The Three Who Were Left Behind

Significance

Kaʿb ibn Mālik, Marāra ibn al-Rabīʿ, and Hilāl ibn Umayya ﭺ — among the best of the Anṣār — stayed behind without excuse. When the Prophet ﷺ returned he ordered the Muslims to shun them; for fifty nights no one spoke to them, until the earth pressed on them despite its vastness. Then Allah revealed: {And upon the three who were left behind, until when the earth had closed in on them despite its expanse, and their own souls had closed in on them, and they knew there was no refuge from Allah except in Him — then He turned to them so that they might repent} [al-Tawba: 118]. Kaʿb's narration in al-Bukhārī is among the longest ḥadīths in the Ṣaḥīḥ.