Sila ibn Ashyam’s Prayer and the Return of His Mule with Its Load

Early Sunni sources preserve an account of Sila ibn Ashyam, may Allah have mercy on him, during an expedition moving toward Kabul. While the army was traveling near enemy territory, the mule carrying Sila’s baggage strayed away. The troops were already continuing forward, so losing the animal and the supplies it carried left him in a difficult position while the expedition was still on the move.

Sila asked his companions to give him enough time to pray two light rak'ahs. They reminded him that the people had already moved ahead, but the report says that he stopped briefly for the prayer. After finishing, he turned to Allah and asked for the return of the animal and everything it carried. The early wording preserved by Ibn al-Mubarak records the supplication as: “O Allah, I adjure You to return my mule and its load to me.”

The account then gives the result without a long intervening scene. The mule returned and stood before Sila with its load. The narration does not describe a search party finding it, a guide bringing it back, or another traveler leading it to him. Its own sequence is direct: the mule is lost, Sila stops for two rak'ahs, he supplicates, and the animal returns with the baggage.

This event was preserved in al-Zuhd of Ibn al-Mubarak and was also transmitted later by Ibn Abi al-Dunya and al-Lalaka'i. These works keep the same central scene of the missing mule, Sila’s prayer, and its return. The longer narration connected with the same expedition contains other episodes as well, but the present story remains focused only on the lost animal and the baggage.

The memorable point of the account is therefore simple. In a difficult moment during travel near hostile territory, Sila ibn Ashyam chose to stop for a brief prayer and ask Allah directly for the return of what he had lost. The report closes by saying that the mule then came back and stood before him with the load it had been carrying.