Abdullah ibn Rawahah

ProfileAbdullah ibn Rawahah

Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the Khazraj of Madinah, from the Banu al-Harith. According to the early biographies, his father died before Islam, and his mother and his sister Amrah both became Muslim. Amrah's son an-Nu'man ibn Bashir became a Companion and narrated about his uncle (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, his closest friend since childhood was Abu ad-Darda. Abdullah was one of the few men of the Ansar who could read and write, and he was known for being quick-minded, with a sharp eye for people and a gift for poetry, famous in Madinah long before the Prophet ﷺ came. According to the early biographies, when he first saw the Prophet ﷺ he said in verse that if there had been no clear signs from Allah, the Prophet's ﷺ face alone would have told him that he was a prophet, and he accepted Islam at once. According to the early biographies, he was among the people of Madinah who pledged themselves to the Prophet ﷺ at Aqabah, and when he came back he began calling people to Islam before the Prophet ﷺ arrived.

Before Badr, the Prophet ﷺ rode past a gathering in Madinah of Muslims, idol-worshippers and Jews, in which Abdullah ibn Ubayy was sitting with Abdullah ibn Rawahah. Ibn Ubayy covered his nose against the dust of the donkey and told the Prophet ﷺ not to bother them in their gatherings. The Prophet ﷺ greeted them, got down, invited them to Allah and recited the Quran to them. Ibn Rawahah answered that the Prophet ﷺ should come to them in their gatherings, because they loved that. The people began to quarrel until they nearly came to blows, and the Prophet ﷺ calmed them. Then he told Sa'd ibn Ubadah what Ibn Ubayy had said, and Sa'd asked him to forgive Ibn Ubayy, since the people of Madinah had been about to crown him before Allah sent the Prophet ﷺ (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim). The Prophet ﷺ trusted his judgement. After Khaybar, when the people of Khaybar farmed the land for half of the harvest, the Prophet ﷺ sent Abdullah to estimate the date harvest, and when they said he had judged too high, he told them that he would take the responsibility and they could choose their half, and they replied that this was the justice by which the heavens and the earth stand (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan sahih). According to the early biographies, he fought at Badr and the Prophet ﷺ sent him ahead to Madinah, with Zayd ibn Harithah, to announce the victory, which he did in verse.

His poetry was war poetry, spoken from the front of the line. According to the early biographies, when the Prophet ﷺ asked him how he made poetry, he said that he looked at something and spoke, and the Prophet ﷺ asked him to answer the Quraysh there and then. His first try went too far and insulted the whole people, which the Prophet ﷺ did not like. When he tried again he praised the Prophet ﷺ and his people, and the Prophet ﷺ was happy and prayed that Allah keep him firm. In a report in Sahih Muslim, when the Prophet ﷺ asked for poems against Quraysh he sent for Ibn Rawahah and for Ka'b ibn Malik, and neither pleased him, and then he sent for Hassan ibn Thabit. At the digging of the trench, the Prophet ﷺ carried earth until the dust covered his stomach, and the Companions heard him reciting Abdullah's verses: that without Allah they would not have been guided, nor given in charity, nor prayed, and asking Allah to send down calm on them and to make their feet firm if they met the enemy, and saying that if the enemy sought to make trouble for them, they would not give in. The Prophet ﷺ raised his voice on the last words (Sahih al-Bukhari). On the Umrah of the following year, Abdullah walked in front of the Prophet ﷺ into Makkah, reciting verses telling the disbelievers to get out of the way. Umar objected that he was reciting poetry before the Prophet ﷺ and in the sanctuary of Allah, and the Prophet ﷺ told him to leave Abdullah alone, since his words were quicker on them than arrows (Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan; Sunan an-Nasa'i, graded hasan).

He was also known for his worship. Abu ad-Darda said that on a journey in Ramadan, on a day so hot that a man put his hand on his head against the heat, no one among them was fasting except the Prophet ﷺ and Abdullah ibn Rawahah (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, he would take a Companion by the hand and invite him to sit and believe together for an hour. One man took it badly, and a report in Musnad Ahmad says the Prophet ﷺ prayed for mercy for Abdullah, saying that he loved the gatherings of which the angels boast, but it has not been graded here, so it is only mentioned. He once fell unconscious while ill, and his sister Amrah wept and named his good qualities one by one. When he came to, he told her that for each one he had been asked whether he was really like that (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, he wept when he heard the verse about everyone coming to the Fire and the verse about the poets who are followed by those who go astray. The verse that sets apart those who believe and do good deeds was a comfort to him.

At Mu'tah, the Prophet ﷺ appointed Zayd ibn Harithah as commander and said that if Zayd was killed, Ja'far would take over, and if Ja'far was killed, Abdullah ibn Rawahah would (Sahih al-Bukhari). The Prophet ﷺ told the people in Madinah of their deaths before the news came, one after the other: Zayd took the flag and was killed, then Ja'far took it and was killed, then Ibn Rawahah took it and was killed, and the Prophet's ﷺ eyes were full of tears. Then Khalid ibn al-Walid took the flag without having been appointed, and Allah gave the Muslims victory (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, when it was his turn Abdullah hesitated for a moment, and then urged himself on in verse, saying that his soul would go into Paradise willingly or be driven in, and took the flag. He was buried at Mu'tah, in what is now Jordan.

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