Hadithcore
Sahih Muslim, 18 a
sahih

It is reported on the authority of Qatada that one among the delegates of the 'Abdul-Qais tribe narrated this tradition to him. Sa'id said that Qatada had mentioned the name of Abu Nadra on the authority of Abu Sa'id Khudri who narrated this tradition:

That people from the- tribe of 'Abdul-Qais came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and said: Messenger of Allah, we belong to the tribe of Rabi'a and there live between you and us the unbelievers of the Mudar tribe and we find it impossible to come to you except in the sacred months; direct us to a deed which we must communicate to those who have been left behind us and by doing which we may enter heaven. Upon this the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: I enjoin upon you four (things) and forbid you to do four (things): worship Allah and associate none with Him, establish prayer, pay Zakat, and observe the fast of Ramadan, and pay the fifth part out of the booty. And I prohibit you from four (things): dry gourds, green-coloured jars, hollowed stumps of palm-trees, and receptacles. They (the members of the delegation) said: Do you know what al-naqir is? He replied: Yes, it is a stump which you hollow out and in which you throw small dates. Sa'id said: He (the Prophet) used the word tamar (dates). (The Prophet (ﷺ) then added): Then you sprinkle water over it and when its ebullition subsides, you drink it (and you are so intoxicated) that one amongst you, or one amongst them (the other members of your tribe, who were not present there) strikes his cousin with the sword. He (the narrator) said: There was a man amongst us who had sustained injury on this very account due to (intoxication), and he told that he tried to conceal it out of shame from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I, however, inquired from the Messenger of Allah (it we discard those utensils which you have forbidden us to use), then what type of vessels should be used for drink? He (the Prophet) replied: In the waterskin the mouths of which are tied (with a string). They (again) said: Prophet (ﷺ) of Allah, our land abounds in rats and water-skins cannot remain preserved. The holy Prophet (ﷺ) of Allah (ﷺ) said: (Drink in water-skins) even if these arenibbled by rats. And then (addressing) al-Ashajj of 'Abdul-Qais he said: Verily, you possess two such qualities which Allah loves: insight and deliberateness.

حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ أَيُّوبَ، حَدَّثَنَا ابْنُ عُلَيَّةَ، حَدَّثَنَا سَعِيدُ بْنُ أَبِي عَرُوبَةَ، عَنْ قَتَادَةَ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا مَنْ، لَقِيَ الْوَفْدَ الَّذِينَ قَدِمُوا عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم مِنْ عَبْدِ الْقَيْسِ ‏.‏ قَالَ سَعِيدٌ وَذَكَرَ قَتَادَةُ أَبَا نَضْرَةَ عَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيِّ فِي حَدِيثِهِ هَذَا ‏.‏ أَنَّ أُنَاسًا مِنْ عَبْدِ الْقَيْسِ قَدِمُوا عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالُوا يَا نَبِيَّ اللَّهِ إِنَّا حَىٌّ مِنْ رَبِيعَةَ وَبَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكَ كُفَّارُ مُضَرَ وَلاَ نَقْدِرُ عَلَيْكَ إِلاَّ فِي أَشْهُرِ الْحُرُمِ فَمُرْنَا بِأَمْرٍ نَأْمُرُ بِهِ مَنْ وَرَاءَنَا وَنَدْخُلُ بِهِ الْجَنَّةَ إِذَا نَحْنُ أَخَذْنَا بِهِ ‏.‏ فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏"‏ آمُرُكُمْ بِأَرْبَعٍ وَأَنْهَاكُمْ عَنْ أَرْبَعٍ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَلاَ تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلاَةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَصُومُوا رَمَضَانَ وَأَعْطُوا الْخُمُسَ مِنَ الْغَنَائِمِ وَأَنْهَاكُمْ عَنْ أَرْبَعٍ عَنِ الدُّبَّاءِ وَالْحَنْتَمِ وَالْمُزَفَّتِ وَالنَّقِيرِ ‏"‏ ‏.‏ قَالُوا يَا نَبِيَّ اللَّهِ مَا عِلْمُكَ بِالنَّقِيرِ قَالَ ‏"‏ بَلَى جِذْعٌ تَنْقُرُونَهُ فَتَقْذِفُونَ فِيهِ مِنَ الْقُطَيْعَاءِ - قَالَ سَعِيدٌ أَوْ قَالَ مِنَ التَّمْرِ - ثُمَّ تَصُبُّونَ فِيهِ مِنَ الْمَاءِ حَتَّى إِذَا سَكَنَ غَلَيَانُهُ شَرِبْتُمُوهُ حَتَّى إِنَّ أَحَدَكُمْ - أَوْ إِنَّ أَحَدَهُمْ - لَيَضْرِبُ ابْنَ عَمِّهِ بِالسَّيْفِ ‏"‏ ‏.‏ قَالَ وَفِي الْقَوْمِ رَجُلٌ أَصَابَتْهُ جِرَاحَةٌ كَذَلِكَ ‏.‏ قَالَ وَكُنْتُ أَخْبَأُهَا حَيَاءً مِنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقُلْتُ فَفِيمَ نَشْرَبُ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَالَ ‏"‏ فِي أَسْقِيَةِ الأَدَمِ الَّتِي يُلاَثُ عَلَى أَفْوَاهِهَا ‏"‏ ‏.‏ قَالُوا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنَّ أَرْضَنَا كَثِيرَةُ الْجِرْذَانِ وَلاَ تَبْقَى بِهَا أَسْقِيَةُ الأَدَمِ ‏.‏ فَقَالَ نَبِيُّ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏"‏ وَإِنْ أَكَلَتْهَا الْجِرْذَانُ وَإِنْ أَكَلَتْهَا الْجِرْذَانُ وَإِنْ أَكَلَتْهَا الْجِرْذَانُ ‏"‏ ‏.‏ قَالَ وَقَالَ نَبِيُّ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم لأَشَجِّ عَبْدِ الْقَيْسِ ‏"‏ إِنَّ فِيكَ لَخَصْلَتَيْنِ يُحِبُّهُمَا اللَّهُ الْحِلْمُ وَالأَنَاةُ ‏"‏ ‏.‏

References2 variants
In-Book Reference
Book 1, Hadith 26
USC-MSA web (English) reference
Book 1, Hadith 25 (deprecated numbering scheme)
Sharh · explanationclick to expand
The Prophet (ﷺ) used to gradually teach people Islam’s rules of worship and transactions, permissible and impermissible matters, and all that brought them out of darkness into the light. In this hadith, Abu Saeed Al-Khudri narrated that some people from Abdulqais, a large tribe that inhabited Bahrain in the east of the Arabian Peninsula, came to the Prophet ﷺ in Media in the month of Rajab in the 8th year. They had converted to Islam before they came. They told him that they were a branch of Rabi’a tribes which represented half of the Arabs. The disbelieved tribes of Mudar lived on Rabi’a’s way to the Prophet (ﷺ). Mudar was the largest branch of the Arabs in comparison to Rabi’a tribes. Mudar used to attack and rob the caravans and killed all people therein, especially those heading to Medina to convert to Islam. There was open hostility between the two tribes. To travel to the Prophet (ﷺ), Rabi’a had to pass by Mudar but the safest time to travel to him was during the sacred months, Muharram, Rajab, Dul-Qa’da, and Dhul-Hijja, which all Arabs glorified and avoided fighting therein. As a result, Rabi’a traveled to the Prophet (ﷺ) in the month of Rajab. Abdulqais delegation asked the Prophet (ﷺ) to teach them the matters of Islam as they wanted to convey them to their people so they all would enter Paradise if they acted upon them. He commanded them to follow four matters and avoid four matters. He commanded them to: (1) Worship Allah and associate none with Him. Worship is to obey Allah by abiding by his commands that his prophets conveyed. Worship is a comprehensive name for all acts and deeds, apparent and hidden, that Allah loves and pleases. A person declares the oneness of Allah away from any type of polytheism, for whoever does not renounce polytheism does not necessitate that he worships Allah alone, (2) Regular performing the prescribed prayers, Fajr, Duhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha, (3) Paying the obligatory zakat. It is to pay a certain percentage of one's property if it reaches a specific limit and time. One's property includes livestock, harvest, goods, and buried treasures or mines, (4) Fasting during the month of Ramadan. It is a physical act of worship in which a person abstains from eating, drinking, intercourse, and other things from dawn to sunset, and (5) Paying one-fifth out of the booty forcibly obtained from polytheists during wars. Additionally, he forbade them from using four utensils: (1) Ad-Dubbaa: Dry receptacles of gourds, (2) Al-Hantam: Jars made of mud, hair, and blood, (3) Al-Muzaffat: Receptacles covered with tar, and (4) An-Naqir. They astonishingly wondered how the Prophet (ﷺ) knew an-naqir although it was not used by his people. Thus, he told them that he exactly knew it. He clarified that it was a tree’s trunk that people hollowed and threw small dates therein to be fermented. Then, they spilled water and left it to become wine. Upon drinking it, a person may have struck his cousin with the sword, due to his mind's absence. It was a great evil against which he warned above all other evils. One of the attendants was a man called Jahm ibn Qatham who concealed his injured leg out of shyness of the Prophet (ﷺ), for he was injured by a drunk man. He forbade them from using these utensils for they rapidly transformed juices into wine which was impure and could not be sold. He forbade them, for it was a waste of one’s properties, and one may have drunk it unknowingly. Later, this prohibition was abrogated by Bureida's narration in Sahih Muslim that the Prophet ﷺ said, “I forbade you from preparing nabidh (juice of grapes and date) except in a water skin. Now, you can drink from all types of utensils but do not drink anything intoxicating.” In the first hadith, they asked him about vessels they could use for drinking. He guided them to use the water skins. They were light tanned skin taken from animals and their mouths were tied with strings. They did not help juices to be rapidly transformed into wines. They informed him that their land was full of rats overwhelmingly eating water skins. Nevertheless, the Prophet ﷺ said three times, “Even if they are eaten by rats,” for he believed that they could preserve their water skins away from rats. Later on, he told Al-Ashajj ibn Abdulqais that he had two attributes that Allah and his Prophet ﷺ loved which were forbearance and patience. These attributes may be innate or acquired by training and practice. This hadith contains the following benefits: (1) It is better to delegate virtuous people to rulers, conveying significant inquiries, (2) The importance of explaining one’s excuse before requests, (3) It shows the important pillars of Islam, (4) The virtue of Al-Ashej due to his good morals, (5) The legitimacy to directly compliment a person if we make sure he will not be tempted, (6) It proves the attribute of love to Allah, in the manner befitting Him, and (7) It clarifies the danger of drinking alcohol and its impact on society..
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