Page:Selections from Muhammadan Traditions - tr. William Goldsack (1923).djvu/173

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE BOOK OF BUYING AND SELLING
153

sold everything which Muáʾdh possessed in satisfaction of his debts, until Muáʾdh stood without a thing.

It is related from Abú Músá that, 'The Prophet said, "Verily the greatest sin in the sight of God, after the mortal sins, is that a servant should meet Him with what God has forbidden, namely, that a man should die in debt, and leave nothing wherewith to redeem it."'—Aḥmad, Abú Dáud.

On Partnership and Agency

It is related from Zuhrah bin Maʿbad that his grandfather, ʿAbduʾlláh bin Ḥishám, used to take him out to the bazar and buy food. And Ibn ʿOmar and Ibn Zubair met him and said to him, "Take us into partnership, for verily the Prophet prayed for a blessing for thee." Then he took them into partnership. And it sometimes happened that he gained a camel's load, and sent it to his lodging. And it was that ʿAbduʾlláh bin Ḥishám whose mother had taken him to the Prophet; and he had stroked his head and supplicated a blessing for him.'—Al Bukhárí.

It is related from Jábir that he said, 'The sun was eclipsed in the time of the Apostle of God, on the day that Ibrahim, the Apostle's son, died. And the Prophet prayed with the people in six rakʿahs and four prostrations, and then turned away. And the sun had returned to its ordinary condition; and he said, "There is nothing which you have been promised which I have not seen in this prayer of mine. Hell fire was certainly brought, and that was when you saw me draw back in fear lest its scorching heat should reach me, till I saw in it a man with a hooked stick dragging his intestines in the fire. And he used to rob pilgrims with his hooked stick. And if he was spoken to about it, he used to say, 'It only got caught in my hooked stick.' And if the people were unaware of his thieving, then he would take the thing away. And I saw in the fire a woman who used to own a cat, which she tied up, and neither fed nor released so that it might eat of the birds and small animals of the earth, until it died of hunger. After that paradise was brought, and that was when you saw me move forward until I stood in my place and stretched out my hand wishing to take some of its fruit that you might look at it. After that it became manifest to me that I should not do so."—Muslim.