AbuAyyub

Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (RA) (d. approximately 52 AH), whose full name was Khalid ibn Zayd ibn Kulayb al-Khazraji, was among the most honored of the Ansar companions and is remembered throughout Islamic history for the unique honor bestowed upon him: the Prophet ﷺ chose his home in Medina as his first residence upon arriving from Mecca at the Hijra. The Prophet ﷺ stayed in his house for several months while the mosque and adjacent rooms were being built, and Abu Ayyub (RA) famously refused to sleep on the upper floor while the Prophet ﷺ was below, insisting on giving the lower floor to the Prophet ﷺ. He was present at the Bay'at al-Aqabah and participated in virtually all the major battles of Islam from Badr onward. He narrated hadith from the Prophet ﷺ on numerous topics including prayer, charity, and the manners of greeting. A famous narration attributed to him concerns the six days of Shawwal fasting after Ramadan, which the Prophet ﷺ described as equivalent to fasting the whole year when combined with Ramadan. In his old age, burning with the desire for jihad, Abu Ayyub (RA) joined the Muslim army that besieged Constantinople during the caliphate of Muawiyah (RA) and died there at an advanced age, reportedly over eighty years old. He was buried near the walls of Constantinople — present-day Istanbul — where his tomb, known as Eyüp Sultan, remains a site of veneration to this day.