Shamail Tirmidhi

Abu Nu’ama ‘Adawi says: I heard Khalid bin ‘Umair and Abu al-Raqad Shuwais, they used to say that the Commander of the Faithful, Sayyiduna ‘Umar bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) sent ‘Utbah bin Ghazwan (may Allah be pleased with him) (appointing him as the commander of an army) and said: “You and your companions go to the end of the land of the Arabs and near the land of the non-Arabs (‘Ajam). (When you reach there) then stay there.” All of them reached there, and when they arrived at the place of Marbad, they found marble there, so they asked, “What is this place?” The people said: “This is Basra.” So they continued walking until they reached near the small bridge (of the Tigris), then they said: “You have been ordered to camp at this very place.” So they camped there. Then he narrated a long hadith. The narrator says: Then ‘Utbah bin Ghazwan (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I see myself as the seventh person with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Our food was only the leaves of trees, from eating which our jaws were split open. I found a fallen sheet, which I divided half and half between myself and Sa’d. Now, each of us seven has become a (governor) ruler of some region, and soon you will experience the rulers who will come after us.”