أخبرني أبو الحسن بن زنجي اللغوي البصري في سنة ثلث وثلثين وأربعمأة عن أبي عبد الله النمري ، عن ابن دريد الأزدي ، وأخبرني أبو الحسين علي بن المظفر العلامة البندينجيني 1 بها ، عن أبي أحمد بن عبيد الله بن سعيد العسكري عن ابن دريد الأزدي ، عن أبي حاتم السجستاني ، عن الأصمعي ، عن أبي عمرو بن العلاء .

Abu al-Hasan b. Zanji the lexicographer of Basra informed me, in the year four hundred and thirty-three, from Abu 'Abd Allah al-Numayri, from Ibn Durayd al-Azdi; and Abu al-Husayn 'Ali b. al-Muzaffar al-'Allama al-Bandanijini [1] informed me there, from Abu Ahmad b. 'Ubayd Allah b. Sa'id al-'Askari, from Ibn Durayd al-Azdi, from Abu Hatim al-Sijistani, from al-Asma'i, from Abu 'Amr b. al-'Ala',

إنه قال : قال أبو ذويب الهذلي : بلغنا أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله عليل ، فأوجسنا ذلك خيفة وأشعرنا جزعا وغما ، فبت بليلة ثابتة النجوم طويلة الآناء ، لا ينجاب ديجورها ولا يطلع نورها ، فصرت أقاسي طولها ولا أفارق غولها ، حتى إذا كان دون المسفر وقرب السحر ، هتف هاتف ، فقال : خطب جليل فت في الإسلام * بين النخيل ومعقد الأصنام قبض النبي محمد ، فعيوننا * تذري الدموع عليه بالأسجام 2 قال أبو ذويب : فوثبت من نومي مزئورا ، فنظرت إلى السماء فلم أر إلا سعدا الذابح 3 فتفألت ، وقلت : ذبحا وقتلا يقع في العرب ، فعلمت أن النبي صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم قبض أو هو مقبوض في علته تلك ، فركبت ناقتي وسرت حتى إذا أصبحت طلبت شيئا أرجر عليه فعن لي شيهم 4 قد لزم على صل 5 وهو يتلوى والشيهم يقضمه حتى أكله فتفألت ذلك شيئاهما وقلت تلوي الصل إنفتال الناس عن الحق إلى القائم بعد رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله ، ثم تأولت قضم الشيهم قضمه الأمر

that he said: Abu Dhu'ayb al-Hudhali said: News reached us that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his Family, was ill, and we felt dread at it and were filled with distress and grief. I passed a night whose stars stood still and whose hours were long, its darkness not lifting and its light not breaking; and I set myself to endure its length, never parted from its terror, until, when daybreak was near and dawn drew close, a caller called out and said: — A grave affair has broken in upon Islam, between the palm groves and the place where the idols were set. — The Prophet Muhammad has been taken, and our eyes pour their tears upon him in streams. [2] — Abu Dhu'ayb said: I leapt up from my sleep in terror and looked at the sky, and saw nothing but Sa'd the Slaughterer [3]. So I took an augury from it and said: Slaughtering and killing will fall among the Arabs. And I knew that the Prophet, may God bless him and his Family, had been taken, or was being taken in that illness of his. So I mounted my she-camel and travelled; and when morning came I sought something from which to take an augury, and there appeared to me a porcupine [4] that had fastened upon a yellow snake [5]; and it was writhing while the porcupine gnawed at it until it devoured it. I took an augury from the two of them and said: The writhing of the snake is the turning away of the people from the truth to the one who rises up after the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his Family. Then I interpreted the porcupine's gnawing as his gnawing at the affair