Saying · 9 AH
I give you good news, O people of Tamim.
Saying · 9 AH
You are giving us good news, so give us then the money.
~9 AH · 9 AH
Imran ibn Husayn RA narrated that while he sat in the Masjid, a delegation of Banu Tamim (crude, harsh Bedouins of Najd, from whom much of the Confederate army at the Battle of the Trench had come) arrived announcing their Islam. The Prophet ﷺ told them, "I give you good news, O people of Tamim" (meaning of Jannah), but they misunderstood this as an offer of wealth and asked him for money instead; the Prophet ﷺ, showing his adab, said nothing. The Himyarites of Yemen then arrived and announced their own Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said, "O people of Himyar, accept the good news, since the people of Banu Tamim did not accept it." They replied, "We accept the good news! And we have come all the way from Yemen asking you about the creation: how did Allah create it, and how did it all begin?" The Prophet ﷺ answered, "There was Allah, and there was nothing before Him. And He then created the heavens and the earth while His Throne was on the water." Imran ibn Husayn RA then recounted that, right at that point, someone called out that his camel had fled; he ran after it into the desert and, catching neither the camel nor the rest of the hadith, later wished he had let the camel go so he could have heard the whole thing, and since the Himyar delegates themselves went home without becoming narrators of hadith, this account was never completed for later generations.
This is one of the most famous and theologically significant hadiths in the Seerah, cited by Ibn Taymiyyah and others as evidence that this creation is not the only thing Allah has created: the Throne and the water existed even before the heavens and the earth.
Other events recorded in 9 AH. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
I give you good news, O people of Tamim.
You are giving us good news, so give us then the money.
O people of Himyar, accept the good news, since the people of Banu Tamim did not accept it.
Said to the newly arrived delegation of Himyar, immediately after the delegates of Banu Tamim had mistaken the same words as a promise of money.
We accept the good news! And we have come all the way from Yemen asking you about the creation: how did Allah create it, and how did it all begin?
There was Allah, and there was nothing before Him. And He then created the heavens and the earth while His Throne was on the water.
As I was sitting there, someone yelled out to me, "O Imran! Your camel has fled!" So I rushed out and ran after it in the desert. Neither did I get the camel, nor did I catch the hadith. How I wish now I had let the camel go and finished the hadith.
The people of Yemen have come to you; they have the best of souls and the softest of hearts. Faith is Yemeni and wisdom is also Yemeni.
O Allah, bless us in our Sham and in our Yemen.
How about Najd, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ?
From there will come the earthquakes, fitna, and tribulations.
Said pointing toward Najd, after the man asked three times and the Prophet ﷺ repeated "Sham and Yemen" each time.
I will be the one in charge of my Fountain on the Day of Judgment, and I will be the one to make sure people make space for the people of Yemen, and I shall be beating with my stick until space is made for them.