English Translation

Asbat ibn Muhammad narrated to us: al-A'mash narrated to us, from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abdullah, from Sa'd, the freedman of Talhah, from Ibn 'Umar, who said: I heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, a hadith which, even if I had heard it only once or twice — and he counted up to seven times — but I heard it more than that: he said: "There was a man called al-Kifl among the Children of Israel who did not refrain from any sin he wished to commit. A woman came to him, and he gave her sixty dinars on condition that he have intercourse with her. When he sat down with her as a man sits with his wife, she trembled and wept. He said: 'What makes you weep? Have I forced you?' She said: 'No, but this is a deed I have never done before; it is only need that has driven me to it.' He said: 'Would you do this, when you have never done it before?' He said: Then he got up and said: 'Go, the dinars are yours.' Then he said: 'By Allah, al-Kifl shall never disobey Allah again after this.' Then he died that very night, and in the morning it was found written on his door: 'Allah, Mighty and Sublime, has forgiven al-Kifl.'"