Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 12047

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: One day the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to the mother of Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him); she was a woman who used to treat the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with great kindness. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: O Umm Abdullah! How are you? She submitted: O Messenger of Allah! I am well, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you; how are you? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: I am well. She submitted: Abdullah is a man who has detached himself from the world. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: How so? The lady said: He has made sleep unlawful for himself, so he does not sleep; he does not leave off voluntary fasting, he does not eat meat, and he does not give his wife her right. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: Where is he? The lady said: He has gone out; he will come shortly. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: When he comes back, keep him here. The lady narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) left, then Abdullah came, and shortly afterwards the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also returned. He said: O Abdullah bin Amr! What is this that has reached me about you? He submitted: O Messenger of Allah! What is it? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It has reached me that you do not sleep and do not leave off any voluntary fast. He submitted: By this I intended to remain safe from alarm on the Day of the Great Alarm. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It has reached me that you do not eat meat. He submitted: By this I intended (to attain) food that will be better than it and that will be given in Paradise. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It has reached me that you do not give your family their right. He submitted: By this I intended to attain women who will be better than them and who will be given in Paradise. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Abdullah bin Amr! For you there is the best example in the way of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The Messenger of Allah keeps voluntary fasts and also leaves them; he sleeps (at night) and also offers voluntary prayers; he eats meat, and he gives his family their right. O Abdullah! Indeed Allah Almighty has a right over you, your body has a right over you, and your wife has a right over you." He submitted: O Messenger of Allah! Permit me to keep voluntary fasts for five days and leave off one day. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: No! He submitted: Should I fast four days and leave off one day? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: No! He submitted: Should I fast three days and leave off one day? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: No! He submitted: Should I fast two days and leave off one day? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: No! He submitted: Then should I keep a voluntary fast one day and leave it the next? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: That is the way of fasting of my brother, Sayyiduna Dawud (peace be upon him). O Abdullah bin Amr! What will your state be when you remain among the dregs (or the worst) of people, whose covenants and pledges will have come to nothing, and they will become like this? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said this while interlacing his fingers in opposite directions. Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) submitted: Then what do you command me? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Adopt what you recognise as good and leave what you recognise as evil; act only for your own self, and leave the people and their general affairs (to themselves)." Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took his hand, walked along with him, placed his hand in the hand of his father, and said: "Obey your father." The narrator narrates: When the time of the Battle of Siffin came, his father said to him: O Abdullah! Go out and fight. He submitted: O dear father! Are you commanding me to go out and fight, when you heard what you heard on the day the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave me the instruction he gave? Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I ask you by Allah, O Abdullah bin Amr: was not the last instruction the Messenger of Allah gave you this, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took your hand, gave it into my hand and then said: "Obey your father"? Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) submitted: Yes. Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Then I insist that you go out and take part in the fighting. So he went out with a sword hanging from his neck. When the fighting began, Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) recited these verses: "The war has flared up, and I have prepared for it: I have girded up my resolve and strengthened my back; I have joined one binding to another; when the rope leaps from the binding, it becomes swift; the great camel's body is full, and when it is drenched with water, it looks with a hot (i.e. angry) glance." Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) recited these verses: "If a camel were one day to experience (the state of) my standing and presence at Siffin, its hair would turn white; that evening when the people of Iraq came, as if they were spring clouds raised by the southern winds; and we came to them as if thrown down, and our ranks were like the waves of the sea riding upon one another in ebb and flow; when I thought that they would swiftly turn their backs, their squadrons appeared before us, squadrons moving with zeal; all day long our millstone turned and their millstone turned too, and the shoulders did not turn away; they said to us: We think that you should give allegiance to Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him); and we said: We do not think that you should fight." (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say: Part of the beginning of this narration is mentioned in the "Sahih".
Al-Tabarani recorded it through the narration of Abd al-Malik bin Qudamah al-Jumahi from Amr bin Shu'ayb; the narrator Abd al-Malik was declared thiqah (trustworthy) by Yahya bin Ma'in and others, while Abu Hatim and others declared him da'if (weak).