The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

IMAM ABU AL-FIDA' ISMA'IL IBN KATHiR 249
the Messenger of God (SAAS) amidst his Companions. I approached him and
said, 'Listen to what I have to say, O Messenger of God.' 'Let's hear it,' he
replied. So I recited to him the following verses.
'My channel came to me after rest and sleep, and I never experienced him to he
untruthful.
Three nights and each time he would say, "A messenger has come out to you of
(the tribe of) Lu'ayy h. Ghdih".
So I tucked up my waist-wrapper, for travel, and my strong and swift she-camel
carried me across the deserts
And I bear witness that there is nothing besides God, and that you are safe from
any conqueror
And that you are the messenger with closest access of all to God, 0 you horn of the
finest and best of men.
So order us to do whatever you are told, 0 best man ever to walk, even if what
comes is such as to make the hair grey;
Intercede for me when intercession time comes, for none hut you can help Sawwnd
b. Qaib.'
"The Messenger of God (SAAS) and his Companions were most pleased at
what I had said, their pleasure being evident in their faces.
" Wmar b. al-Khanab jumped from his place and came close to him and said,
'I wanted to hear that from you. Can your channel come to you today?'
"But after I had read the Qur)m, then never again; God's book does away
with any need for spirits.
"Wmar then said, 'Once we were in a quarter of Quraysh known by their
name of the Dharih family. They had sacrificed a calf and the butcher was cutting
it up when we heard a voice emitting from its stomach. We could not see anything
(there), however. It said, '0 family of Dharih, success is won. A voice is crying
out, its tongue eloquent, giving wimess that there is no God but God."'
This account is abbreviated, as that of al-Bukm shows. They do substantiate
that the one hearing the voice from the calf was Wmar b. d-Khanzb. But God
knows best.
The hzJ;? Aba Bakr Muhammad b. Ja'far b. Sahl al-Khara'iti stated, in his
work that he compiled on the cries of the spirits, that Abii MiisZ 'Imran b.
Miisa al-Mu'addib related to him, quoting Muhammad b. 'Imran b.
Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman b. Aha Layla, quoting Sa'id b. Wbayd Allnh
al-Wa~sabi, from his father, from Aba Ja'far Muhammad b. 'Ali, who said that
Sawwzd b. @rib al-Sadasi came in to Wmar b. d-Khattab, God be pleased
with him, and the latter said to him, "By God, O Sawwzd b. @rib, I adjure you
to say whether nowadays your soothsaying benefits you." He replied, "Glory be
to God, O Commander of the Faithful, you've never greeted anyone else the
way you have me!" "Glory be to God indeed, O Sawwad," he replied, "our