English Translation

Isma'il told us, Ayyub informed us from Muhammad from Amr ibn Wahb al-Thaqafi who said: We were with al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah, and he was asked whether anyone from this nation had led the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in prayer besides Abu Bakr, may Allah, the Exalted, be pleased with him. He said, "Yes. We were with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, on a journey, and when it was the time before dawn, he turned his riding beast's neck aside. I thought he had some need, so I turned aside with him. We went on until we were out of sight of the people. He dismounted from his riding beast, then went on and disappeared from me until I could not see him. He stayed a long while, then came and said, 'Do you have a need, Mughirah?' I said, 'I have no need.' He said, 'Do you have water with you?' I said, 'Yes.' So I got up to a waterskin - or a small skin - hanging at the rear of the saddle, and brought him water, and I poured it for him. He washed his hands and washed them well" - he said, and I am not sure whether he said he rubbed them with dust or not - "then he washed his face, then went to bare his arms, and he was wearing a Syrian cloak with tight sleeves, and it was too tight, so he pulled his hands out from underneath it, and washed his face and hands." He said, It occurs in the narration that the washing of the face was done twice - he said, I do not know whether it was so or not - "then he wiped over his forelock, and wiped over the turban, and wiped over the socks. Then we rode on and caught up with the people, and the prayer had already been established, and Abdul Rahman ibn Awf had gone ahead of them and had already led them in one rak'ah while they were in the second. I went to inform him, but he forbade me, so we prayed the rak'ah we had caught, and made up the rak'ah we had missed."