Mishkat al-Masabih 5942

`Asim b. Kulaib quoted his father's authority for the following statement by one of the Ansar:

We went out with God's messenger to a funeral, and I saw him at the grave giving this instruction to the grave-digger, "Make it wide where the feet go and wide where the head goes." When he came back, he was met by one who conveyed an invitation from the widow, and he accepted it and we went along with him. Food was brought, and when he put in his hand the people did the same, and they ate. We noticed that God's messenger was moving a morsel round in his mouth. He then said, "I find the flesh of a sheep which has been taken without its owners' permission." The woman sent a message to say, "Messenger of God, I sent to an-Naqi (a place where sheep were sold) to have a sheep bought for me, but there were none, so I sent to a neighbour of mine who had bought a sheep asking him to send it to me for the price he had paid, but he could not be found. I therefore sent to his wife and she sent it to me." God's messenger then said, "Give this food to the prisoners." Abu Dawud and Baihaqi, in Dala'il an-nubuwa, transmitted it.