Mukhtasar Muslim

‘Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) says that’ the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent us under the leadership of Abu Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah (may Allah be pleased with him) to meet (i.e., pursue) a caravan of the Quraysh, and for our provisions for the journey, he gave us a bag of dates, and he had nothing else to give us. Sayyiduna Abu Ubaidah (may Allah be pleased with him) used to give us one date each (every day). Abu Az-Zubair said: I asked Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him), “What would you do with one date?” He said: We would suck it like a child, then drink a little water over it, and that would suffice us for the whole day and night. And we would shake leaves from the trees with our sticks, then soak them in water and eat them. Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: When we reached the seashore, a long and thick thing appeared there. We went to it and saw that it was an animal called ‘ambergris’ (whale). Sayyiduna Abu Ubaidah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “This is dead (i.e., unlawful).” Then he said: “No, we have been sent by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and we have set out in the way of Allah, and you have been compelled (by hunger), so eat it.” Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: We stayed there for a month, and we were three hundred men. We kept eating its meat until we became fat. Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I saw that we would fill pots upon pots with fat from its eye socket, and we would cut pieces of meat from it as big as a bull. Finally, Sayyiduna Abu Ubaidah (may Allah be pleased with him) took thirteen of us, and all of them sat inside its eye socket. And from its ribs, he raised one rib and set it upright, then saddled the largest camel we had and it passed underneath it. And we made ‘washa’iq’ from its meat for provisions for the journey (washa’iq are pieces of meat boiled and dried, kept for travel). When we came to Madinah, we went to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and related this incident. He said: “That was provision which Allah brought out for you. Do you have any of its meat left? Feed us as well.” Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: We sent some of its meat to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he ate it.