Fabricated: Young man, saw a woman bathing, ran away from hell-fire.

Classification: Fabricated. (Refer to Mawdu'at Ibn Al-Jawzi)

A young man from Ansar, whose name was Tha’labah bin ‘Abdur-Rahman accepted Islam and he used to run errands for the Messenger of Allah . One day Rasulullah sent him for some work and while walking through the city of Madinah, he passed by the door of a house of an Ansari and his gaze fell on a woman taking a bath. He immediately lowered his gaze and thought Allah will reveal on the Prophet of what I have done. With an extreme feeling of guilt and hypocrisy in his mind, he ran out of the city, thinking to himself, how could I be of the companions, one that is close to the Prophet , one who runs his errands and be so horrible as to disrespect peoples privacy? He feared that Allah would reveal to the Prophet evidence of his hypocrisy. His guilt denied him to ever show his face to the Prophet . So he ran away to the mountains between Makkah and Madinah. Days went by and the Prophet kept asking the other companions if they had seen Tha’labah. No one had seen him. After 40 days, Jibreel (AS) came to the Prophet and said, your Lord (Allah) SubHanahu wa Ta’ala says Salam to you and says one of your companion is in the mountains between Makkah and Madinah.Rasulullah sent ‘Umar Ibn Al Khattab and Salman Al Farsi RadhiyAllahu ‘Anhuma to look for him. They looked everywhere until they came about a set of mountains between Makkah and Madinah where some nomads where herding sheep. The companions asked the nomads if they had seen a young man with Tha’laba’s characteristics. They told the companions, you must be asking about the one running away from Fire. They said we don’t who is that weeping boy. The shepherds described the boy to him and said, he comes down from the mountains at night weeping and crying and we give him milk to drink. Then he goes back up the mountains weeping, crying, always asking for Allah for forgiveness, and saying words of repentance. So the companions waited until he came down and watched him. He had lost his weight and become very frail. His countenance reflected sorrow as he drank the milk that was mixed with his tears. The companions insisted that they take him back to the Prophet but he refused and asked them if Allah had revealed verses saying he was a hypocrite. (Imagine the Taqwa this boy has. Just a mistaken gaze and he fears Allah will reveal about him in Qur’an). They told him that they had no knowledge of any such verses. He was taken back to Madinah and he was so frightened that he told the companions not to take him to Rasulullah unless he is in Prayer. So when he heard the recitations of Rasulullah in prayer, he came and joined with him. When the Prophet completed the prayer, he asked ‘Umar and Salman RadhiyAllahu ‘Anhuma about Tha’labah RadhiyAllahu ‘Anh. When he was brought before the Prophet , he asked him, why were you absent from me? He said, I was absent because of my sins. Rasulullah said, shall I not tell you about an Ayah that wipes out all the sins and mistakes? He said yes, O Rasulullah . Rasulullah asked him to recite: ربنا آتنا في الدنيا حسنة في الآخرة حسنة وقنا عذاب النار (البقرة 201)ـHe said my sin is very big, O Rasulullah . Rasulullah said, the words of Allah are the greatest. Then Rasulullah sent him to his home and he fell ill for a week. Salman Al-Farsi RadhiyAllah ‘Anh came to the Prophet and said Tha’labah is on verge of death. Rasulullah stood up and went to his house to meet him. He laid out Tha’labah’s tired and weak body and placed Tha’labah’s head on his lap. He said, O Prophet of Allah , remove the head of a sinner away from you. The Prophet comforted him until he told the Prophet , I feel as though ants are walking between my flesh and bones. The Prophet told him it was a sign of death and his time had come. He asked what do you like to have? He said, forgiveness of my Lord. Allah SubHanahu wa Ta’ala sent Jibreel (AS) to the Prophet and he said, your Lord says Salam to you and He (SubHanahu wa Ta’ala) says, if this servant of Mine meets Me with the whole earth full of sins, I will meet him with the whole earth full of Forgiveness. (When he died,) the Prophet asked them to wash him and shroud him. When he prayed his funeral prayer, the Prophet walked on his toes to bury him as though he were in a crowd. When he was asked about this, the Prophet said he could not find any place on earth to place his feet due to the crowd of angels that was following his bier.