Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman

ProfileHudhayfah ibn al-Yaman

Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of al-Yaman, whose real name was Husayl, and whose nickname came from his being an ally of a tribe from Yemen in Madinah. According to the early biographies, his father had left Makkah after killing a man in a brawl, and had joined the Banu Abd al-Ashhal of the Ansar as an ally, and had become wealthy, so that the family had homes in both cities. His family became Muslims without having met the Prophet ﷺ, at the hands of the first teacher he sent to Madinah, and Hudhayfah, his parents and his brothers and sisters were all Muslims. According to the early biographies, when the Prophet ﷺ paired the Muhajirun with the Ansar, they were offered the choice to count as Muhajirun or Ansar, since they were from both, and Hudhayfah and his father chose to be Ansar, though he was paired as a brother with Ammar ibn Yasir.

He and his father missed Badr. He told that they set out to join the Prophet ﷺ, and were caught by the Quraysh, who made them swear that they would go back to Madinah and not fight with Muhammad ﷺ. When they told the Prophet ﷺ, he said that they should go back to Madinah and keep the covenant, and that they would seek Allah's help against them (Sahih Muslim). At Uhud, according to the early biographies, his old father and a friend were left behind with the women and children, and one said to the other that they had only a little time left to live, so they took their swords and went out. They came onto the field from behind the Muslim lines, and in the confusion Muslims struck down al-Yaman without recognising him. Hudhayfah saw it and cried out that it was his father, but he was too far away. When the Muslims who had killed him stopped in horror, Hudhayfah said that Allah would forgive them. The Prophet ﷺ wanted to pay the blood-money for him, and Hudhayfah gave it away in charity to the Muslims (Sahih al-Bukhari reports the incident and that Hudhayfah kept asking forgiveness for them until he died).

He is best known for knowing the names of the hypocrites. Ammar said that Hudhayfah told him that the Prophet ﷺ had told him that there would be twelve hypocrites among the Companions who would not enter Paradise (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, Umar would watch to see whether Hudhayfah prayed over a dead man, and if he did not, would not pray himself. Umar asked him whether he was one of them, and Hudhayfah said no, and said he would tell him nothing about anyone else. He asked the Prophet ﷺ about evil, out of fear of falling into it, while others asked about good. He asked whether evil would come after the good of Islam, and was told that it would, and what to do then: to stay with the group of the Muslims and their leader, and if there is none, to keep away from the sects, even if he had to bite on the root of a tree until death came (Sahih al-Bukhari). He told how Umar once asked who remembered what the Prophet ﷺ had said about the trials, and he told of the trial of a man in his family and property, which fasting, prayer and charity expiate. Umar said that he meant the trial that would come like waves of the sea, and Hudhayfah told him that there was a closed door between him and it, which would be broken. The door was Umar himself (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim). He also reported that the Prophet ﷺ said that trials would be pressed on hearts like a mat woven stick by stick, and that a heart that took them in would have a black mark, and one that rejected them a white mark, until there were two kinds of hearts, one white like a stone that no trial would harm, the other black and upturned (Sahih Muslim). He narrated that trust would be lifted from hearts, so that it would be said that in such a tribe there is a trustworthy man (Sahih Muslim).

According to the early biographies, he was a serious man, whom Umar trusted. He told how he prayed once with the Prophet ﷺ at night, and the Prophet ﷺ began with al-Baqarah, then an-Nisa, then Al Imran, reciting slowly, and glorifying Allah at verses of glory, asking at verses of asking and seeking refuge at verses of refuge, and his bowing and prostration were as long as his standing (Sahih Muslim). When Hudhayfah saw a man not completing his bowing and prostration, he told him that he had not prayed, and that if he died so, he would die on a religion other than that of Muhammad ﷺ (Sahih al-Bukhari). When he saw a man who spread tales, he told him that he had heard the Prophet ﷺ say that a tale-bearer would not enter Paradise (Sahih al-Bukhari).

He told of the night of the Trench, when a man said that if he had lived in the Prophet's ﷺ time he would have fought and tried his hardest. Hudhayfah told him that they were with the Prophet ﷺ on the night of the Trench, in a violent wind and cold. The Prophet ﷺ called three times for a man who would bring news of the enemy, saying that he would be with him on the Day of Judgment, and no one answered. Then he said, "Get up, Hudhayfah," and he told him to bring the news and not to provoke them. Hudhayfah said that he walked as if he were in a warm bath, and found Abu Sufyan warming his back. He had an arrow ready but remembered the Prophet's ﷺ words and did not use it (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, when Abu Sufyan told them to check the man beside them, he took the hand of the man next to him and asked who he was before the man could ask him. He went back, and the Prophet ﷺ was praying, and he threw part of his garment over him, and he slept until the Prophet ﷺ woke him.

According to the early biographies, he fought in the conquest of Iraq and Iran. Umar made him governor of al-Mada'in, and gave him a letter to be read to the people. According to the early biographies, he arrived on a small donkey with his feet hanging, with a piece of bread and some relish, and in patched clothes, and when the people asked what he wanted, he said only food for himself and fodder for his donkey. When Umar summoned him back, he went out to meet him on the road, and saw that he was in the same clothes on the same donkey, and embraced him and told him that he was his brother. According to the early biographies, in his old age he settled near al-Mada'in and went to Kufa every Friday to teach. According to the early biographies, he used to pray that Allah take him before he would be tried in the trials, and he died at al-Mada'in a few days after Uthman was killed. According to the early biographies, he asked for a plain white shroud, saying that it would be on him only a short time, and that Allah would replace it with something better or something worse. Before he died, he said in a prayer that he sought refuge from waking to the Fire, and when the end came, he said that his beloved had come, and praised Allah who had taken him before the trial.

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