“I gave several loads of those dates to be used ‘in God’s way.’ Later the bag containing the dates was plundered when ‘Uthman was assassinated.”(111)

Abu Hurayra was a constant and important student and disciple among the People of the Bench, the sacred school and tekke of the Teacher of the Universe, the Pride of the World (PBUH). In addition, the Prophet had prayed for his strength of memory. The miracle of plenty he reported which occurred in a large gathering like the expedition of Tabuk, should therefore be as sound and certain as the word of a whole army.

S i x t e e n t h E x a m p l e : Foremost Bukhari, and the accurate books relate, through an authentic narration, that once Abu Hurayra was hungry, so he followed the Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) into his house. There they saw that a cup of milk had been brought as a gift. God’s Messenger said to him: “Call all the People of the Bench!” Abu Hurayra relates: “I said to myself, I could drink all the milk myself, as I was most in need of it. But since it was God’s Messenger’s order, I fetched the People of the Bench, who numbered more than a hundred. God’s Messenger told me to offer milk to them. I gave the cup to each one by one, and each drank until satisfied. At the end, the Messenger told me, ‘The rest is

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(111) Tirmidhi, Manaqib 47 no: 3839; Bayhaqi, Dala’il al-Nubuwwa vi, 110 (through various lines of transmission); Qadi Iyad, al-Shifa: i, 295; al-Sa’ati, al-Fath al-Rabbani xx, 56; Tabrizi, Mishkat al-Masabih iii, 191 no: 5933.