Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl

ProfileIkrimah ibn Abi Jahl

Ikrimah (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Amr ibn Hisham, whom the Muslims called Abu Jahl, the chief of the Banu Makhzum, and the heir to his father's place among the Quraysh. According to the early biographies, he stood beside his father through the persecution of the Muslims and the boycott, and he was strong, wise and eloquent like him. The Prophet ﷺ once prayed that Allah strengthen Islam by whichever of two men was dearer to Him, Abu Jahl or Umar ibn al-Khattab, and the dearer was Umar (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, he was cousin and close friend of Khalid ibn al-Walid, and was married to his cousin, Umm Hakim bint al-Harith.

His father was killed at Badr. Two young Ansari boys asked Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf to show them Abu Jahl, said that they would kill him or be killed, and struck him down, and the Prophet ﷺ gave Abu Jahl's spoils to one of them (Sahih al-Bukhari). Abdullah ibn Mas'ud found Abu Jahl in his last breaths and took him by the beard (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, Ikrimah's hatred of the Prophet ﷺ became personal after that, as he now saw him as the man who killed his father. He fought at Uhud, commanding a wing of the cavalry with Khalid. According to the early biographies, he took his father's place as the leader of the Banu Makhzum, and when Khalid told him that he thought of becoming a Muslim, Ikrimah was furious, and called the Quraysh against him.

At the conquest of Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ gave protection to the people except for four men and two women, and said that they were to be killed even if found clinging to the covering of the Kaaba. Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl was one of them. His group, with Safwan ibn Umayyah, attacked a flank of Khalid's column, and he fled. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas told that Ikrimah went to sea, and a storm struck the ship. The crew told the passengers to call sincerely on Allah, for their gods could not help them. Ikrimah said that if nothing but sincerity saved him at sea, then nothing else would save him on land, and he promised Allah that if He saved him, he would go to Muhammad ﷺ and put his hand in his, and he was sure that he would find him forgiving and generous. He came and became a Muslim (Sunan an-Nasa'i, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, his wife, Umm Hakim, had become a Muslim and asked the Prophet ﷺ to forgive her husband, and he did so at once, and she went to find him in Yemen. On the road a Greek slave who was sent with her tried to molest her, and she told her husband when she found him, and he killed the man before they spoke of anything else. Then she told him that she was a Muslim and he was not, and begged him to come back to the Prophet ﷺ, who was generous, and he was moved by what had happened on the sea. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ told his Companions that Ikrimah was coming to them as a believer and emigrant, and that they should not curse his father, since it would hurt the living and not reach the dead. The Prophet ﷺ taught that the dead should not be abused, because they have reached what they sent ahead (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ welcomed him as the rider who had come as an emigrant. Ikrimah held out his hand and asked what to say, and the Prophet ﷺ had him say the testimony. Ikrimah asked him to seek forgiveness for everything he had done against him, and the Prophet ﷺ prayed for it. Ikrimah swore that he would spend as much in Allah's cause as he had spent against it, and fight as hard for it as he had fought against it. According to the early biographies, he would swear by the One who saved him from Badr.

According to the early biographies, he became a devout Muslim, who held the Quran to his face and wept, and gave away the wealth he had inherited from his father. Abu Bakr sent him with armies in the wars against the apostates, and he served in the conquest of Syria. At Yarmuk, according to the early biographies, he was commanding a wing, and when Khalid told him that to rush into the Roman ranks would cost the Muslims a man they could not spare, he said that he had fought the Prophet ﷺ in many battles, and would not flee the Romans now. He was wounded many times and was martyred. According to the early biographies, his wife Umm Hakim was married the night before the battle of Marj as-Saffar to Khalid ibn Sa'id, who was killed in it, and she took up a tent pole and killed several Roman soldiers, so that a bridge was named after her. The well-known story of Ikrimah and two other wounded men each passing a cup of water to the next while they lay dying of thirst is told with weak chains, and is left out.

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