English Translation

Aswad ibn 'Amir and 'Affan told us, they said: Jarir ibn Hazim told us, he said: I heard al-Hasan narrate from 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to me: "O 'Abd al-Rahman, do not seek leadership, for if you are given it upon asking for it, you will be entrusted to it alone; but if you are given it without asking, you will be helped in it. And if you swear an oath and then see something better than it, make expiation for your oath and do the thing that is better." My father said: 'Affan and Aswad agreed in their narration in saying "make expiation for your oath, then do the thing that is better." And Abu al-Ashhab said, from al-Hasan, in this hadith, that he began with the expiation. Husayn told us, al-Mubarak told us, from al-Hasan, 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura al-Qurashi told us -- while we were at Kabul -- he said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to me: "O 'Abd al-Rahman, do not seek leadership" -- and he mentioned the hadith.