2 of 2 · 6 AH · the third day · Madinah
Thumamah ibn Uthal رضي الله عنه
The Most Hated Face, Now the Most Loved
On the third day the Prophet ﷺ said, "Release Thumamah." He was untied. He walked to a date garden near the mosque, bathed, and came back and said, "I testify that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."
Then he said to the Prophet ﷺ: "By Allah, there was no face on earth more hateful to me than yours, and now your face is the most beloved of all faces to me. There was no religion more hateful to me than yours, and now it is the most beloved. There was no city more hateful to me than yours, and now it is the most beloved."
He added that the cavalry had seized him on his way to perform 'umrah and asked what the Prophet ﷺ wanted him to do. The Prophet ﷺ gave him glad tidings and told him to go ahead with 'umrah.
Hearts turn quickly when they meet sincerity; none of us should despair of anyone's guidance, nor of our own.
Is there someone you have given up on who may simply never have been shown real kindness?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 4372 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 1764 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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