Jabir bin `Abdullah (May Allah be pleased with them) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) sent us in an expedition under the command of Abu `Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) to intercept a caravan of the Quraish. He provided us with a bag of dates, apart from which he found nothing for us. Abu `Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) gave each of us one date (every day). He (the narrator) was asked: "What did you do with that?" He said: We sucked that just like a baby and then drank water over that, and it was sufficient for us for the day until night. We beat off leaves with the help of our sticks, then drenched them with water and ate them. We then went to the seaside, when there appeared before us something like a big mound. We came near it and we found that it was a beast called Al-Anbar. Abu Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) said: "It is dead (so it useless for us)." He then said: "No (but it does not matter), we have been sent by Messenger of Allah (PBUH) in the way of Allah and you are hard-pressed (on account of the scarcity of food), so you can eat that." We, three hundred in number, stayed there for a month until we fattened up (having plenty to eat of that fish). He (Jabir) said: I saw how we extracted pitcher after pitcher full of fat from the cavity of its eye, and sliced from it compact piece of meat equal to a bull or almost like a bull. Abu Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) called thirteen men from us and he made them sit in the cavity of its eye, and he held one of its ribs and raised it erect and then saddled the biggest of the camels we had with us and it passed through it (the arched rib), and we carried large pieces of meat for use in our journey. When we came back to Al-Madinah we went to Messenger of Allah (PBUH) and told him about that, whereupon he said, "That was a sustenance Allah had brought forth for you. Do you have any piece of meat left with you, for us to eat." Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) said: We sent to Messenger of Allah (PBUH) some of that (meat) and he ate it.[Muslim].
Commentary:
This Hadith also points to the economic pinch from which the Companions suffered in the early phase of Islam. They braved it patiently. Secondly, The blessing came to them in the sense that each one of them was patient enough to live on a single date-fruit and water in twenty-four hours. Thirdly, it emphasizes that according to the circumstances, there is always room for Ijtihad (independent juristic reasoning). First Abu 'Ubaidah (May Allah be pleased with him) hesitated, but later he established a different opinion on the basis of his Ijtihad and decided to use the body of the giant fish as food. Fourthly, it provides us a proof of the sacrifice of the Companions that Allah miraculously granted them such a huge sea-fish that a group of three hundred people kept eating for one month. Fifthly, it tells us that a sea-carrion is a lawful food as indicated in another Hadith: "The water of the sea and its carrion are both Halal." Sixthly, this particular fish, like the whale, is a gigantic phenomenon which is normally about 50 feet long.
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