Jarir ibn Abdullah

ProfileJarir ibn Abdullah

Jarir (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Abdullah, of the Bajilah, a group of tribes from Yemen, and a chief among them. He is not to be confused with Jabir ibn Abdullah, whose name is close to his. According to the early biographies, he came to the Prophet ﷺ in Ramadan of the last year of his life, with a party of his own people, drawn by what he had heard of Islam, and not as one who came to save his position. He was very tall, and handsome, and wore saffron in his beard, and Umar is reported to have called him the Yusuf of this Ummah. According to the early biographies, he spent only a short time with the Prophet ﷺ, and narrated many hadith.

According to the early biographies, when he reached Madinah, he dressed well and came into the mosque while the Prophet ﷺ was speaking, and everyone turned to look at him. The Prophet ﷺ had said that the best of Yemen was about to come in. The mosque was crowded, and no one made room for him, so the Prophet ﷺ took off his cloak and threw it to him, and told him to sit on it. Jarir took it, kissed it, held it to his chest, and said, may Allah honour you as you have honoured me. The Prophet ﷺ said that if a man respected among his people comes to you, honour him (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, he kept himself small whenever the Prophet ﷺ raised him up. Jarir said that the Prophet ﷺ never refused him permission to enter, and whenever he saw him, he smiled at him (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ told him that Allah had made him beautiful in his creation, and he should make his character beautiful as well.

Jarir told that he gave the pledge to the Prophet ﷺ to keep the prayer, to pay the zakat and to be sincere to every Muslim (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, he held to it all his life, and there are more stories of this in him than in any other Companion. When his servant bought a horse for him at a low price, he went back to the seller and gave him what the horse was worth, saying that he had given the Prophet ﷺ his pledge to be sincere to every Muslim. According to the early biographies, he would offer less when he sold and more when he bought, and he took no more than anyone else's share of the spoils, and gave away much of what came to him.

The Prophet ﷺ asked him whether he would relieve him of Dhu al-Khalasah, a house of idols of the Khath'am which was called the Yemeni Kaaba. Jarir went with horsemen of the Ahmas, and said that he could not sit firmly on a horse. The Prophet ﷺ struck him on the chest, so hard that he saw the marks of his fingers, and said, O Allah, make him firm, and make him one who guides and is guided. Jarir went and pulled down and burned the house. The Prophet ﷺ prayed for the horses and men of the Ahmas five times (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, Jarir said that after that, riding became easy for him. On the Farewell Hajj, the Prophet ﷺ told him to make the people be quiet and listen, and said that they should not go back to disbelief after him by striking each other's necks (Sahih al-Bukhari). He told that he saw the Prophet ﷺ pass water, then perform ablution and wipe over his socks. This pleased the Companions, since Jarir became a Muslim late, after the revelation of the chapter of the Table, so that this was not cancelled (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim and Sunan Abi Dawud, graded hasan).

According to the early biographies, when the Prophet ﷺ died, Jarir went to Abu Bakr and asked for help in uniting his people, who were divided, and was told that they had turned away over the zakat. Jarir joined the army against those who left Islam, and when his own people came back, he brought them to Madinah to Umar, who would not use them in the army at first. According to the early biographies, he later led them to Iraq in the fighting against Persia, and his horsemanship was said to have shortened the journey. According to the early biographies, in a gathering, someone broke wind, and Jarir told whoever had done it to make wudu, and said it three times, and then said that all of them should make wudu, so that the man would not be shamed, and Umar praised him as a good leader both before and after Islam. According to the early biographies, he kept out of the fighting between the Muslims, and left Madinah with others, saying that he had not become a Muslim to fight Muslims, and went to a remote place. His sons narrated from him, and when he died about 51 AH, the Companions wept for him.

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