Musnad Ahmad 552:4

Yunus ibn Muhammad narrated to us, Yahya ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Asri narrated to us, he said: Shihab ibn Abbad narrated to us, that he heard some of the delegation of Abd al-Qays saying: We arrived at the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and their joy for us was intense. When we reached the people, they made space for us, and we sat down. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, welcomed us and prayed for us. Then he looked at us and said: "Who is your master and leader?" We all pointed to al-Mundhir ibn A'idh. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Is this al-Ashaj (the scarred one)?" It was the first day he was given this name due to a blow to his face from the hoof of a donkey. We said: "Yes, O Messenger of Allah." He (al-Ashaj) stayed behind the people, tied their mounts, and gathered their luggage. Then he took out his bag, cast off his travel clothes, and put on his best garments. Then he approached the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while the Prophet had stretched out his leg and was reclining. When al-Ashaj drew near him, the people made space for him and said: "Here, O Ashaj." The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sat up straight, pulled in his leg, and said: "Here, O Ashaj." So he sat to the right of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and sat up straight. He welcomed him and treated him kindly. Then he asked about their lands and named for him village by village: al-Safa, al-Mushaqqar, and others from the villages of Hajar. He said: "By my father and mother, O Messenger of Allah, you are more knowledgeable of the names of our villages than we are." He said: "I have trodden your lands, and it was made spacious for me therein." He said: Then he turned to the Ansar and said: "O company of the Ansar, honor your brothers, for they are your peers in Islam, and the most similar of people to you in hair and skin. They accepted Islam willingly, not forced, and not having suffered losses, whereas other people refused to accept Islam until they were killed." When morning came, he said: "How did you find the honor of your brothers toward you and their hospitality?" They said: "The best of brothers. They softened our bedding, made our food pleasant, and spent the night and morning teaching us the Book of our Lord and the Sunnah of our Prophet." The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was pleased and rejoiced at that. Then he turned to us, man by man, testing us on what we had learned and what we had taught. Among us were those who had learned the *Tahiyyat*, the Mother of the Book (al-Fatiha), a Surah, two Surahs, a Sunnah, and two Sunnahs. Then he turned his face toward us and said: "Do you have any of your provisions with you?" The people rejoiced at that and rushed to their baggage. Each man came with a heap of dates and placed it on a leather mat before him. He gestured with a small palm branch he had in his hand, which he used to lean on—it was between a cubit and two cubits long—and said: "Do you call this *Ta'dud*?" We said: "Yes." Then he gestured to another heap and said: "Do you call this *Sarfan*?" We said: "Yes." Then he gestured to a heap and said: "Do you call this *Barniy*?" We said: "Yes." He said: "As for it, it is the best of your dates and the most beneficial for you." He said: We returned from that delegation of ours, and we increased the planting of it, and our desire for it grew until the majority of our palm trees and dates became *Barniy*. He said: Al-Ashaj said: "O Messenger of Allah, our land is a heavy, unhealthy land, and if we do not drink these drinks, our complexions become agitated and our bellies grow large." The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Do not drink from the *Dubba* (gourd), the *Hantam* (earthenware jar), or the *Naqir* (hollowed-out log), but let one of you drink from his waterskin that is tied at its mouth." Al-Ashaj said to him: "By my father and mother, O Messenger of Allah, grant us a concession regarding these." He gestured with his palms and said: "O Ashaj, if I granted you a concession in such as this"—and he gestured with his palms like this—"you would drink it in such as this"—and he spread his hands and opened them, meaning larger than that—"until when one of you becomes intoxicated from his drink, he would stand up to his cousin and strike his leg with a sword." There was a man in the delegation from Banu Asr called al-Harith, whose leg had been struck in a drinking session of theirs in a house, because of a verse of poetry he recited about a woman among them, so some of the people of that house stood up and struck his leg with a sword. He said: Al-Harith said: "When I heard it from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, I began to let my garment down to cover the wound on my leg, and Allah had revealed it to His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace."