Hakim ibn Hizam

ProfileHakim ibn Hizam

Hakim (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Hizam, the son of Khuwaylid, and so the nephew of Khadijah, who was like a mother to him. According to the early biographies, he was born inside the Kaaba. His mother had gone in with a group of women and went into labour, and could not leave. The family was one of the wealthiest and most respected in Makkah, and a good family, not known for harming others. According to the early biographies, he was older than the Prophet ﷺ and a friend of his, and bought Zayd ibn Harithah in the slave market for his aunt, who gave him to her husband. He had a name for sound judgment, and was let into the council house of the Quraysh long before the usual age. He was a merchant who made the journeys to Yemen and Syria, and spent much of what he earned on the poor of his clan.

According to the early biographies, he did not accept Islam during the Prophet's ﷺ time in Makkah. He was not an enemy of the Prophet ﷺ, but he was busy with his trade and had no interest in religion. When the Prophet's ﷺ clan was boycotted in the valley, he secretly sent food in to his aunt, who shared it with others, loading his camels with grain at night and driving them towards the valley. According to the early biographies, he was among those brought out against their will to Badr, and did not fight, and after he became a Muslim, he would swear by Him who saved him from fighting or being killed at Badr. According to the early biographies, he visited Madinah to bring the Prophet ﷺ a fine robe from Yemen as a gift, and the Prophet ﷺ, who did not take gifts from unbelievers at that time, would take it only by buying it. A hadith from Iyad ibn Himar, graded hasan sahih, reports the Prophet ﷺ saying that he had been forbidden to accept the gift of a polytheist (Sunan Abi Dawud).

According to the early biographies, he became a Muslim at the conquest of Makkah, with his family. When the Prophet ﷺ entered the city, he named the house of Abu Sufyan as a place of safety (Sahih Muslim), and according to the early biographies, he named Hakim's too. Hakim asked him whether the good he had done before Islam, giving charity, freeing slaves and keeping family ties, would be counted, and the Prophet ﷺ told him that he had become a Muslim with all the good he had done (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, he had freed slaves and given camels in charity before Islam, and did so again after it.

According to the early biographies, this was after Hunayn: he asked the Prophet ﷺ for a share of the spoils, and the Prophet ﷺ gave him, and he asked again, and again. The Prophet ﷺ then told him that this wealth is like sweet fresh fruit, and that whoever takes it without greed is blessed in it, and whoever takes it with greed is not, and is like one who eats and is never full, and that the giving hand is better than the taking hand. Hakim swore that he would never take anything from anyone after him until he left the world. When Abu Bakr called him to give him his share of the spoils, he refused. When Umar did the same, Umar called the Muslims to witness that he had offered it and Hakim had refused. Hakim never took anything from anyone after the Prophet ﷺ until he died (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). A report of the Prophet ﷺ telling him to buy a sheep and the profit from it is graded da'if, and is left out.

He narrated the Prophet's ﷺ teaching on trade. He asked about selling what he did not yet have, and was told not to sell what he did not possess (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih). He told that the buyer and seller have the right to cancel the sale until they part, and that if they are truthful and describe the goods plainly, they are blessed in their sale, and if they hide things and lie, the blessing is lost (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, he lived a very long life, kept away from taking anything from anyone, and stayed rich through his own trade, giving much away. According to the early biographies, he sold the old council house of Quraysh to Mu'awiyah for a large sum and gave all of it away. When Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr, his relative, rebuked him for selling something so dear to Quraysh, he answered that all nobility had gone except piety, and that he had bought a house in Paradise with the price. According to the early biographies, he went to Hajj freeing slaves, and offering a great many camels and sheep, and weeping to Allah to free his neck from the Fire, and the people, watching, cried and prayed that Allah, who had freed these slaves through him, would free them too. According to the early biographies, he died in Madinah, in his bed, regretting that he had not become a Muslim earlier, and said that he used to fear Allah and now he hoped in Him.

According to the early biographies, his son Hisham was a Companion too, and a narrator of hadith. Umar told how he heard Hisham reciting Surah al-Furqan in a way he had not been taught, and, as he waited until the prayer was over, then took him by his cloak to the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ told him to let him go, and asked Hisham to recite, and said that it was revealed so, and asked Umar to recite, and said the same, and that the Quran was revealed in seven ways (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). Hisham once passed some people in Syria who were being made to stand in the sun and were being punished for not paying what they owed, and said that Allah would punish those who torment people in this world (Sahih Muslim).

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