The Prophet ﷺ dispatched a military expedition and placed a man from the Ansar in command, instructing the men to obey him. At one point the commander became angry with them and said, "Did the Prophet ﷺ not order you to obey me?"They replied, "Yes, indeed."He said, "I command you to gather firewood, light a fire, and then walk into it."So they gathered firewood and kindled a fire, but when they were about to step into it, they paused and began looking at one another. Some of them said, "We followed the Prophet ﷺ only to flee from the Fire. Are we now to enter one?"While they were in this state, the fire died down and the commander's anger subsided. The matter was later mentioned to the Prophet ﷺ, who said, "Had they entered it, they would never have come out. Obedience is only in what is right."In another narration, "There is no obedience in disobedience to Allah. Obedience is only in what is right."
بعث النبي ﷺ سرية، وأمر عليهم رجلا من الأنصار، وأمرهم أن يطيعوه، فغضب عليهم، وقال: أليس قد أمر النبي ﷺ أن تطيعوني؟ قالوا: بلى قال: قد عزمت عليكم لما جمعتم حطبا، وأوقدتم نارا، ثم دخلتم فيها فجمعوا حطبا، فأوقدوا نارا، فلما هموا بالدخول، فقام ينظر بعضهم إلى بعض، قال بعضهم: إنما تبعنا النبي ﷺ فرارا من النار أفندخلها؟ فبينما هم كذلك إذ خمدت النار وسكن غضبه فذكر للنبي ﷺ فقال: لو دخلوها ما خرجوا منها أبدا، إنما الطاعة في المعروف. وفي رواية: لا طاعة في معصية الله، إنما الطاعة في المعروف.
Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Rulings (7145), and Muslim in the Book of Leadership (1840:40), through the route of Amash, who said, "Saad bin Ubayda narrated to us, from Abu Abdul-Rahman, from Ali," and he related it. The other narration in Muslim comes through the route of Shuba, from Saad bin Ubayda, with the same wording.As for his statement, "He appointed over them a man from the Ansar," the name of this man is not known, and he is not Abdullah bin Hudhafa bin Qays bin Adi Sahmi, as mentioned earlier at the beginning of the hadith of the chapter from the hadith of Ibn Abbas, for Abdullah bin Hudhafa Sahmi was one of the Muhajirin, while this man was one of the Ansar. Ibn Hajar thought in Fath al-Bari (13/238) that he was Abdullah bin Hudhafa Sahmi. It will be mentioned later that Abdullah bin Hudhafa had a playful nature, and that he only did what he did for testing and jesting.