This entry examines the Sahih Muslim narration in which the Prophet foretold the conquest of Egypt by name, commanded kindness to its people on grounds of kinship, and added a curiously specific instruction about two men disputing over the space of a brick. Both the conquest of 639–642 CE and the narrator's own reported eyewitness moment are considered.
The source text
“You would soon conquer Egypt and that is a land which is known (as the land of al-qirat). So when you conquer it, treat its inhabitants well. For there lies upon you the responsibility because of blood-tie or relationship of marriage (with them). And when you see two persons falling into dispute amongst themselves for the space of a brick, then get out of that. He (Abu Dharr) said: I saw Abd al-Rahman b. Shurahbil b. Hasana and his brother Rabi'a disputing with one another for the space of a brick. So I left that (land).”
Sahih Muslim 2543b · Grading: sahih (Bukhari-Muslim by definition)
“You would soon conquer a land where people are in the habit of using foul language. They have a right of kinship upon you. And when you see two persons fighting for the space of a brick, then get out of that. He (Abu Dharr) then happened to pass by Rabi'a and 'Abd al-Rahman, the two sons of Shurahbil b. Hasana, and they had been disputing for the space of a brick. So he left the land.”
Sahih Muslim 2543a · Grading: sahih (Bukhari-Muslim by definition)
What was understood in the seventh century
When this was said, Egypt was a rich, garrisoned province of the Byzantine Empire, and the Muslims were a small polity in the Hijaz with no navy and no presence in Africa. The narration (Muslim 2543b) from Abu Dharr names Egypt explicitly, predicts its conquest as near — "you would soon conquer Egypt" — and legislates conduct in advance: "when you conquer it, treat its inhabitants well," because of a tie of blood and marriage.
Commentators ground that kinship in two Egyptian women: Hajar (Hagar), mother of Ishmael and thus ancestress of the Arabs, and Maria the Copt, mother of Ibrahim, the son of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The hadith thus does something unusual for a conquest prediction — it binds the predicted conquerors, before the fact, to gentleness toward the conquered. It also closes with a personal instruction to the listener: when two named men are seen disputing over the space of a brick, Abu Dharr is to leave the country.
The fulfillment record
The conquest followed within years. 'Amr ibn al-'As invaded Egypt in 639 CE, only seven years after the Prophet's death; the fortress of Babylon fell in 641, and Alexandria passed to the Muslims by treaty in 642. The settlement left the Coptic Church in place — the exiled Coptic patriarch Benjamin I was restored to his see — an arrangement that Coptic and Islamic sources alike present as comparatively lenient treatment, as the histories in the references below discuss.
The narration also carries its own micro-fulfillment, reported in the first person. Abu Dharr states that he later saw the two named men — Rabi'a and 'Abd al-Rahman, sons of Shurahbil ibn Hasana — disputing in Egypt over the space of a brick, and left the country as he had been instructed. Abu Dharr died in 652 CE, within a decade of the conquest, which places the reported fulfillment inside a narrow and datable window between the conquest and his own death.
Considerations and counterpoints
Critics point out that Sahih Muslim was compiled in the ninth century, well after the conquest, so the report as we have it postdates the events it foretells, and shaping after the fact (ex eventu) cannot be excluded on documentary grounds; the kinship rationale and the brick anecdote could be embellishments serving Egyptian local pride under Muslim rule. Defenders respond that the report is transmitted through Abu Dharr, who died in 652 — too early to serve later provincial agendas — and that fabricating a command of kindness toward a conquered population, complete with an instruction to leave the country, is an odd choice for triumphalist invention. The narration's restraint is, on this argument, its own mark of authenticity.
Credibility rating: Tier 1 · Strong — Sahih Muslim text naming Egypt explicitly, with a dated fulfillment (639-642 CE) and an internal eyewitness fulfillment by the narrator himself.