Sahih Muslim — hadith #5626–#5650

'Amir b. Sa'd reported that a person asked Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas about the plague, whereupon Usama b. Zaid said: I would inform you about it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: It is a calamity or a disease which Allah sent to a group of Bani Isra'il, or to the people who were before you; so when you hear of it in land, don't enter it and when it has broken out in your land, don't run away from it.

This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Ibn Juraij through another chain of transmitters.

Usama b. Zaid reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) having said this: This calamity or illness was a punishment with which were punished some of the nations before you. Then it was left upon the earth. It goes away once and comes back again. He who heard of its presence in a land should not go towards it, and he who happened to be in a land where it had broken out should not fly from it.

This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Zuhri with a different chain of transmitters.

Shu'ba reported from Habib: While we were in Medina we heard of plague having broken out in Kufa. 'Ata b. Yasir and others said to me that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) had said. If you are in a land where it (this scourge) has broken out, don't get out of it, and if you were to know that it had broken (in another land, then don't enter it. I said to him: From whom (did you hear it)? They said: 'Amir b. Sa'd has narrated it. So I came to him. They said that he was not present there. So I met his brother Ibrahim b. Sa'd and asked him. He said: I bear testimony to the fact that Usama narrated it to Sa'd saying: I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying that it is a God-sent punishment from the calamity or from the remnant of the calamity with which people were afflicted before you. So when it is in a land and you are there, don't get out of it, and if (this news reaches you) that it has broken out in a land, then don't enter therein. Habib said: I said to Ibrahim: Did you hear Usama narrating it to Sa'd and he was not denying it. He said: Yes.

This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Shu'ba with the same chain of transmitters except for the fact that no mention has been made of the account of 'Ata b. Yasir as in the previous hadith.

This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of Sa'd b. Malik, Khuzaima b. Thabit and Usama b. Zaid.

Ibrahim b. Sa'd b. Abu Waqqas reported: Usama b. Zaid and Sa'd had been sitting and they had been conversing and they said this hadith.

This hadith has been transmitted by Ibrahim b. Sa'd b. Malik on the authority of his father.

'Abdullah b. 'Abbas reported: Umar b. Khattab set out for Syria. As he came at Sargh (a town by the side of Hijaz on the way to Syria), there met him the commander of the forces, Abu Ubaida b. Jandb, and his companions. They informed him that a scourge had broken out in Syria. Ibn 'Abbas further reported that 'Umar said: Call to me tile earliest emigrants. So I called them. He (Hadrat 'Umar) sought their advice, and they told him that the scourge had broker, out in Syria. There was a difference of opinion (whether they should proceed further or go back to their homes in such a situation). Some of them said: You ('Umar) have set forth for a task, and, therefore, we would not advise you to go back, whereas some of them said: You have along with you the remnants (of the sacred galaxy) of men and (the blessed) Companions of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), so we would not advise you to go forth towards this calamity (with such eminent persons and thus expose them deliberately to a danger). He (Hadrat 'Umar) said: You can now go away. He said: Call to me the Ansar. So I called them to him, and he consulted them, and they trod the same path as was trodden by the Muhajirin, and they differed in their opinions as they had differed. He said: Now, you can go. He again said: Call to me the old persons of the Quraish who had migrated before the Victory (that is the Victory of Mecca), so I called them (and Hadrat 'Umar consulted them) and not even two persons differed (from the opinion held by the earlier delegates). They said: Our opinion is that you better go back along with the people and do not make them go to this scourge, So 'Umar made announcement to the people: In the morning I would be on the back of my side. So they (set forth in the morning), whereupon Abu 'Ubaida b. Jarrah said: Are you going to run away from the Divine Decree? Thereupon 'Umar said: Had it been someone else to say this besides you! 'Umar (in fact) did not approve of his opposing (this decision) and he said: Yes, we are running from the Divine Decree (to the) Divine Decree. You should think if there had been camels for you and you happened to get down in a valley having two sides, one of them covered with verdure and the other being barren, would you not (be doing) according to the Divine Decree if you graze them in verdure? And in case you graze them in the barren land (even then you would be grazing them) according to the Divine Decree. There happened to come 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Auf and he had been absent in connection with some of his needs. He said: I have with me a knowledge of it, that I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: If you hear of its presence (the presence of plague) in a land, don't enter it, but if it spreads in the land where you are, don't fly from it. Thereupon 'Umar b. Khattab praised Allah and then went back?

This hadith has been reported on the authority of Ma'mar with the same chain of transmitters but with this addition: " Do you think that he would graze in the barren land but would abandon the green land? Would you not attribute it to be a failing on his part? He said: Yes. He said: Then proceed. And he moved on until he came to Medina. And he said to me: This is the right place, or he said: That is the destination if Allah so wills."

This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of 'Abdullah b. Harith with a slight variation of wording.

'Amir b. Rabi'ah reported: 'Umar went to Syria and as he came to Sargh, information was given to him that an epidemic had broken out in Syria. 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Auf narrated to him that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) had said: When you hear of its presence in a land, don't move towards it, and when it breaks out in a land and you are therein, then don't run away from it. So 'Umar b. Khattab came back from Sargh. Salim b. 'Abdullah reported that 'Umar went back, along with people on hearing the hadith reported on the authority of 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Auf.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no infection, no safar, no hama. A desert Arab said: Allah's Messenger, how is it that when the camel is in the sand it is like a deer-then a camel afflicted with scab mixes with it and it is affected by sub? He (the Holy Prophet) said: Who infected the first one? Note: The majority of scholars interpret this to mean that these things in and of themselves do not transmit or cause harm through supernatural or hidden means but that Allah is ultimately in control and any fearful superstition around these is false.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no transitive disease, no evil omen, no safar, no hama. A desert Arab said: Allah's, Messenger.... The rest of the hadith is the same.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no trahsitive disease. Thereupon a desert Arab stood up. The rest of the hadith is the same and in the hadith transmitted on the authority of Zuhri' the Prophet (ﷺ) is reported to have said: There is no transitive disease, no safar, no hama.

Abu Salama h. 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Auf reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no transitive disease, but he is also reported to have said: A sick person should not be taken to one who is healthy. Abu Salama said that Abu Huraira used to narrate these two (different ahadith) from Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), but afterwards Abu Huraira became silent on these words:" There is no transitive disease," but he stuck to this that the sick person should not be taken to one who is healthy. Harith b. Abu Dhubab (and he was the first cousin of Abu Huraira) said: Abu Huraira, I used to hear from you that you narrated to us along with this hadith and the other one also (there is no transitive disease), but now you observe silence about it. You used to say that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: There is no transitive disease. Abu Huraira denied having any knowledge of that, but he said that the sick camel should not be taken to the healthy one. Harith, however, did not agree with him, which irritated Abu Huraira and he said to him some words in the Abyssinian language. He said to Harith: Do you know what I said to you? He said: No. Abu Huraira said: I simply denied having said it. Abu Salama sad: By my life, Abu Huraira in fact used to report Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) having said: There is no transitive disease. I do not know whether Abu Huraira has forgotten it or he deemed it an abrogated statement in the light of the other one.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no transitive disease and he also reported along with it: The ill should not be taken to the healthy.

This hadith has been reported on the authority of Zuhri with the same chain of transmitters.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no transitive disease, no huma, no star promising rain, no safar.

Jabir reported Allal's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no transitive disease, no ill omen, no ghoul. Note: The majority of scholars interpret this to mean that these things in and of themselves do not transmit or cause harm through supernatural or hidden means but that Allah is ultimately in control and any fearful superstition around these is false.

Jabir reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no transitive disease, no ghoul, no safar.

Jabir b. 'Abdullah reported Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) as saying: There is no transitive disease, no safar, no ghoul. He (the narrator) said: I heard Abu Zubair say: Jabir explained for them the word safar. Abu Zubair said: safar means belly. It was said to Jabir: Why is it so? He said that it was held that safar implied the worms of the belly, but he gave no explanation of ghoul. Abu Zubair said: Ghoul is that which kills the travellers.

Abu Huraira reported: I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying: There is no divination but the best type is the good omen. It was said to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ): What is good omen? Thereupon he said: A good word which one of you hears.

This hadith has been narrated on the authority of Zuhri with the same chain of transmitters but with a slight variation of wording.