7 — Chapter on the Virtue of Returning from a Raid

2487 — Muhammad ibn al-Muṣaffā narrated to us, ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, Ḥaywah narrated to us, from Ibn Shufayy, from Shufayy ibn Mātiʿ, from ʿAbd Allāh — who is Ibn ʿAmr — from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: "A return is like a raid."

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= for himself, by parting from familiar things, permissible pleasures, and delights, and abandoning the Friday and congregational prayers, and the pursuit of knowledge and the like. So he was rebuked for that, just as ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn was rebuked for celibacy.

(1) A sound ḥadīth. This chain is good on account of Muḥammad ibn al-Muṣaffā — who is the Ḥimṣī — but he has a corroborator. Ibn Shufayy: his name is Ḥusayn, and Ḥaywah: he is Ibn Shurayḥ.

It was also recorded by Aḥmad (6625), Ibn al-Jārūd (1039), al-Ḥākim 2/73, Abū Nuʿaym in "al-Ḥilyah" 5/169, al-Bayhaqī in "al-Sunan al-Kubrā" 9/28, and in "Shuʿab al-Īmān" (4275), and al-Baghawī in "Sharḥ al-Sunnah" (2671), through various routes from al-Layth ibn Saʿd, with this chain. In the printed edition of al-Ḥākim, "from his father" was omitted from the chain.

Al-Khaṭṭābī said in "Maʿālim al-Sunan" regarding his saying "A return is like a raid": This admits of two interpretations. One of them: that he meant by it the return from the raid and the homecoming to one's homeland. He says: the reward of the mujāhid in his turning back to his family is like his reward in his going forth to jihad, because the outfitting of the warrior harms his family, and in his returning to them there is the removal of harm from them, rest for the soul, and preparation with strength for the return [to battle].

The other interpretation: that he meant by it the counter-raid, which is his returning a second time on the path from which he had come back, even if he did not encounter an enemy or witness fighting. An army may do this when they depart from their expedition, for one of two reasons. One of them: that when the enemy sees that they have departed from their territory, they feel secure from them and come out of their positions; so when the army returns to the enemy's land, they seize the opportunity against them and raid them.

The other reason: that when they depart from their expedition victorious, they do not feel secure that the enemy will not follow their tracks and strike them while they are departing. So perhaps the army, or some of them, may resort to retracing their steps along the road. If the enemy pursues them, they are prepared to meet them; and if not, then they have come away safe and have secured the spoils that are with them.