Hadith 6034

When Abu Bakr was mentioned in `Umar's presence he wept and said, "I wish all my good deeds could compare with what he did on a certain day and a certain night. The night was the one on which he went with God's messenger to the cave and said when they reached it, `I swear by God that you will not enter it before I have first done so, for if there is anything in it I shall be smitten by it and not you.' He then entered and swept it and found some holes in the side of it, so he tore up his lower-garment and stopped them with it; but as two were still left he thrust his feet into them[*] and told God's messenger to enter. When he had done so the Prophet laid his head on his lap and went to sleep. Abu Bakr's foot in one of the holes received a sting, but he did not move for fear God's messenger might awake. His tears, however, fell on God's messenger's face, and he asked him what was the matter with him. He replied, `O you for whom I would give my father and mother as ransom, I have been stung.' God's messenger then spat and the pain left him, but the effect of the poison later returned and was the cause of his death. The day was when God's messenger died and the Arabs apostatised and refused to pay zakat. He said, `If they were to refuse me a tether, I would strive with them over it.' I said, `Successor of God's messenger, be affable and gentle to the people,' but he replied, `Have you who were a powerful man in the pre-Islamic period become weak in the Islamic period? The revelation has ceased and the religion has been perfected. Is it to diminish while I am alive?'" *Literally gave his feet as mouthfuls. Razin transmitted it.