Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy

ProfileAbdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubayy

Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the Khazraj, the son of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, the man who was about to be crowned king of Madinah before the Prophet ﷺ came, and who became the chief of the hypocrites. According to the early biographies, the son became a Muslim at once and sincerely, one of the Ansar who could read and write, and one of the Prophet's ﷺ scribes. He was meant to be the prince of Madinah and became a servant of the Prophet ﷺ instead. According to the early biographies, he fought at Badr and Uhud and the Trench, and gave the pledge at Hudaybiyyah, and he was wounded in the fighting, and the Prophet ﷺ sometimes put him in command. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ once allowed him to replace a lost tooth with a gold one. Later hadith allow a gold nose for one who lost his (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan, for Arfajah ibn As'ad).

His father spent his life working against the Prophet ﷺ, in the matters that fill a large part of the Quran. After the battle against the Banu al-Mustaliq, a Muhajir kicked an Ansari, and each called for his own people. The Prophet ﷺ called this a call of the days of ignorance, and told them to leave it. When Abdullah ibn Ubayy heard, he said that if they returned to Madinah the more honourable would drive out the meaner. Umar asked to cut off his head, and the Prophet ﷺ said to leave him, so that people would not say that Muhammad ﷺ killed his Companions (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim). Then his son Abdullah stood at the entrance of Madinah and told his father that he would not enter until he said that he was the meaner one and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the honourable one, and the father said it (Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, he also came to the Prophet ﷺ when he heard that the Prophet ﷺ was thinking of executing his father, and told him that if he was to do so, he should command Abdullah himself, since no son was more dutiful to his father than he was, but if someone else killed him, Abdullah feared that he would not be able to look at the killer without wanting revenge and would kill a believer. The Prophet ﷺ answered that they would not execute him, and that Abdullah should be kind to his father and keep company with him well as long as he was with them.

When his father died, Abdullah came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked for his shirt to shroud him, and for the Prophet ﷺ to pray over him and ask forgiveness for him. The Prophet ﷺ gave him his shirt and got up to pray, and Umar took hold of his garment and said that Allah had forbidden him to pray for hypocrites. The Prophet ﷺ answered that Allah had given him the choice in the verse about asking forgiveness for them seventy times, and that he would ask more than seventy times. He prayed over him, and then the verse came telling him never to pray for any of them who dies and not to stand at his grave (Sahih al-Bukhari).

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