Part 1

MEN & WOMEN AROUND THE MESSENGER

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(cilahmeall 9 Aoleeal! SL [pe ype)

Khaalid Muhammad Khaalid Dr . Abdel - Hamid Eliwa

Soll Spa elinig Jlay ( Ghyslasall Aylauall dln Cpa gue)

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Translated by Sheikh Muhammad Mustafa Gemeiah

Dr. Abdel - Hamid Eliwa Al Azhar University

Edited by Aelfwine Acelas Mischler

Dar Al-Manarah For Translation, Publishing & Distribution El-Mansoura — Egypt - Tel Fax: 002050/2030254 E. mail: [email protected]

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,

Dar Al-Manarah For Translation, Publishing & Distribution El-Mansoura — Egypt - Tel Fax: 002050/2030254 E. mail: [email protected]

Dar Al Kotob Library Number

Notes on Transliteration Introduction

The Light They Followed

1Mus’ab Ibn ‘Umair

3Abu Dhar El-Ghifaariy 4Bilaal Ibn 5- ‘Abd Allah Ibn ‘Umar 6Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqaas 7S.uhaib Ibn Sinaan

8Mu’aadh Ibn Jabal 9Al-Miqdaad Ibn ‘Amr

10Sa’iid [bn ‘Aamir

11Hamzah Lbn ‘Abd Al-Muttalib 12- ‘Abd Allah Jon Mas*uud 13Hudhaifah Lbn Al-Yamaan 14- ‘Ammaar Ibn Yaasir

15- ‘Ubaadah Ibn Ag - Saamit 16Khabbaab Ibn Al-Arat

17Abu *Ubaidah Ibn Al-Jarraah 18- ‘Uthmaan Ibn Madh’uun 19Zaid Ibn Haarithah

20Ja’far Ibn Abi Taalib

21- ‘Abd Allah Lbn Rawaahah 22Khaalid Thn Al-Waliid

23Qais Jbn Sa’d Ibn ‘Ubaadah 24- ‘Umair Ibn Wahb

26Zaid Lbn Al-Khaljaab

27Talhah Ibn ‘Ubaid Allah 28Az-Zubair Ibn Al-’- Awaam 29Khubaib Ibn ‘Adiy

30- ‘Umair Ibn Sa’d

31Zaid IbnThaabit 32-KhaalidIbnSa’iid

33-Abu Aiyuub Al-Ansaariy 34-Al- ‘Abbaas Ibn ‘Abd Al-Muttalib 35Abu Hurairah

36Al-Baraa’ Ibn Maalik

37- ‘Utbah Ibn Ghazwaan 38-Thaabit Ibn Qais

39Usaid Ibn Hudair

112 118 124 131 145 134 163 179 183 190 196 203 211 220 225 248 253 261 271 277 287 294 302

349 355 359 363

40- ‘Abd Ar-Rahman Ibn ‘Awf 41Abu Jaabir ‘Abd Allah Jon ‘Amr Ibn Hiraam 42- ‘Amr Lbn Al-Jamuuh

43Habiib Ibn Zaid

44Ubaiy Ibn Ka’b

45Sa’d Ibn Mu’aadh

46Sa’d Ibn ‘Ubaadah

47Usaamah Ibn Zaid

48- ‘Abd Ar-Rahman Ibn Abi Bakr 49- ‘Abd Allah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al-’ Aas 50Abu Sufyaan Jon Al-Haarith 51- ‘Umraan Ibn Husain

52Salamah Ibn Al-Akwa’

53- ‘Abd Allah Ibn Az-Zubair

54- ‘Abd Allah Ibn ‘Abbaas

55- ‘Abbaad JIbn Bishr

56Suhail Ibn “Amr

57Abu Muusaa Al-Ash’ariy

58At-lufail Ibn ‘Amr Ad-Dawsiy 59- ‘Amr Jbn Al-’Aas

60Saalim Mawlaa Abi Hudhaifah 61Farewell

62women Around the Messenger Translaor ’s postscript Introduction

The Mother of the Mankind Hawwa’

The Mother of the Prophets.

Aisha bint Abu Bakr

The Prophet as a husband

368 375 378 383 388 391 398 406 412 416 423 428 431 435 443 451 456 462 474 479 487 493 501 502 503 504 505 507 508 510 513 517 521 522 528 531 535 538 543 547 550 554 556 559

The Prophet, the funny husband The Prophet, the strait husband The Prophet, the faithful husband. Polygamy

The rationale behind the multiplying of the Prophet (pbuh) Earlier Prophets and polygamy Polygamy in Christianity

The rationale behind the multiplying of the Prophet’s wives The Prophet’s daughter Zaynab

Umm Kulthum. The Prophet as a father The Prophet as a kind father The Prophet as a serious father Sahabiyyat Asma’ bint Abu Bakr

Fatima bint alKhattab Umm Kulthum bint ‘Ali Safiyya bint ‘Abdel-Muttalib. Sumayya bint Khayyat Asma’ bint Yazid ibn as-Sakan Umm Salim bint Malhan Umm Haram Umm Waraga

Umm Hakim bint al-Harith Umm Ayman

Umm al-Fadl Ar-Rubai’ bint Mu' awiya Al-Khansa’ Khawla bint Tha‘ laba

Umm Ruman Umm ‘Imara

560 562 565 568 573 578 579 582 583 590 591 595 597 603 605 606 609 610 611 615 617 619 621 622 624 628 630 631 634 636 638 639 641 642 644 646 648 650 652 654

While reading this book, we cannot help but be moved by the lives of the Companions herein depicted. How we long to have their awe and reverence for Allah! How we long to spend the same hours in worship as they! How we long to be as brave as they were in the face of danger! How we long to be as patient as they were under torture!

Narrated ‘Abd Allah (May Allah be pleased with him): The Prophet (PBUH) said, “The best people are those living in my generation, and then those who will follow them, and then those who will follow the latter. Then there will come some people who will bear witness before taking oaths, and take oaths before bearing witness.” (Bukhaarii)

It is our hope that this book will fulfill a need for the Englishspeaking Muslim to learn more about that first generation of Muslims. Indeed the Companions — those men and women who were contemporaneous with the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) —- inspire and encourage us. Read these stories and share them with your children, for these Companions are a part of our Islamic heritage that will, Allah willing, strengthen us as a nation if we try to follow their examples.

Enough said for the reason for choosing this book to translate, for the book stands on its own merit. Let us explain our reasons for some choices within the translation.

The translator is always faced with the question of how to transliterate Arabic names and whether to translate or transliterate Islamic terms. The reader may find the spelling of names in this book different than he or she is accustomed to. That is because we have chosen to transliterate as closely to the Arabic pronunciation as possible, believing that the English-speaking Muslim should make an effort to pronounce the names correctly. Lacking diacritic marks,

we have transliterated the long vowels with double vowels, which should not confuse the reader. Please refer to the notes on transliteration which follow.

An exception to this is the spelling of some places names. If there is an English form of a name available, this has been used instead of a transliterated Arabic name.

As for Islamic terms, we felt that most of the terms left in the Arabic would be familiar to the Muslim reader, and they have not been italicized as foreign terms although, as noted above, their spelling may not be the usual one. Many of these words have been incorporated into the English language and may be found in many dictionaries, although the Muslim reader is not always satisfied with the dictionary’s definition. Therefore, a glossary has been provided for those words which may not be familiar to all readers.

Numbers within parentheses refer to surah and verse of the Holy Qur’aan.

Many thanks to those who helped in the translation, revision, editng and typing of this text: Dr. Ahlam Fathy, Dr. Amany Abu AlFadl, Mona Yunus, Raw’ah Al-Khateeb, Amal Abu Sitah, Dr. Abdul Karim Kamara, Professor ‘Umar Abdul Hakeem, Michael White and Nariman Ezz.

May Almighty Allah accept this work, and may we and all those who participated in the preparation of this text be accepted into the presence of the Most High on the day when nothing, neither wealth nor children, will be useful.

ill NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION

English ‘(omitted in initial position)

h or t (when followed by another Arabic word)

w (consonant or dipthong) uu (long vowel) y( consonant ) ii (long vowel) aa(_ long vowel)

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH,

THE MOST BENEFICENT, THE MOST MERCIFUL

It was neither invented discourse nor false rumor that was recorded in history about the great company of men who came into the world of belief and faith. That is because the entirety of human history has never witnessed such accurate documentation, honesty, and investigation of facts as did that epoch of Islamic history and its men. An extraordinary human effort has been exerted to study and pursue its tidings. Successive generations of able and brilliant scholars have not left unexamined even the smallest details mor minutest explanations conceming that early epoch without putting them under microscopic investigation, scrutiny,,and criticism.

The spectacular magnitude we encounter on the pages of this book of those colossal men of the Companions of the Messenger (PBUH) is not something legendary, even though they may seem like legends due to their miraculous nature! These are facts characteristic of the personality and life of the Prophet’s Companions. They soar high and are exalted and ennobled, not because of the author or, depicter, but because of what the Companions themselves desired and the extraordinary and righteous effoxt. they exerted for the sake of excelling and attaining perfection.

This book does not claim the power to present this immaculate and extraordinary magnitude to the reader. Suffice it to refer to its characteristics and to approach its horizon.

Surely history has not witnessed men who set their intentions

and will to achieve a totally lofty and just goal and then devoted their entire lives to it in such an extremely fearless manner, with

personal sacrifice and exertion, as it has witnessed in these men around the Messenger (PBUH).

They came to life at their appointed time and their promised day. When life was craving for someone to rejuvenate its spiritual values, those Companions came with their noble Messenger (PBUH) as heralds and sincere believers. When life was craving for someone to remove the shackles of troubled humanity and to liberate its existence and destiny, they came and stood by their great Messenger

as revolutionaries and liberators. When life was craving for someone

to present human civilization with new and sound inclination, they came as pioneers and luminaries.

How could those righteous men achieve what they did in a few years How did they triumph over the ancient world, with all its empires and sovercignties, and turn it into a minous mount L How could they build with Allah’s Qur’aan and His Words a new world reverberating with freshness, glittering with glory and surpassing in capability! Above all, how were they able, with the speed of light, to illuminate human conscience with the truth of monotheism and sweep away forever the paganism of ancient centuries ! This was their real miracle!

Moreover, their real miracle resides in that remarkable psychological power with which they shaped their virtues and adhered to their faith in a manner that defies comparison.

However, all their achieved miracles were nothing but a modest reflection of the greater miracle that enlightened the world on the day Allah willed His noble Qur’aan to be sent down, His honorable Messenger to deliver the message, and the procession of Islam to start its paces on the road of enlightenment.

In this book, which was previously published in five separate parts and is issued now in a complete new edition, we present sixty personalities of the Prophet’s Companions, (May Allah have peace upon them all). As mentioned at the conclusion of this book, these sixty men represent several thousand others of their brethren who were contemporaneous with the Messenger (PBUH) and who believed in him and supported him. In their reflection we see the images of all the Companions. We see their faith, their constancy, their heroism and their loyalty to Allah and His Messenger (PBUH). We see the effort they exerted, the calamities they endured, and the victory they achieved. We also see the eminent role they played in liberating all humanity from the paganism of conscience and the loss of destiny.