Shu'ab al-Iman (al-Bayhaqi) 1350

Translation

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He said: When ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him) described the Messenger of God ﷺ, he would say: "He was not tall and not short; he was of medium height among the people. His hair was neither tightly curled nor lank; it was wavy and combed. He was not heavily fleshed nor round-faced, though there was a roundness in the face. He was white with a reddish tinge, with intensely black eyes and long eyelashes, with large joints and shoulder-ends, hairless of body (except for a fine line), thick in the palms and the feet. When he walked, he lifted his feet firmly, as if descending a slope; and when he turned, he turned with his whole body. Between his shoulders was the seal of prophethood, and he is the seal of the prophets. He was the most generous of people in hand, the most broad-hearted of people, the most truthful of people in speech, the most faithful of people to a pledge, the gentlest of them in temperament, and the most noble of them in companionship. Whoever saw him suddenly stood in awe of him, and whoever mixed with him and came to know him loved him." The one who described him would say: "I have not seen anyone like him, before him or after him ﷺ." Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan informed us, Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī narrated to us, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn, ʿAlī b. Ḥujr and Aḥmad b. ʿAbdah narrated to us, they said: ʿĪsā b. Yūnus narrated to us, and he mentioned it with its chain, similar to it, "except that he said: He was not the extremely tall (mumaghghaṭ) nor the short and hunched (mutaraddid), and he said: with large joints and shoulder-ends, hairless, having a line of hair (masrubah)." Abū Jaʿfar said: I heard al-Aṣmaʿī say in explanation of the description of the Prophet ﷺ: "Al-mumaghghaṭ: the one who stretches out in height. Al-mutaraddid: the one whose parts are drawn into one another in shortness. As for al-qaṭaṭ: the very tightly curled; and the rajil is the one whose hair has a slight bend, that is, it waves a little. As for al-muṭahham: the stout, heavy in flesh; and al-mukalthām: the round-faced, meaning he says he was not so. Al-mushrab: one whose whiteness has a redness in it. Al-adʿaj: intensely black of the eyes. Al-ahdab: long of eyelashes. Al-katad: the meeting place of the two shoulder blades, which is the kāhil. Al-masrubah: the fine hair that is like a thin rod from the chest to the navel. Al-shathn: thick in the fingers of the hands and the feet. Al-taqallu: to walk with strength. Al-ṣabab: a downward slope; you say: we descended a ṣabūb and a ṣabab. His saying 'large in the joints' means the heads of the shoulders. Al-ʿishrah: companionship. Al-badīhah: suddenness; it is said: I surprised him (badahtuhu) with a matter, that is, I came upon him suddenly."

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