Al-ʿAla ibn al-Hadrami: The Reported Crossing of the Water

Al-ʿAla ibn al-Hadrami رضي الله عنه was among the Companions entrusted with responsibilities connected to Bahrain. Classical works later preserved an extraordinary report from journeys and campaigns associated with him there. In the detailed account recorded by al-Lalaka’i, the company first passes through a harsh stretch of land and then reaches a body of water that stands between them and their onward route. No boats are available. Faced with an obstacle that appears to stop the whole force, al-ʿAla does not present himself as possessing an independent power. He turns to Allah in prayer and supplication.

The report says that he performs two rakʿahs and asks Allah to enable the crossing. He then takes hold of his mount and tells the men to go forward in the name of Allah. The narrative reaches its central moment as the company enters the water and crosses. In al-Lalaka’i’s fuller wording, the men are described as walking over the water without their feet becoming wet and without the hooves of the camels or other animals becoming wet. After reaching the other side, al-ʿAla asks whether anything has been lost, and the report says that nothing is missing.

A shorter route preserved by Abu Nuʿaym from Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه gives the same essential scene with less detail. It says that when they reached the seashore, al-ʿAla told his companions to mention Allah’s name and enter. They crossed, and the water did not wet the lower parts of their camels’ hooves. Al-Tabarani also preserves this Abu Hurayrah route. These parallel reports keep the central memory consistent: an apparently impassable stretch of water, reliance upon Allah, an order to advance in His name, and an extraordinary crossing.

The chains, however, require caution. The detailed al-Lalaka’i route includes ʿAdi ibn al-Fadl, whom major hadith critics judged very weak or abandoned. Al-Haythami likewise noted an unknown narrator in the parallel al-Tabarani route, although he described the remaining narrators as trustworthy. For that reason, the event should not be announced as an unqualified sahih report. It is better presented as a well-known classical account of a Companion’s karamah whose meaning is spiritually striking while its isnad limitations remain openly acknowledged.