قَالَ حَمَّادٌ: فَبَيْنَا أَنَا يَوْمًا مَعَ أَيُّوبَ وَقَدْ بَكَّرْنَا إِلَى السُّوقِ، فَاسْتَقْبَلَهُ الرَّجُلُ، فَسَلَّمَ عَلَيْهِ أَيُّوبُ وَسَأَلَهُ، ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ أَيُّوبُ: بَلَغَنِي أَنَّكَ لَزِمْتَ ذَاكَ الرَّجُلَ. قَالَ حَمَّادٌ: سَمَّاهُ، يَعْنِي عَمْرًا. قَالَ: نَعَمْ يَا أَبَا بَكْرٍ، إِنَّهُ يَجِيئُنَا بِأَشْيَاءَ غَرَائِبَ. قَالَ: يَقُولُ لَهُ أَيُّوبُ: إِنَّمَا نَفِرُّ أَوْ نَفْرَقُ مِنْ تِلْكَ الْغَرَائِبِ.
Translation: Ḥammād said: One day, as I was with Ayyūb and we had gone early to the market, that man came toward him. Ayyūb greeted him and asked after him. Then Ayyūb said to him: “I have heard that you have kept close company with that man.” Ḥammād said: “He named him—meaning ʿAmr.” The man replied: “Yes, Abū Bakr; he brings us strange things.” Ayyūb said to him: “It is precisely those strange things that we flee from—or fear.” (The narrator preserved uncertainty between «نَفِرُّ» and «نَفْرَقُ».)
«Nafirru aw nafraqu» preserves uncertainty over the precise verb. Fidelity requires retaining that doubt, not selecting one wording as certain without evidence.