Takhrij Hadith 1721: "We stopped with the Messenger…"

We stopped with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) at Marr al-Zahran. I came out of my tent and saw some women talking together, and they caught my attention. So I went back, opened my clothing chest, took out a fine garment, put it on, then came and sat with them. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out of his tent and said: O Abu Abdullah, what makes you sit with them? When I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I was awed by him and became flustered, so I said: O Messenger of Allah, a camel of mine has strayed, and I am looking for a tether for it. He went on, and I followed him. He handed me his cloak and entered among the Arak trees (desert trees). It is as though I can still see the whiteness of his back amid the green of the Arak trees. He relieved himself and performed Wudu (ablution), then came toward me with water running from his beard onto his chest—or he said: dripping from his beard onto his chest—and said: O Abu Abdullah, what happened with your straying camel? Then we resumed our journey, and whenever he caught up with me along the way, he would say: Peace be upon you, O Abu Abdullah. What happened with that straying camel? When I saw this, I hastened ahead to Madinah and began avoiding the mosque and sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). When this had gone on for some time, I waited for a time when the mosque was empty, then went to the mosque and stood in prayer. Suddenly, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out from one of his rooms and prayed two brief Rak‘ahs. I prolonged my prayer, hoping that he would leave and let me be, but he said: Take as long as you wish, O Abu Abdullah, for I will not leave until you finish. I said to myself: By Allah, I will certainly apologize to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and put his mind at ease concerning me. When I finished, he said: Peace be upon you, O Abu Abdullah. What happened with that straying camel? I said: By Him Who sent you with the truth, that camel has not strayed since I embraced Islam. He said: May Allah have mercy on you—three times—and after that he never again mentioned anything of what had happened.