English Translation

Isma'il ibn Ibrahim told us, saying: al-Jurayri told us, from Abdullah ibn Shaqiq, from Ibn Hawalah, who said: I came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, while he was sitting in the shade of a dome-tent, with a scribe of his before him writing at his dictation. He said: "Shall I not enroll you, O Ibn Hawalah?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me" — and Isma'il said once: "in the first (account): 'Shall we enroll you, O Ibn Hawalah?' I said: 'I do not know in what, O Messenger of Allah.'" So he turned away from me and bent over his scribe, dictating to him. Then he said: "Shall I enroll you, O Ibn Hawalah?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me." So he turned away from me and bent over his scribe, dictating to him. He said: I looked, and there in the writing was (the name) Umar. I said: "Indeed Umar is not written except in something good." Then he said: "Shall I enroll you, O Ibn Hawalah?" I said: "Yes." He said: "O Ibn Hawalah, how will you act when a trial breaks out at the ends of the earth resembling the horns of cattle?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me." He said: "And how will you act in another (trial) that comes out after it, such that the first, compared to it, seems like the leap of a startled rabbit?" I said: "I do not know what Allah and His Messenger have chosen for me." He said: "Follow this one" — and there was a man walking away with his back turned at that moment. He said: So I hurried and took hold of his shoulders and turned his face toward the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and said: "This one?" He said: "Yes." He said: And behold, it was Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him.