to Abu Rafi'. Accordingly 'Abdu'llah ibn 'Utaik entered his house against him by night when he was asleep, and slew him. Therefore 'Abdu'llah ibn 'Utaik said: 'And I placed my sword in his belly until it reached his back, and I knew that I had killed him. Then I began to open the doors, until I reached a staircase. Then I put down my foot, and I fell in the moonlit ¹ night, and my leg was broken. I bound it up with a bandage and set out for my companions, and I came to the Prophet and I told him. Then he, said, 'Stretch out thy foot.' I stretched out my foot; he rubbed it, and it became as if I had never broken it. '" We ² shall see further on in the next chapter what light this incident throws on Muhammad's character. Here we note that the tale of the killing of Abu Rafi' is related also by Ibn Hisham,³ Ibn Ahtir,⁴ and by the Author of the Rauzatu's Safa. ⁵ The tales differ considerably, some saying that the murderer's leg was broken, some his arm, and some that he had only sprained his wrist. Some forms of the story say nothing whatever about Muhammad's having cured the injury, and hence they do not recognize that anything miraculous occurred. All, however, admit that the killing of the sleeping man was performed at Muhammad's instigation. Under these circumstances, had Muhammad wrought a miracle, we should have been confronted with an immense moral difficulty, if we tried to prove that it was Divine aid that enabled a miracle to be wrought for the benefit of a murderer like 'Abdu'llah ibn 'Utaik.

(2) Many different and contradictory accounts are given of how Muhammad supplied water to his followers when thirsty. Of these a considerable number appear

in the Mishkat. As a specimen of these we may quote the following Tradition, which is given ¹ upon Jabir's authority: "The men were thirsty upon the day of Al Hudaibiyyah, and the Apostle of God had in his hands a small skin water-bottle, from which he was performing religious ablutions. Then the men approached him. They said, 'We have no water to perform ablutions with and to drink, except what is in thy water-bottle.' Accordingly the Prophet dipped his hand into the water-bottle, and the water began to bubble out from between his fingers like fountains. We drank therefore, and performed out ablutions." It was said to Jabir, "How many were you?" He said, "If we had been 100,000, it would surely have been enough for us. We were 1,500." Other accounts say the number was 1,400; others say between 1,400 and 1,500; others 1,300; or 1,600; or 1,700. Ibn 'Abbas says 1,525. Another very different version of the story is given by Bukhari on the authority of Al Bara ibn 'Azib. He said: "We were, with the Apostle of God, fourteen hundred on the day of Al Hudaibiyyah; and Al Hudaibiyyah is a well. We had exhausted it, and had not left in it a drop. The Prophet arrived and came to it. He sat down upon its edge. Then he asked for a vessel of water. He performed his religious ablutions. Then he rinsed his mouth and prayed. Then he poured it" (i.e. what was left of the water) "into it" (i.e. into the well). "Then he said, 'Leave it alone for a time.' Accordingly they drew water for themselves and for their steeds until they 2 marched away." Now the honoured reader will perceive that it is not a miracle for water to collect in a well when it has been left alone for a time; and this is a very different matter from causing water enough to satisfy the needs of 100,000 men to flow from between a man's fingers.³