I was sitting with Uthman when an elderly man came in. When the people saw him, they said, "It's Abu Dharr."When Uthman saw him, he said, "Welcome and greetings to my brother."Abu Dharr replied, "Welcome and greetings, my brother. You have pressed us hard with your insistence, and by Allah, had you insisted that I tell you everything I know, I would not have been able to. One night I went out with the Prophet ﷺ heading toward the people of so-and-so. When he arrived, he kept raising his gaze and lowering it, then he said to me, 'Woe to you after I am gone.'I wept and said, 'Messenger of Allah, will I remain alive after you?'He said, 'Yes. When you see the buildings reach Sal, then join the Arabs in the land of Qudaah, for a day will come when a span of two bow-lengths, or a spear's length, or two spears' worth, will be better than such-and-such.'"Uthman said, "I wanted to place you among your companions, and I feared for you the ignorance of the people."
كنت جالسا عند عثمان إذ أتاه شيخ، فلما رآه القوم قالوا: أبو ذر، فلما رآه قال: مرحبا و أهلا بأخي، فقال أبو ذر: مرحبا وأهلا يا أخي، لقد أغلظت علينا في العزيمة، وأيم الله لو عزمت علي أخبره الخبور ما استطعت، أني خرجت مع النبي ﷺ ذات ليلة متوجها نحو بني فلان فلما جاء جعل يصعد بصره ويصوبه ثم قال لي: ويحك بعدي فبكيت فقلت: يا رسول الله، وإني لباق بعدك قال: نعم فإذا رأيت البناء علا سلع فالحق بالعرب أرض قضاعة فإنه سيأتي يوم قاب قوسين أو رمح أو رمحين يعني خير من كذا وكذا قال عثمان: أحببت أن أجعلك مع أصحابك وخفت عليك جهال الناس.
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Ibn Arabi narrated it in his Mujam (109) from Muhammad, who said, Yunus bin Muhammad narrated to us, who said, Salih bin Umar narrated to us, who said, Asim bin Kulayb narrated to us, from Abu Juwayriya, from Zayd bin Khalid Jarmi, and he related it.Its isnad is hasan because of Asim bin Kulayb, for his hadith is hasan. Muhammad, the teacher of Ibn Arabi, is Ibn Ubaydullah bin Yazid Baghdadi, Abu Jafar bin Munadi, whose hadith is also hasan.Abu Bakr bin Abu Shayba narrated it in his Musnad, that is, Matalib (4338), by way of Talha bin Amr, from Asim bin Kulayb, similarly but in shortened form. Talha bin Amr is a discarded narrator.As for his statement, "the land of Qudaa," their dwellings were in Najran, south of Madinah. They were among the pure Arabs descended from the Qahtanis, then they spread into Hijaz and Sham, eastward and northward.Note, in the printed edition it appears as, "so join with the West," which is a scribal error. The correct reading is "the Arabs."