Imam Muhammad bin Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates: We were with Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him). He was wearing two cotton or silk cloaks dyed with red flowers. He cleaned his nose with one of them and said: "Bravo, bravo Abu Hurairah! Today you are cleaning your nose with a linen cloth, but by Allah, there was a time when I would fall in a semi-conscious state between the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and the room of Sayyidah Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) due to hunger, and the passerby would think I was mad and would trample my neck as he passed by, although I had no madness whatsoever; it was only due to extreme hunger."

Malik bin Dinar (may Allah have mercy on him) says: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) never ate bread or meat to his fill alone, except with people. Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) says: I asked a villager about the meaning of «ضَفَف» , so he said that it means "to eat food together with people."

It is narrated from Simak bin Harb, he says: I heard Sayyiduna Nu'man bin Bashir (may Allah be pleased with them both) saying: Do you not have food and drink of your choice available? I have seen your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that even inferior dates to fill his stomach were not available to him.

Narrated by Umm al-Mu'minin Sayyidah Aisha Siddiqa (may Allah be pleased with her): She said, "We, the family of Muhammad (peace be upon him), would spend a whole month without lighting a fire; we had nothing but dates and water."

Sayyiduna Abu Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that we complained to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about the severity of hunger and showed him the stones tied to our bellies, so the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) showed us two stones tied to his own belly. Imam Abu Isa al-Tirmidhi says: This hadith is gharib through the narration of Abu Talhah; we know it only through this chain, and the meaning of «ورفعنا عن بطوننا حجرا» is that "those people, due to hardship and weakness caused by hunger, used to tie stones to their bellies."

The jurist of the Ummah, Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him), narrates: One day, the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out of his house at a time when he would not usually go out, nor would anyone meet him at that time. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) came to serve the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked:“Abu Bakr! What has brought you here?”He replied,“I came out to meet the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), to see your blessed face, and to greet you with peace.”Not much time had passed when Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) also arrived, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked him:“Umar, what has brought you here?”He replied,“O Messenger of Allah! Hunger has brought me out.”The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“I am also feeling hungry.”Then all three of them went to the house of Abu’l-Haytham bin Tihan al-Ansari. Abu’l-Haytham had a date orchard and many goats, but he had no servant. (When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, arrived there,) Abu’l-Haytham was not at home. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked his wife,“Where is your husband?”She replied,“He has gone to fetch sweet water for us.”Shortly after, Abu’l-Haytham arrived carrying a water-skin, and as soon as he put it down, he embraced the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said,“May my parents be sacrificed for you!”Then the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his two companions went with him to the orchard. There, he spread a mat for them and himself went to a date palm, brought a bunch of dates, and presented it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“Why did you not bring only ripe dates? You brought the whole bunch?”He replied,“O Messenger of Allah! I intended that you may eat whichever ripe or unripe dates you like.”So all three of them ate the dates and drank water from the water-skin. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“By Him in Whose hand is my soul, these are among the blessings about which you will be questioned on the Day of Resurrection: cool shade, fresh and pure delicious dates, and cool water.”Abu’l-Haytham went to prepare food for them, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“Do not slaughter a goat that gives milk.”So he slaughtered for them a sheep or a goat less than a year old and presented it to them (after preparing it). After they ate, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked:“Do you have any servant?”He replied,“No.”The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“When we receive captives, come to us.”Later, two captives were brought to the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), not more than that. Sayyiduna Abu’l-Haytham (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him:“Choose one of them.”He said,“You choose for me, O Messenger of Allah.”The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“The one who is consulted is trustworthy. Take this one, for I have seen him performing prayer, and treat him well.”Abu’l-Haytham (may Allah be pleased with him) went to his wife and informed her of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) instruction to“treat him well.”She said,“You can only fulfill the Prophet’s command if you set him free.”He said,“He is free.”(When this was reported to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,) the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:“Indeed, Allah Almighty has not sent any Prophet nor appointed any Caliph except that he has two trustworthy friends: one who commands him to do good and forbids him from evil, and the other who does not lessen his harm. Whoever is saved from the evil friend is certainly saved from evil.”

Qais bin Abu Hazim narrates: I heard Sayyiduna Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) say: Indeed, I am the first person who shed blood in the way of Allah, and I am the first person who shot an arrow in the way of Allah. I myself saw the group of the noble Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) fighting in jihad, and we used to survive by eating the fruits of bushes and the leaves of the acacia tree, until our jaws became wounded, and each one of us would pass stools like goats and camels. Now the people of Banu Asad criticize me regarding religion (if this is true), then I am ruined and all my deeds are wasted (but this can never be so).

Abu Nu’ama ‘Adawi says: I heard Khalid bin ‘Umair and Abu al-Raqad Shuwais, they used to say that the Commander of the Faithful, Sayyiduna ‘Umar bin Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) sent ‘Utbah bin Ghazwan (may Allah be pleased with him) (appointing him as the commander of an army) and said:“You and your companions go to the end of the land of the Arabs and near the land of the non-Arabs (‘Ajam). (When you reach there) then stay there.”All of them reached there, and when they arrived at the place of Marbad, they found marble there, so they asked,“What is this place?”The people said:“This is Basra.”So they continued walking until they reached near the small bridge (of the Tigris), then they said:“You have been ordered to camp at this very place.”So they camped there. Then he narrated a long hadith. The narrator says: Then ‘Utbah bin Ghazwan (may Allah be pleased with him) said:“I see myself as the seventh person with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Our food was only the leaves of trees, from eating which our jaws were split open. I found a fallen sheet, which I divided half and half between myself and Sa’d. Now, each of us seven has become a (governor) ruler of some region, and soon you will experience the rulers who will come after us.”

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that he says: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No one has been frightened in the way of Allah as much as I have been frightened, and no one has been harmed in the way of Allah as much as I have been harmed. Thirty days and nights would pass over me and Bilal in such a state that we did not have any food that a living being could eat, except for the little food that Bilal would hide under his armpit."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, that bread and meat were never seen together on the dining mat of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, in the morning and evening meals, except when other people (such as guests, etc.) were present with him. Abdullah says: According to some hadith scholars, the meaning of «صفف» is "an abundance of hands."