Daraqutni

The narrations from the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding this matter are mentioned here (this is an addition in the original book). 4729. Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him) held races between horses and declared successful the one that reached the appointed limit first.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to have horses trained and would have them compete with each other. Here, the narrator has differed in transmitting the wording of the narration.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) held a race between trained horses from Hafya to Thaniyyat al-Wada', and between untrained horses from Thaniyyat al-Wada' to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to have horses trained, and he would make the trained horses race from Hafya to Thaniyyat al-Wada', and the untrained horses race from Thaniyyat al-Wada' to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held a race between trained horses from Thaniyyat al-Wada’ to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq. My horse carried me up onto a wall. The narrator named Sufyan stated that the distance from Thaniyyat al-Wada’ to Hafya is five or six miles, while the distance from Thaniyyat al-Wada’ to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq is about one mile. The narrator named Sufyan also stated that the distance from Hafya to Thaniyyat al-Wada’ is six miles, and to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq is one mile. The narrator named Abu Mas’ud, in his narration, mentioned these words: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held a race between untrained horses from Thaniyyat al-Wada’ to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq. Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates: I was also among those who participated in this race.

Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held races between horses. He had the trained horses race from Hafyaa to Thaniyyat al-Wada‘, and the untrained horses race from the mosque of Banu Zuraiq to Thaniyyat al-Wada‘. Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I was also among those riders; I outpaced the people and my horse carried me to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq.

Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held a race between horses. He set the limit for trained horses from Hafya to Thaniyyat al-Wada', and for untrained horses, the limit was from Thaniyyat al-Wada' to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq. Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that he went ahead and it was so close that his horse would have taken him over the wall of the mosque, which was very small.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held a race between trained horses from Hafya to Thaniyyat al-Wada', and between untrained horses from Thaniyyat al-Wada' to the mosque of Banu Zuraiq. The narrator states: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) was also among those who won this race. The wording of the narration is similar to each other.

Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with both of them) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held a race between horses, and I was riding one of those horses. The Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You should keep urging it on continuously, that is, keep striking it with the whip continuously."

Abu Lubaid al-Mazini bin Zubaid reports that I arranged a race among the pilgrims’ horses. Hakim bin Ayyub was the governor of Basra at that time. When we reached the race field and the horses arrived there, we thought that it would be appropriate if we went to Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) and asked him about this matter—whether people used to organize such races during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). So we presented ourselves before Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him); he was in his palace. We said: O Sayyiduna Anas! Did you people use to organize horse races during the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? He replied: Yes! The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had included his horse in a race, whose name was Sanjah, and it came out ahead of all the others. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was very pleased with this and liked it very much.

This same narration has been transmitted by Ibn Mubashshir with another chain of transmission from Sayyiduna Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, which is similar to the narration transmitted by Yazid.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that whenever the she-camel Qaswa’ of the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) participated in a race, it would always take the lead. Sa‘id bin al-Musayyib narrates that once a man came and his she-camel surpassed Qaswa’. The people were very saddened that a camel had surpassed the she-camel of the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When this was reported to the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: “Whenever anyone attains superiority in this world, Allah the Exalted will surely bring him down to a lower position at some point.”

Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that no one could outrun the she-camel Qaswa of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him); it would always get ahead.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that no one could surpass Qaswa. Once, a Bedouin brought a young camel, he raced it against Qaswa and it surpassed her. This was very distressing for the Muslims. They said: O Messenger of Allah! Someone has surpassed Qaswa. So he said: "In this world, whoever Allah raises high, He also brings him down at times."

Saeed bin Musayyib narrates that Qaswa was the she-camel of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Whenever she participated in a race, she would always come first; no one could surpass her. Once, during a race, she lagged behind, and this caused great distress to the companions. On this occasion, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "When people attain heights, sometimes Allah brings them down as well (the narrator is unsure if these are the exact words:) when He wants to show someone as elevated."

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that a Bedouin competed with the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and surpassed the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). This caused great distress to the companions of the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). They spoke to the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about this, so he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is necessary that whomever Allah grants advancement in this world, He also brings him low at times."

Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There is no reality in Islam for jalaab, janb, and shighar, and whoever practices any of these, he has no connection with us." Ibn Mehran has also narrated these words: "Whoever snatches something, he has no connection with us."

Busr al-Muzani narrates from his father, who reports from his grandfather, that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "There is no reality in 'jilb' and 'janb'; no person should make a deal on behalf of a villager." The narrator named Ibn Abu Awais explained that 'jilb' means that a person pulls a horse from behind to make it overtake, and 'janb' means that he creates an obstacle in front of another horse so that it does not win.

Abu Ubaid, the narrator, has reported these words in the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him): "There is no reality in jallab and janab." The narrator says: Jallab occurs only in two things. One is in horse racing, and its method is that a person rides behind the horse and pulls the horse, which causes the horse distress, so it has been prohibited. The second is janab in rak‘at, which is that the one who is to receive charity stays in place and then sends someone to buy various kinds of fruits from people and collects his charity; this has been prohibited. Rather, the instruction is that he should go to the people and collect charity from them by going to their homes. As for janab, what is meant by it is this: a person keeps his horse, on which he is to participate in the competition, alongside another horse on which no one is riding, and when he reaches near the finish line, he mounts the horse that was running empty, and in this way, he wins the race, because that horse will be less tired compared to the horse on which someone was riding.

Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There is no reality in Islam for 'Atirah and Fara', nor is there any reality for Jalb and Janb." The narrator says: 'Atirah refers to the animal which, in the days of ignorance, the people of the tribe of Mudar used to slaughter.

Sayyiduna Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever enters his horse among other horses in such a way that he is not certain it will win, then there is no harm in it. But whoever enters his horse among other horses being certain that it will win, then this is gambling."

The narrator named Hasan has reported this narration about Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him): "I appoint you as the supervisor of the horse races." Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) went and called Sayyiduna Suraqah bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) and said, "O Suraqah! I entrust you with the responsibility of those participating in the race, the responsibility which the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has given me. Therefore, when you reach the field (Abu Abdur Rahman says: this refers to the place from where the race was to begin), arrange the horses in a line and announce three times: Is there anyone to fix the bridle? Is there anyone to lift the boy? Is there anyone to put the end of the bridle on the horse’s head? (i.e., if there is not, then the race should begin). If you do not receive any response, then proclaim 'Allahu Akbar' three times and let it go, then Allah Almighty will help whomever He wills among His creation to win." Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) would sit at the last mark of the race. He would have a line drawn and would make two men stand facing each other at both ends of this line. The edge of this line would be between the big toes of these men’s feet, and the horse would pass between them. Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) would say to these two men: "When one of the two horses is ahead of the other by the length of the ears, or by the ear, or by the cheek, then declare it the winner, and if you are in doubt about this, then declare both as winners, and when you declare two as equal, then make the final limit from the one which is the shorter of the two." There is no reality in Islam to jalaab, janb, and shighaar.