Addas

ProfileAddas

Addas was a Christian slave from Nineveh, in Iraq, who belonged to Utbah and Shaybah, the sons of Rabi'ah, two chiefs of Quraysh who owned a vineyard outside Ta'if.

Aishah told that she asked the Prophet ﷺ whether he had met a day harder than Uhud. He said that he had met much from her people, and the hardest was the day at al-Aqabah, when he went to Ibn Abd Yalil ibn Abd Kulal, and he did not respond to him as he wished. He left, in deep distress, and did not recover until he reached Qarn ath-Tha'alib, where he looked up and saw a cloud casting its shade on him, and Jibril in it, who told him that Allah had heard what his people said to him and how they answered, and had sent the angel of the mountains to him, so that he could order him as he wished. The angel offered to let the two mountains fall on them. The Prophet ﷺ said no, but that he hoped Allah would bring from their descendants people who worship Allah alone and worship nothing besides Him (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim).

According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ went to Ta'if to ask the three chiefs of Thaqif for shelter and a hearing, and asked them at least not to tell Quraysh. According to the early biographies, one said that Allah could have found someone else to send, one said that he would tear down the covering of the Ka'bah if Allah had sent him, and one said that he would never speak to him. They set the slaves and fools of Ta'if in two lines to stone him on his way out, until his sandals filled with blood. According to the early biographies, he sat down under a tree in the vineyard of Utbah and Shaybah, and called on Allah, and the two men, who were his enemies, were moved to pity, and sent Addas to him with a bunch of grapes.

According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ said the name of Allah before he ate, and Addas said that the people of that land did not speak those words. The Prophet ﷺ asked where he was from and what his religion was. Addas said that he was a Christian from Nineveh, and the Prophet ﷺ said it was the town of the righteous man Yunus ibn Matta, and when Addas asked how he knew of Yunus, the Prophet ﷺ said that he was his brother, a prophet, and that he too was a prophet. According to the early biographies, Addas bent over him and kissed his head, his hands and his feet. When he went back, his masters said that the man had corrupted him, and that his own religion was better than his.

According to the early biographies, some count Addas among the Companions, as one who showed belief on the spot. His later life is not recorded in these sources. According to the early biographies, Utbah and Shaybah were killed at Badr.

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