English Translation

He said: Affan told us from his book, he said: Sulayman - meaning Ibn al-Mughira - told us, he said: Thabit narrated to us from Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla, from Suhayb, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, when he prayed, would murmur something we could not understand, and he did not tell us what it was. He said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, "Did you notice me?" Someone said, "Yes." He said, "I recalled a prophet among the prophets who was given troops from his people, and he said, 'Who can match these?' or 'Who can withstand these?' or a phrase similar to that" - Sulayman was uncertain - he said: "So Allah revealed to him: Choose for your people one of three things - either I let loose upon them an enemy from other than themselves, or famine, or death." He said: So he consulted his people about that, and they said, "You are the Prophet of Allah; we entrust that to you, so choose for us." He said: So he rose to his prayer - he said: and they used to resort to prayer whenever they were alarmed - he said: So he prayed, then said, "As for an enemy from other than themselves - no; and famine - no; but death." He said: So death was let loose upon them for three days, and seventy thousand of them died. So my murmuring which you observe is that I say: 'O Allah, my Lord, by You I fight and by You I assail, and there is no power and no strength except by Allah.'" Affan told us, he said: Hammad ibn Salama narrated this hadith to us in exactly the same way, with all this wording and with this same chain, except that he did not say in it, "they used to resort to prayer whenever they were alarmed."