English Translation

Abdur-Rahman b. Mahdi told us, Abdullah b. Abdur-Rahman al-Ta'ifi told us from Uthman b. Abdullah b. Aws al-Thaqafi from his grandfather Aws b. Hudhayfa, who said: I was among the delegation that came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him - [members] of Thaqif who had accepted Islam, from Banu Malik. He lodged us in a tent of his, and he used to go back and forth between his houses and the mosque. When he had prayed the last night prayer, he would come back to us and would not stop talking with us, complaining about Quraysh and complaining about the people of Mecca, then he would say: "It is not the same - we were in Mecca, humiliated and oppressed." Then when we went out to Medina, the fortunes of war were sometimes against us and sometimes for us. One night he stayed away from us and did not come to us, until that became prolonged for us after the 'Isha' prayer. We said: "What kept you from us, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "A portion of the Qur'an fell due upon me, and I wanted not to go out until I had finished it." So when morning came we asked the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. We said: "How do you divide the Qur'an into portions?" They said: "We divide it into six surahs, and five surahs, and seven surahs, and nine surahs, and eleven surahs, and thirteen surahs, and the portion of al-Mufassal, from [Surah] Qaf until the end."