

When you go to your bed recite the Throne Verse (Qur’ān 2:255), ‘God, there is no god but He, the Living, the Eternal’ to the end of the verse, for a guardian from God will then remain over you and no devil will come near you till the morning.” I therefore let him go, and in the morning God’s messenger asked me, “What has happened to your prisoner?” I replied, “He asserted that he would teach me some words by which God would benefit me.” He said, “He has certainly told you the truth though he is a great liar.


In the morning God’s messenger asked me, “What has happened to your prisoner, Abū Huraira?” and I replied, “Messenger of God, he complained of great need and of having children dependent on him, so I had pity on him and let him go.” He said, “He has certainly lied to you, and he will come back,” so I lay in wait for him, and when he came and took up handfuls of food I seized him and said, “I am certainly going to take you before God’s messenger, for this is the third time you assert you will not return, and then you do.” He said, “If you let me go I will teach you some words by which God will benefit you. When he came and began to take up handfuls of the food, I seized him and told him I was certainly going to take him before God's messenger but when he said, “Let me go, for I am needy with children dependent on me, and I shall not return” I had pity on him and let him go. In the morning the Prophet asked, “What happened to your prisoner last night, Abū Huraira?” and I replied, “Messenger of God, he complained of great need and of having children dependent on him, so I had pity on him and let him go.” He said, “He lied to you, and he will come back.” I realised that he would return because God’s messenger had told me so, and therefore I lay in wait for him. But when he said, “I am needy, have children dependent on me, and my need is great,” I let him go. I had been placed in charge of the zakāt of Ramadān by God’s messenger, and when someone came to me and began to take up handfuls of the food, I seized him and told him I was certainly going to take him before God’s messenger. Muslim has, “They went up into the air” instead of “I went out.”

(Bukhārī and Muslim, the wording being Bukhārī’s). When he had moved him back he raised his head to the sky and saw something like a canopy with what seemed to be lamps in it, and when he told the Prophet of it in the morning, he said, “You should have kept on reciting, Ibn Hudair, you should have kept on reciting, Ibn Hudair.” He replied, “I was afraid, messenger of God, that it might trample on Yahyā who was near it, so I went to him, and when I raised my head to the sky and saw something like a canopy with what seemed to be lamps in it, I went out but could not see them.” He asked whether he knew what that was, and when he replied that he did not, he said, “Those were the angles who had drawn near to listen to your voice, and if you had continued reciting the people would have looked at them in the morning and they would not have concealed themselves from them.” Once more he recited and the mare moved round in a circle, so he left off reciting, for his son Yahyā was near it and he was afraid it might injure him. He resumed his recitation and it went round in a circle, so he stopped reciting and it stopped moving. Hudair saying that one night when he was reciting sūra al-Baqara (Qur’ān, 2) with his mare tied beside him it moved round in a circle, so he stopped reciting and it stopped moving.
