3 of 5 · 8 AH · 629 CE · The Red Sea coast
Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah رضي الله عنه
The Whale on the Shore
The Prophet ﷺ sent a party of about three hundred riders toward the Juhaynah tribe near the coast and appointed Abu 'Ubaydah to lead them. He gave them a bag of dates, which was all they had.
Abu 'Ubaydah gave out one date a day to each man, then one date for the day, and the men sucked on it like a child sucking, and drank water on top. When even that was gone, they were reduced to eating leaves and tree-bark. Then the sea threw up an enormous fish, like a small hill, on the shore.
Abu 'Ubaydah said at first that it was carrion and not permitted, then reconsidered: they were the messengers of Allah in His path, and in need, so they should eat. They ate from it for about eighteen days, grew fat, and carried away pieces. When they returned, the Prophet ﷺ said that it was provision Allah had brought them, and asked if they had any left to share with him, and ate of it (Sahih al-Bukhari 4360; Sahih Muslim 1935).
A good leader shares the hardship with the people, rationing his own and theirs.
How do you act when your team is short of resources and you could take more?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 4360 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 1935 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Ibn Hajar, Fath al-BariHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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