English translation
3840. It was narrated that Jābir said: “The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ dispatched us to intercept a caravan of Quraish, and he appointed Abū Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrāh in charge of us. He provided us with a bag of dates, and we had nothing else apart from that. Abū Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrāh would give us one date at a time, and we would suck them like a baby sucks, then we would follow that with a drink of water, and that would suffice us all day until night came. And we would knock leaves from the trees with our sticks, and soak them in water and eat them. We set out along the coast, and something like a great mound appeared before us. We came to it and saw that it was a beast called Al-'Anbarah (sperm whale). Abū 'Ubaidah said: 'It is dead meat and is not permissible for us.' Then he said: 'No, we are the envoys of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and in the cause of Allāh, and we are compelled by necessity, so eat it.' We lived on it for a month, three hundred men, until we grew fat. When we came to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ we told him about that, and he said: 'It was provision that Allāh brought forth for you. Do you have any of its meat with you that you can give to us?' We sent some of it to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, and he ate it." (Ṣaḥīḥ)