Letters ( revised ) | THE NINETEENTH LETTER | 168
(111-259)
‘This staff will light up ten yards all around you. You will see a dark shadow when you arrive at your house; it is Satan. Throw him out of the house and drive him away!’ Qatada took the staff and set off. It cast a light like Moses’ shining hand.  He  came  to  his house,  where  he saw the  shadowy figure,  and  he  drove  it away.”[186]

The Second: While fighting the idolators during the great Battle of Badr, itself a source  of wonders,  ‘Ukkasha  b. Muhassin  al-Asadi  had  his sword  broken.  God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) gave him a stout staff in place of it, saying: “Fight with this!” Suddenly, with God’s leave, the staff became a long white sword, and he fought with it. He carried the sword on his person for the rest of his life until he fell as a martyr during the Battle of al-Yamama.[187] This incident is certain, because throughout  his life he carried the sword with pride and it became famous with the name of Succour. Thus, two proofs of this incident are ‘Ukkasha’s pride, and the sword’s name, Succour and its widespread fame.

The Third: It  is narrated  by authorities  on Hadith  like  Ibn ‘Abd  al-Barr,[188] a celebrated scholar known as the Scholar of the Age, that at the Battle of Uhud the sword  of  ‘Abdullah  b.  Jahsh,  a cousin  of  the  God’s  Messenger  (Upon  whom  be blessings and peace), was broken. The Messenger (UWBP) gave him a staff and it turned into a sword in his hand. He fought with it, and after the battle that product of a miracle remained a sword.[189]

In  his Siyar,  the  well-known  Ibn  Sayyid  al-Nas  reports  that  some  time  later ‘Abdullah sold the sword to a man called Bugha’ al-Turki for two hundred liras.[190] Thus these  two swords were each miracles  like the Staff of Moses. But while  no aspect  of  miraculousness  remained  in  his  staff  after  Moses’  death,  these  swords remained unchanged.

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[186] Musnad, iii, 65; al-Sa’ati, al-Fath al-Rabbani, xxii, 66-7; al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id, ii, 166-7; al-Hindi, Kanz al-‘Ummal, xii, 376; Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 3323; ‘Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa’, i, 671; al-‘Asqalani, al-Isaba, no: 7076.

[187] Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 333; ‘Ali al-Qari, Sharh al-Shifa’, i, 671; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa’, iii, 156; Ibn Hisham, Sirat al-Nabi, i, 637; Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-Ma’ad (Tahqiq: Arnavudi), iii, 186.

[188] Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa’, i, 333; al-Khafaji, Sharh al-Shifa’, iii, 157; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, ‘Uyun al-Athar, ii, 20; al-‘Asqalani, al-Isaba, no: 4583.

[189] ‘Abd al-Barr, al-Istibab, ii, 274 (gloss on al-Isaba); Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba, ii, 287; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, ‘Uyun al-Athar, ii, 32; ‘Abd al-Razzaq, al-Musannaf, xi, 279.

[190] Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, ‘Uyun al-Athar, ii, 32; ‘Abd al-Razzaq, al-Musannaf, xi, 279.

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Letters ( revised )