Muʿādh and Abū Mūsā

Wa-nṭalaqa kullu wāḥidin minhumā ilā ʿamalih — and each of them went off to his province. Qāla: wa kāna kullu wāḥidin minhumā idhā sāra fī arḍihi wa kāna qarīban min ṣāḥibihi aḥdatha bihi ʿahdan fa-sallama ʿalayh: they agreed that whenever one of them was close to the other, they should meet and renew their greeting of salām to each other — because both of them were travelling; they were going from one village to another, from one town to another. So whenever their paths ran close to each other, they decided that they would meet and come together and discuss their affairs and give naṣīḥah to each other, as will be seen in this conversation.

Fa-sāra Muʿādhun fī arḍihi qarīban min ṣāḥibihi Abī Mūsā — Muʿādh was close to the province of Abū Mūsā — fa-jāʾa yasīru ʿalā baghlatihi ḥattā intahā ilayh: so he came on his mount, on his mule, until he reached Abū Mūsā. Fa-idhā huwa jālisun wa qad ijtamaʿa al-nāsu ilayh — he saw him sitting, with people gathered around him — wa idhā rajulun ʿindahu qad jumiʿat yadāhu ilā ʿunuqih — and there was a man there whose hands were tied to his neck. Fa-qāla lahu Muʿādh: yā ʿAbda Allāhi bna Qays, ayyumā hādhā? Qāla: hādhā rajulun kafara baʿda islāmih. So Muʿādh said: O ʿAbdullāh ibn Qays — this is the name of Abū Mūsā — who is this? He said: this is a man who disbelieved after his Islam. In another narration it says that this man was a Yahūdī: so he was a Jew who became Muslim and then went back to being a Jew again.

Muʿādh ibn Jabal said: lā anzilu ḥattā yuqtal — I am not getting down from my mount until he is executed. Qāla: innamā jīʾa bihi li-dhālika fa-nzil — he said: that is why he was brought, so get down. Qāla: mā anzilu ḥattā yuqtal — I am not getting down until he is executed. Fa-umira bihi fa-qutil — and he was executed. Then Muʿādh ibn Jabal got down and said: yā ʿAbda Allāh, kayfa taqraʾu al-Qurʾān? — O ʿAbdullāh, how do you recite the Qur'an? Qāla: atafawwaquhu tafawwuqā. What Abū Mūsā meant is: I recite it continuously, piece after piece. And this is from tafawwuq, the milking of a camel: it is milked and then left for a short while to rest, and then milked again, and then left for some time to rest, and then milked again; so the milking happens at intervals all through the day. And that is how Abū Mūsā used to recite the Qur'an: meaning that he would recite, take a break, recite, take a break — which means that he was reciting the Qur'an continuously, day and night.

And then he asked Muʿādh: fa-kayfa taqraʾu anta yā Muʿādh? — how do you recite? And Muʿādh said: anāmu awwala al-layl, fa-aqūmu wa qad qaḍaytu juzʾī min al-nawm, fa-aqraʾu mā kataba Allāhu lī, fa-aḥtasibu nawmatī kamā aḥtasibu qawmatī. He said: I sleep in the first part of the night, then I get up, having taken my share of sleep, and then I recite whatever Allah has written for me to recite; so I count my sleep as an act for which I will be rewarded, just as I am rewarded for my standing in prayer. Muʿādh was telling Abū Mūsā that even though you exhaust yourself in the recitation of the Qur'an, I take my share of rest, and I count that rest as ʿibādah, because the reason I am doing it is to be able to pray after it. So this shows that even your habits — your daily habits of sleeping, drinking, eating, washing — can be counted as something for which you have a reward, as long as you are doing them for the sake of Allah, in order to give you the ability to worship Him and to make you energetic when you are performing your rituals.