It is narrated from Habib bin Abi Thabit that Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) came to Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) in Basrah. He vacated his house for him and said: "I will treat you just as you treated the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." Then he asked: "How much debt do you owe?" He said: "Twenty thousand." So he gave him forty thousand and twenty slaves, and said: "Everything in the house is yours."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari was saying in a gathering: "Is none of you able to recite a third of the Qur'an every night?" The people said: We are not able to do that. He said: "Indeed, 'Say: He is Allah, the One' is equal to a third of the Qur'an." The narrator says: Just then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) arrived and heard what Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub said, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Abu Ayyub has spoken the truth."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir bin Samurah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed at the house of Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him). When he (peace and blessings be upon him) had eaten, he would send the rest of his food to him. He would look for the marks of the blessed hand of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and place his own hand exactly where his (peace and blessings be upon him) fingers had been. One day he (peace and blessings be upon him) sent food to him, but he did not find the marks of the fingers of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in it. He came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah! I did not see the marks of your fingers. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There was garlic in it." In the narration of Shu'bah: He asked: Is it unlawful? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No." And in the narration of Hammad: He said: O Messenger of Allah! You sent back to me food that you did not eat. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You are not like me; the angel comes to me (and the smell of garlic is disagreeable to him)." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to stay with me, I said: (O Messenger of Allah!) May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, I strongly dislike that I should be on the upper floor while you are on the floor below me. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Being downstairs is more convenient for me, because people keep coming to meet me." He says: Once a water jar of ours broke and all its water spilled. So Umm Ayyub and I began drying up the water with our sheet, apart from which we had no covering, doing so out of fear that some drop of water might reach the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) below and cause him harm. This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed with me for a month. I observed his (peace and blessings be upon him) routine closely and saw that when the sun passed its zenith, he (peace and blessings be upon him) would leave whatever worldly work was in his hand; and if he (peace and blessings be upon him) was asleep, it was as if he were woken up for that time. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) would get up, take a bath or perform ablution, and then pray four rak'ahs, which he (peace and blessings be upon him) would complete with great excellence and composure. When the time of his (peace and blessings be upon him) departure drew near, I said: O Messenger of Allah! You stayed with me for a month, and I wished that you had stayed even longer than that. I reflected on all your (peace and blessings be upon him) routines and saw that when the sun passed its zenith, you (peace and blessings be upon him) would leave worldly work and occupy yourself with prayer. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, at that hour the gates of the heavens are opened, and the gates of the heavens and of Paradise are not closed until this prayer has been performed. So I love that at those moments a good deed of mine should rise up to my Lord, and that my deed should be presented first among the deeds of the worshippers."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub Khalid bin Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him), in whose house the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed at the time of the emigration to Madinah, set out on a campaign in the land of the Romans. Then he passed by Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him), who treated him coldly. When he returned from the campaign, he again showed him indifference and paid him no attention. Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) informed me that after him we would witness others being preferred over us (and our rights being denied)." Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) asked: "Then what did he (peace and blessings be upon him) command you?" He replied: "He (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded us to be patient." He said: "Then be patient." After that he came to Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) in Basrah, whom Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) had appointed as its governor. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: "O Abu Ayyub! I want to move out of my house for you just as you moved out of your house for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)." So he ordered his family, and they came out of the house, and he gave him everything that was in the house. When the time of his departure came, Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) asked: "What is your need?" He said: "My need is my stipend and eight slaves to work on my land." His stipend was four thousand, so Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) multiplied it five times, making it twenty thousand, and gave him forty slaves. This hadith has already passed with a connected, authentic chain; I have mentioned it again with this chain because of the additional details in it.

Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates from Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: Whenever I prayed behind your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), I heard him say when finishing the prayer: 'Allahumma ighfir li khatayaya wa dhunubi kullaha, an'ishni wa ahyini warzuqni wahdini li-salih al-a'mal wal-akhlaq, innahu la yahdi li-salihiha wa la yasrifu sayyi'aha illa anta' (O Allah! Forgive all my sins and my errors, grant me elevation, grant me (true) life, provide for me, and guide me to the best of deeds and character, for none but You can guide to the best of them, and none but You can turn away their evil).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him) that he removed something (such as a straw) from the blessed beard of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Abu Ayyub! May Allah keep every kind of evil (and everything disliked) away from you." This hadith has an authentic (sahih) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Hunayn that Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas and Sayyiduna al-Miswar bin Makhramah (may Allah be pleased with them) differed on the question of whether a person in ihram may wash his head with water (for coolness) without being in a state of major ritual impurity (janabah). So they sent me to ask about it of Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), who was at a place near Makkah. Then he mentioned the hadith at length. This is a merit of Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him), that eminent Companions such as Ibn Abbas and al-Miswar refer to him in a question, and I think that the two Shaykhs, or one of them, have recorded it in the Book of Purification.

It is narrated from Abdullah bin al-Tufayl bin Sakhbarah, the son of the maternal brother of Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), that he saw in a dream that he met a group of Christians. He said: "You would be very good people if you did not claim that the Messiah is the son of Allah." The Christians replied: "And you too would be very good people if you did not say: Whatever Allah wills and whatever Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) wills." Then he met a group of Jews and said: "You would be very good people if you did not call Uzayr the son of Allah." They replied: "You too would be very good people if you did not say: Whatever Allah wills and whatever Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) wills." Then he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and related his dream. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "Have you related this dream to anyone else?" He said: Yes. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) praised and extolled Allah and said: "Your brother has seen a dream which has reached you. So do not say, 'Whatever Allah wills and whatever Muhammad wills,' but rather say: 'Whatever Allah alone wills, Who has no partner.'"