English Translation

Muhammad ibn Ja'far told us, Shu'bah told us, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, who said: I was in Madinah when news reached me that the plague was in Kufah. He said: Ata' ibn Yasar and others among the people of Madinah related this hadith to me. He said: I said: Who relates it? They said: Amir ibn Sa'd - and he was absent. He said: So I met Ibrahim ibn Sa'd and asked him about that, and he said: I heard Usamah relate to Sa'd that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: This disease is a plague and a punishment - or a remnant of punishment, Habib was uncertain about it - by which a people before you were punished. So if it is in a land and you are in it, do not leave it, and if you hear of it in a land, do not enter it. He said: I said to him: Did you yourself hear Usamah relate it to Sa'd and he did not deny it? He said: Yes.