The Dowry of Abū Ḥadrad

The next sariyyah is the sariyyah of Abū Ḥadrad. Abū Ḥadrad got married to a woman from his people, and he paid, or promised to pay, a dowry of two hundred dirhams. He offered to pay this mahr, but he did not have the money. So he came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, help me; I got married, and I promised to pay two hundred dirhams as mahr. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: subḥān Allāh! By Allah, if you were picking up money from a stream, you would not have paid more. By Allah, I have nothing to help you with. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw this as a lot of money to pay as mahr, and he said: if money were flowing in a stream, you would not have offered to pay more than what you have.

Anyway, later on, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told Abū Ḥadrad, along with two men, to go and check what was going on with a particular man who was gathering a force to fight the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). He told them: go out to this man, until you bring me news and knowledge of him. This man was Qays. He was gathering a force to fight the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and he sent Abū Ḥadrad along with two men to find out what was happening. And he gave us, he said, a weak old camel, and told us: make do with her.

Now the situation of this camel was pretty bad: the engine was not even working. When one of them was riding on the camel, she could not even stand up; Abū Ḥadrad said that we had to push her from behind to make her stand up. So this camel was in a very bad state. That was all the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was able to offer them: this weak old camel. So the three of them travelled with this weak camel, and they arrived at night. Abū Ḥadrad said: I took my position, and I ordered my two companions to hide in another spot, and then I gave them orders: when you hear my takbīr, make your move. He said: I was waiting for an opportunity — a moment of heedlessness — and no opportunity had come yet.

And then, by the qadar of Allah (ʿazza wa jall), their shepherd was late. The shepherd of these kuffār was late. So Qays said: I am going to go and try to find him. His people said: let us go. He said: no; by Allah, no one will go but me. They said: then let us come with you. He said: no, I am going to go alone. The qadar of Allah: he walked alone, looking for his shepherd, and he came right in front of Abū Ḥadrad. Abū Ḥadrad said: when he was within range, I shot an arrow at him, piercing him in the heart. He said: I swear he did not utter a sound; he dropped down dead without making a sound. I jumped at him and cut off his head, and then I made my takbīr, and my two companions made their takbīr, and we attacked. And the kuffār were in disarray, running in every direction. We took all of their camels and made it back to Madīnah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave me thirteen camels, so I concluded my marriage.