Muwatta 26

A report that Malik transmits as a mursal from Zayd ibn Aslam, in the chapter on sleeping through prayer: the Prophet ﷺ stopped one night on the road to Mecca and had Bilal wake them for prayer. Bilal slept and they slept until the sun rose and they were alarmed. He told them to ride until they left that valley, saying there was a devil there, and then to stop and perform ablution, and Bilal called the call to prayer and he led people in prayer. He reassured them that God took their souls, and had He willed He could have returned them at another time, and whoever sleeps through prayer or forgets it should pray when he remembers, as he used to pray it at its time. He then told Abu Bakr that the devil had come to Bilal while he stood praying, lay him down and soothed him as a child is soothed until he slept; Bilal related the same, and Abu Bakr said, "I testify that you are the Messenger of God". The editor notes Ibn Abd al-Barr's view that no one in the Muwatta transmitters traced it to Zayd, but its sense comes connected from sound reports from several Companions about sleeping through the dawn prayer on a journey. ^{1 2}

Belongs to the Muwatta, Book of Prayer. Source: the Muwatta. Mentions Muhammad, Bilal ibn Rabah, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Zayd ibn Aslam and Mecca. Built on in the chapters on prayer.