Mukhtasar Muslim

Sayyiduna Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) says: By Allah! I am the first person who shot an arrow in the way of Allah, and we used to fight in jihad with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and we had nothing to eat except burnt leaves and acacia (both are wild trees), until one of us would pass stool like a goat does. And now today, the people of Banu Asad (that is, the descendants of Sayyiduna Zubair, may Allah be pleased with him) admonish me for the religion or want to punish me; if this happens, then I am surely at a loss and my efforts have been wasted.

Sayyiduna Khalid bin Umair Adawi says that (the governor of Basra) Utbah bin Ghazwan (may Allah be pleased with him) delivered a sermon to us. After praising and glorifying Allah, he said: After praise and blessings, know that the world has announced its end? And nothing remains of the world except like the leftover water in a vessel, which its owner drinks. And you are heading towards a home that will never perish, so perform good deeds in your life, because it has been narrated to us that a stone will be thrown from the edge of Hell and it will keep descending in it for seventy years and will not reach its bottom. By Allah! Hell will be filled. Do you find this astonishing? And it has been narrated to us that the distance from one side of the gate of Paradise to the other is a journey of forty years, and a day will come when the gate will be filled with the crowd of people. And I see myself as the seventh among seven people who were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and our food was nothing but the leaves of trees until our mouths became wounded (due to the heat and hardness of the leaves). I found a sheet and tore it into two pieces; I made a lower garment from one piece and Sa’d bin Malik did the same with the other piece. Now, today, there is none among us who is not a governor of a city, and I seek refuge with Allah from considering myself great while being small in the sight of Allah. And indeed, the prophethood of any prophet did not remain forever in the world, rather the effect of prophethood (vanished) after a short time, until its final outcome was that it became kingship. So soon you will see and experience the rulers who will come after us (that the matters of religion, which are the effect of prophethood, will not remain among them and they will become completely worldly).