English Translation

Ya'qub narrated to us: my father narrated to me from Ibn Ishaq: Salih ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf narrated to me from Mahmud ibn Labid, brother of the Banu Abd al-Ashhal, from Salamah ibn Salamah ibn Waqsh - who was one of the men of Badr - who said: We had a Jewish neighbor among the Banu Abd al-Ashhal. One day he came out from his house, shortly before the Prophet's, peace and blessings be upon him, mission, and stood at the gathering place of Abd al-Ashhal. Salamah said: I was at that time the youngest in age among those present, wearing a cloak, lying in the courtyard of my family. He mentioned the resurrection, the standing before God, the reckoning, the scale, Paradise, and the Fire, to a people who were polytheists, worshippers of idols, who did not believe that any resurrection would occur after death. They said to him: Woe to you, so-and-so, do you think this will really happen - that people will be resurrected after death to an abode containing Paradise and Fire, in which they will be recompensed for their deeds? He said: Yes, by the One by whom oaths are sworn - he would wish that in place of his share of that Fire there were the largest oven in the world, heated up, and that he be placed into it and it be shut upon him, rather than that he escape that Fire tomorrow. They said to him: Woe to you, and what is the sign of that? He said: A prophet will be raised from around these lands - and he pointed with his hand towards Mecca and Yemen. They said: And when do you think this will be? He said, looking at me, as I was the youngest of them in age: If this boy lives out his life, he will meet him. Salamah said: By God, night and day had not passed before God, Exalted, sent His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, while he [the Jew] was still alive among us. We believed in him, but he disbelieved in him out of insolence and envy. We said to him: Woe to you, so-and-so, are you not the one who said to us what you said about him? He said: Yes indeed, but it is not him.