The Dārīs, Daws, and the Road Home

Then there was the delegation of the Dāriyyūn. The Dāriyyūn were from al-Shām, from the tribe of Lakhm. They visited the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) while he was at Khaybar, and among them was Tamīm al-Dārī. Tamīm al-Dārī is the one who told the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) his story with al-Dajjāl: when they were at sea and were carried away — the winds carried them to an island — they went onto this island, and they found a beast covered with hair; they could not tell its front from its back; and they went into a temple and saw a huge man chained up, and he asked them some questions and then said that he was al-Dajjāl. This is the one, Tamīm al-Dārī, who told the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that story.

And then there was the largest delegation, which was the delegation of Daws. Daws are a tribe from Yemen, from al-Azd, and these are the people of Abū Hurayrah. Abū Hurayrah is the one who narrates the story. He said: fifty houses, fifty families, of Daws made hijrah to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and they arrived at Madīnah, but they were told that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was at Khaybar. Abū Hurayrah said: wherever the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is, we will go to him. They did not want to wait until the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came back; they said, wherever he is, we will go. So Sibāʿ ibn ʿUrfuṭah al-Ghifārī, who had been appointed amīr over Madīnah, provided them with provisions, and they travelled and met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) at Khaybar.

So from this it can be known that Abū Hurayrah and Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī joined the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) at that particular time. This is an important thing for the scholars of hadith and the scholars of fiqh, because it tells them the date at which these two Companions, who narrated many hadith of the Messenger of Allah, became Muslim; so they know that the hadith narrated by them are hadith heard after the seventh year of the hijrah.

On their way back, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told Bilāl to wake them for Fajr. Bilāl overslept, and so did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and so did the rest of the Companions; they only woke up because of the heat of the sun. When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) woke up — and he was the first of them to wake — he said to Bilāl: what happened to you? Bilāl told him: the same thing that happened to you. They prayed then, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: whoever forgets the prayer, let him pray it when he remembers it. The same thing if one sleeps: one prays when one wakes up. It is not as some people do: if they miss Fajr, they do not pray it when they wake up, but combine it with the Fajr of the next day. That is not the correct thing to do. The correct thing to do is to pray it as soon as you wake up — with every prayer, whether it is Ẓuhr, ʿAṣr, Maghrib or ʿIshāʾ: if you sleep through it, you pray it as soon as you wake up.

Another event also occurred while they were on their way back. They came to the top of a mountain, and there was a valley beneath them, so they started making dhikr loudly: Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: O people, go easy on yourselves; you are not calling one who is deaf or one who is absent; you are calling the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, and he was making dhikr in his heart; he was saying lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā bi-llāh. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him: O ʿAbdullāh ibn Qays, say lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā bi-llāh, for it is one of the treasures of Paradise (al-Bukhārī 4205). So we should say lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā bi-llāh, if we want to own a treasure in Jannah. We ask Allah (swt) to make us of the people of Jannah.