English Translation

Abu Bakr al-Hanafi told us: Abd al-Hamid b. Ja'far told us, from Salih b. Abi Uraib, from Kathir b. Murrah al-Hadrami, from Awf b. Malik al-Ashja'i, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to us with his staff, and in the mosque there were hanging clusters of dates, among them a cluster containing shriveled, poor dates. He prodded the cluster with the staff in his hand and said, "If the owner of this charity had wished, he could have given better than this in charity; indeed the owner of this charity will eat shriveled dates on the Day of Resurrection." Then he turned to us and said, "By Allah, O people of Madinah, you will leave it for forty years to the wild scavengers." I said, "Allah knows best." He said, meaning the birds and beasts of prey. He said: We used to say that this is what the non-Arabs call "cranes."