Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 87

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

Bishr ibn Muhammad related to us: ‘Abd Allah informed us: Safwan ibn ‘Amr informed us: ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr reported to me, from his father, who said: One day we were sitting with al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad when a man passed by him and said, ‘Blessed are these two eyes that saw the Messenger of Allah. By Allah, we wish we had seen what you saw and witnessed what you witnessed.’ He became angry, and I was astonished, for the man had said nothing but good. Then al-Miqdad turned to him and said, ‘What makes a man wish to have been present at an event Allah kept him away from? He does not know what he would have been like had he witnessed it. By Allah, people were present with the Messenger of Allah, and Allah cast them face-first into Hell: they neither answered him nor believed him. Will you not praise Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that He brought you forth knowing none but your Lord, and you believe what your Prophet brought? Others’ trials have sufficed you. By Allah, the Prophet was sent in the most difficult circumstances in which any prophet was ever sent: during a gap in prophethood and a time of ignorance, when they considered no religion better than worshipping idols. He brought a criterion by which he distinguished truth from falsehood, and by which he separated father from child, until a man would see his father, child, or brother as an unbeliever, while Allah had unlocked his heart with faith. He would know that if that person perished, he would enter the Fire, and so he could not be gladdened, knowing that his beloved was in the Fire. This is what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: “Those who say, ‘Our Lord, grant us in our spouses and offspring comfort to our eyes.’”’