 23334

Translation

✧ A young man among us, from the people of Kufa, said to Ḥudhayfah b. al-Yamān: "O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, did you see the Messenger of God ﷺ and accompany him?" He said: "Yes, O son of my brother." He said: "What would you do?" He said: "By God, we used to strive hard." He said: "By God, had we caught up with him, we would not have let him walk on the ground; we would have carried him on our shoulders." Ḥudhayfah said: "O son of my brother, by God, I saw us with the Messenger of God ﷺ at the Trench. The Messenger of God ﷺ prayed for a long while of the night, then turned to us and said: 'Who is a man who will stand and see for us what the people have done? The Messenger of God ﷺ stipulates for him that he will return, and God will admit him to Paradise.' No man stood. Then the Messenger of God ﷺ prayed for a long while of the night, then turned to us and said: 'Who is a man who will stand and see for us what the people have done, then return? The Messenger of God ﷺ stipulates for him the return. I ask God that he be my companion in Paradise.' No man of the people stood, despite severe fear, severe hunger, and severe cold. When no one stood, the Messenger of God ﷺ called me, and I had no choice but to stand when he called me. He said: 'O Ḥudhayfah, go and enter among the people and see what they are doing, but do not do anything until you come to us.' He said: 'I went and entered among the people, while the wind and the forces of God were doing what they do—no pot, fire, or structure remained stable for them. Abū Sufyān b. Ḥarb stood and said: "O people of Quraysh, let each man look who is beside him." Ḥudhayfah said: 'I took the hand of the man beside me and said, "Who are you?" He said, "I am so-and-so b. so-and-so." Then Abū Sufyān said: "O people of Quraysh, by God, you are no longer in a place of staying. The horses have perished, the Banū Qurayẓa have betrayed us and we have heard from them what we dislike, and we have faced from this wind what you see. By God, no pot stays still for us, no fire stands for us, and no structure holds for us. So depart, for I am departing." Then he stood up to his camel, which was hobbled, sat on it, then struck it, and it jumped up on three legs. He did not release its hobble except while it was standing. Had it not been for the Messenger of God's ﷺ instruction, "Do not do anything until you come to me," then I could have killed him with an arrow.' Ḥudhayfah said: 'Then I returned to the Messenger of God ﷺ while he was standing praying in a striped cloak belonging to one of his wives. When he saw me, he brought me into his saddle and threw over me the edge of the cloak, then he bowed and prostrated while I was in it. When he said the salutation, I told him the news. And Ghaṭafān heard what Quraysh had done, so they hastened back to their lands.'

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