The water of Wadi al-Mushaqqaq

On the road lay a water seeping from a cleft in a valley called Wadi al-Mushaqqaq, enough to water a rider or two. The Prophet forbade anyone to reach it before him; some of "the hypocrites" outstripped him to it and drew what was in it — so the Prophet cursed them and prayed against them, then set his hand under the cleft and the water burst forth and the people drank. ¹

On the road lay a water seeping from a cleft that could water a rider or two, in a valley called Wadi al-Mushaqqaq. The Prophet said: whoever reaches that valley before us, let him not draw a thing from it until we come. ¹

Some of the hypocrites outstripped him to it and drew what was in it; when the Prophet came he stood over it and saw nothing in it. He said: who reached this water before us? It was said: so-and-so and so-and-so. He said: did I not forbid them to draw a thing from it until I came? — then cursed them and prayed against them. ¹

Then he alighted and set his hand under the cleft, and it poured into his hand what God willed it pour; he sprinkled it, wiped it with his hand and prayed what God willed — and the water burst out, as one who heard it says, with a sound like the crash of thunderbolts, and the people drank and drew what they needed. ¹

The Prophet said: if you live — or whoever of you lives — you will hear of this valley when it is the most fertile of all before it and behind it. ¹

• Ibn Ishaq says "as one who heard it says" for the sound of the water's bursting — a quotation from an unnamed hearer (p. 171).
• Calling those who outstripped him hypocrites, and cursing them, is the narrator's phrasing; the text does not name them.