It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdul Rahman bin Abi Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man used to sit in the gathering of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Whenever the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said something, he would (in mockery) make strange movements with his face and pull faces. Seeing this behaviour of his, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Kun kadhalik (Become like that)." So that man remained afflicted with that twitching and distortion of the face (a palsied state) until the day he died. The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), but the two Shaykhs did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) that a Jew who was called Jurayjirah was owed some dinars (as a debt) by the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He demanded payment from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "O Jew! I have nothing with me to give you." He said: O Muhammad! I will not leave you until you give me my due. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "If that is so, then I will sit with you." So he (peace and blessings be upon him) sat with him, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed the Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha and morning (Fajr) prayers in that very place. The Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) were threatening and intimidating him. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) became aware of this and said: "What are you doing to him?" They said: O Messenger of Allah! Should a Jew hold you back?! The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "My Lord has forbidden me to wrong anyone under covenant (mu'ahad) or anyone else." When the day had risen, the Jew said: 'Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh' (I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger), and half of my wealth is in the way of Allah. By Allah! I did all this with you only so that I could see your attributes that are mentioned in the Torah: "Muhammad bin Abdullah, whose birth will be in Makkah, his place of emigration in Taybah (Madinah), and his dominion in Sham. He is neither harsh nor hard-hearted, nor one who shouts in the marketplaces, nor one given to obscenity and foul speech." I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that you are indeed the Messenger of Allah. This is my wealth; now judge concerning it as Allah shows you. And that Jew was very wealthy. Chapter on the emigration to Abyssinia: It is established through successive reports that when Abu Talib, the uncle of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), died, he (peace and blessings be upon him) and the Muslims suffered great harm from the polytheists after his death. So when they were put to trial and their clans cut them off, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to them: "Disperse," and he (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed towards the land of Abyssinia. It was a warm land to which Quraysh used to travel in winter. This was the first emigration in Islam, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered his Companions to go to the Negus only because of his justice.

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Quraysh kept holding back (from harming me) until Abu Talib died." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), but they did not record it.

Ibn Ishaq states that the name of the Negus was "Mashamah", whose meaning in Arabic is "Atiyyah" (gift), and Negus (al-Najashi) is actually the title of the king, just as the titles Kisra and Heraclius are used. Ibn Ishaq says that this is the letter written by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to the Negus: "In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. This is from Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), the Messenger of Allah, to the Negus Ashama, the great king of Abyssinia. Peace be upon whoever follows guidance, believes in Allah and His Messenger, and bears witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, without partner; He has taken neither a consort (wife) nor a son; and that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is His servant and Messenger. I call you to Allah, for I am the Messenger of Allah; so accept Islam and you will be safe: 'Say: O People of the Book, come to a word that is equitable between us and you: that we worship none but Allah, associate nothing with Him, and that none of us take one another as lords besides Allah' [Surah Al Imran: 64] . Then if you turn away (refuse), upon you will be the sin of the Christians (who go astray)." Imam al-Hakim says: Muhammad bin Ishaq is alone in giving the name of the Negus as "Mashamah", and no one has corroborated him in it, because in the sahih reports recorded by Bukhari and Muslim his name is mentioned with an alif (Ashamah), and that is also the name written in the letter of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent us to the Negus while we numbered about eighty (80) men. Then he narrated the whole long hadith, as I have recorded it in my book "al-Tafsir". The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), but the two Shaykhs did not record it. The student of knowledge should know that the Negus was a polytheist before the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) reached him with his letter. The proof of this is the report which the two Shaykhs recorded in the two Sahihs from Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her): that Sayyidah Umm Salamah and Sayyidah Umm Habibah (may Allah be pleased with them both) mentioned a church in Abyssinia in which there were images, as mentioned in the hadith.

It is narrated from Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri that Sayyiduna Uthman bin Affan (may Allah be pleased with him) and his wife Sayyidah Ruqayyah (may Allah be pleased with her), the daughter of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), set out from Makkah to Abyssinia in the first emigration. Then they came back to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in Makkah, and then emigrated (again) to Madinah. The two Shaykhs agreed on recording the hadith of Shu'ayb bin Abi Hamzah and others from Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri about Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) setting out to the land of Abyssinia, and they cited the entire long hadith; that is why I have confined myself to the narration of Musa bin Uqbah from Ibn Shihab. Ibn Ishaq mentioned in al-Maghazi that, according to what people said, there was no one in all of Arabia and Abyssinia more beautiful than Ruqayyah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), may Allah be pleased with her.

It is narrated from Ibn Ishaq that Abu Talib composed some verses about the Negus in which he urged him to be a good neighbour to the Muslims and to defend them: "O best of people! Know that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is a helper and supporter of Musa and Isa son of Maryam (peace be upon them both) (an heir to the same mission). He has brought the same guidance that they both brought, so each guides and protects (from sin) by the command of Allah. And you too find him in your Book with truthful speech, not the (distorted) speech of some translator. And whatever group of these Muslims comes to you, because of your grace, will return only with honour and generosity."

It is narrated from Sayyidah Umm Khalid bint Khalid (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said: I came back from the land of Abyssinia when I was a little girl. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) clothed me in a black woollen wrap (khamisah) that had markings on it. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) began to pass his blessed hand over those markings, saying: "Sanah, sanah", meaning: "Beautiful, beautiful" (in the Abyssinian language). This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), but they did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with them both) that when Sayyiduna Ja'far bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) returned from the land of Abyssinia, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I do not know which of the two makes me happier: the conquest of Khaybar or the arrival of Ja'far." The chain of this hadith is sahih (authentic), but the two Shaykhs did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ubadah bin al-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: We were eleven people at the first pledge of Aqabah in the following year. We pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on the same terms on which allegiance was taken from women (that is, the pledge of the women), and this was before fighting and war were made obligatory. This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Muslim, but the two Shaykhs did not record it.