Amr ibn al-Jamuh

ProfileAmr ibn al-Jamuh

Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) was the chief of the Banu Salimah of the Khazraj in Madinah. The Prophet ﷺ once asked the Banu Salimah who their chief was, and they said it was Judd ibn Qays, though they thought him a miser. The Prophet ﷺ answered that no illness was worse than miserliness, and that their chief was Amr ibn al-Jamuh. He had been in charge of their idols before Islam, and he used to hold the wedding feast for the Prophet ﷺ when he married (al-Adab al-Mufrad, a report from Jabir). According to the early biographies, he was a generous man and a peacemaker, one of the elders who survived the war of Bu'ath, and he was in his sixties when the Prophet ﷺ came to Madinah.

According to the early biographies, he loved his idol, a wooden statue called Manat, which he perfumed and dressed in jewellery, and which the elders honoured when they met in his house. When Islam spread through the Ansar, his wife Hind, his sons and his nephew Mu'adh ibn Jabal accepted it secretly. They knew that it would hurt him. His wife warned him to take care with the young men who sat with Mus'ab, since he was an old man, and his son Mu'adh recited Surat Yusuf to him. He said that these were beautiful words, and asked whether everything was like that, and his son said that there was more. He still said that he would not accept it until he had asked his idol, and he went to it and asked what it would say to the people who were leaving it. It could not answer. According to the early biographies, the young men would take the idol at night, tie it to a dead animal or throw it in a pit, and each time Amr would find it, wash it, perfume it and put a sword on it so that it could defend itself. One day he found it tied to a dead dog in a pit, and said that if it had been a god it would not be lying with a dog. Then he accepted Islam. According to the early biographies, his son Mu'adh ibn Amr was later praised by the Prophet ﷺ, who named him among the excellent men (Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded sahih).

According to the early biographies, his Islam was simple. He prayed, he worshipped Allah, and he wanted Paradise. He had a bad limp, and he was old, and his sons did not let him go out to Badr. He said that they had kept him from Paradise at Badr, and that if he lived he would reach it. At Uhud, he asked to go out, and his sons said that Allah had excused him. According to the early biographies, he came to the Prophet ﷺ in tears and said that his sons were stopping him from Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ told them not to forbid him, because Allah might grant him martyrdom. He asked the Prophet ﷺ whether, if he was killed, he would walk on both feet in Paradise, and the Prophet ﷺ said yes. According to the early biographies, he left his home praying that Allah not send him back. He went into the fighting, with his son Khallad beside him, calling for Paradise, and was killed. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ passed by him afterwards and said that he saw him walking in Paradise, without a limp.

According to the early biographies, he and Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Haram, the father of Jabir ibn Abdullah, were brothers-in-law and close friends, and they were buried together in one grave. The Prophet ﷺ buried the martyrs of Uhud two to a cloth, putting first the one who knew more of the Quran, and Jabir said that his father was buried with another martyr (Sahih al-Bukhari). In al-Muwatta, Imam Malik records a report that years later a flood opened the grave. Their bodies were found as if they had died the day before, and one still had a hand over his wound, which returned to it when it was moved.

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