Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates: Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) came out in the heat of midday. Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) heard about it and he too came out, and there was Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). He asked: O Sayyiduna Abu Bakr! Why have you come out at this time? Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: By Allah! I have come out because I am feeling the most intense hunger in my stomach. Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I too have come out for the same reason. While the two of them were in this state, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also came to them. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: Why have you two come out at this time? They both said: By Allah! We have come out because of the most intense hunger we feel in our stomachs. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: By the One in whose hand is my soul, my case is the same: nothing other than this brought me out. Then they got up and walked until they came to the door of Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) had mentioned some food, or perhaps milk, to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was delayed in coming and did not come at the usual time, so Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) fed that food to his family and went to his date orchard to work there. When they reached the door of Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), his wife came out and said: Welcome to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and those with him! The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked that woman: Where is Abu Ayyub? The woman said: O Prophet of Allah! He will come to you right away. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) turned back. Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); he was working in his date orchard at the time. He came running to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: Welcome to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and those with you! He said: O Messenger of Allah! You do not usually come at this time. Then he took the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) back. Then he went to a cluster of dates and cut it. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: What do you intend by this? He said: O Messenger of Allah! I want you to eat the different kinds of dates from it, and along with this I will slaughter an animal for you. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If you must slaughter, then do not slaughter an animal that gives milk. So he slaughtered a one-year-old young goat. He said to his wife: You bake the bread and I will prepare the stew, because you can bake bread better. Then he took half of the young goat and cooked it, and roasted the other half. When the food was ready, he placed it before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took (some) meat, placed it on a loaf of bread and then said: O Abu Ayyub! Take this to Fatimah, because she has not had food like this for several days. When they had eaten their fill, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Bread, meat, busr, tamr and rutab (that is, different kinds of dates). Then tears flowed from his eyes, and then he said: These are among the blessings about which you will be held to account on the Day of Resurrection. The narrator says: This caused distress to his Companions. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: When you are granted something like this and you stretch out your hands, then say: "Bismillah wa barakatillah (In the name of Allah, seeking blessing, and with the blessing granted by Allah)." And when you have eaten your fill, say: "Alhamdu lillahi alladhi ashba'ana wa arwana wa an'ama wa afdal (All praise belongs to Allah, who has fed us to our fill, quenched our thirst, bestowed blessings and shown favour)." (The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:) This will then be its recompense. The narrator says: It was the habit of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that whenever someone did him a kindness, he liked to repay him. He said to Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him): Come to us tomorrow. He did not hear this, so Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said to him: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is instructing you to come to him. When Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) (the next day), the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave him a slave girl and said: O Abu Ayyub! Accept the advice to treat her well, for since she has been with us we have seen nothing but good in her. When Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) brought that slave girl home, he said: I find no better way to act on the advice of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) than to set her free. So he set her free.
Al-Tabarani recorded this narration in al-Mu'jam al-Saghir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains a narrator, Abdullah bin Kaysan al-Marwazi; Ibn Hibban declared him thiqah (trustworthy) and others declared him da'if (weak); the rest of the narrators of this narration are the narrators of the Sahih.
Hadith Referenceمجمع الزوائد ومنبع الفوائد / كتاب الزهد / 18261
Hadith Gradingمحدثین:إسنادہ ضعیف
Hadith Takhrij«اخرجه الطبراني فى المعجم الصغير (185) أخرجه الطبراني فى المعجم الأوسط (2268) ، أخرجه المعجم الأوسط للطبراني برقم: 2268، وأخرجه المعجم الصغير للطبراني برقم: 166»