Khubayb ibn Adi

ProfileKhubayb ibn Adi

Khubayb (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Adi, of the Banu Amr ibn Awf of the Ansar of Quba, the clan that first received the Prophet ﷺ. According to the early biographies, he fought at Badr, where he killed al-Harith ibn Amir, and he stayed with the Prophet ﷺ at Uhud. Abu Hurayrah told that the Prophet ﷺ sent ten men as scouts under Asim ibn Thabit, and when they reached a place between Usfan and Makkah, the Banu Lihyan of Hudhayl heard of them and sent archers after them. The archers followed the traces of the dates they had eaten, and surrounded them on high ground, and told them to come down and surrender, and promised that none would be killed. Asim said that he would not come down on the protection of an unbeliever, and prayed that Allah tell the Prophet ﷺ of them, and the archers killed him and others. Khubayb, Zayd ibn ad-Dathinah and another came down. The archers tied them with the strings of their bows, and the third said that this was the first breach of faith, and refused to go, and they killed him. They sold Khubayb and Zayd in Makkah after Badr, and the sons of al-Harith ibn Amir bought Khubayb, since he had killed their father at Badr (Sahih al-Bukhari).

According to the early biographies, they would not kill him in the sacred month, and kept him until the month had passed. Zayd was killed as well, according to the early biographies. A daughter of al-Harith, who watched him, told that he borrowed a razor from her to shave, and her little son went to him while she was not looking. She saw him sit the boy on his thigh with the razor in his hand, and was terrified, and Khubayb said that she was afraid he would kill him, and that he would never do it. She said that she had never seen a better captive than Khubayb, and that one day she saw him eating a bunch of grapes in his hand, chained in iron, when there was no fruit in Makkah, and she used to say that it was food Allah gave him (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, he asked not to be given meat slaughtered for the idols.

They took him out of the sanctuary, to al-Hill, at at-Tan'im, to kill him. He asked to pray two rak'ahs, and they allowed it, and he prayed, and said that, had he not been afraid that they would think he feared death, he would have prayed more. He prayed that Allah count them, kill them one by one and leave none of them. He recited that, so long as he died a Muslim, he did not care how he was killed, for it was in the cause of Allah, and if He wished, He would bless the severed limbs of his body. Then Uqbah ibn al-Harith killed him. Khubayb was the first to set the tradition of praying two rak'ahs before being killed in captivity. The Prophet ﷺ told his Companions what had happened to the ten men on the same day (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, he was hung on a wooden stake at at-Tan'im, the first crucifixion in Islam, and Abu Sufyan, who was there, asked him whether he would like Muhammad ﷺ to be in his place, and he said that he would not want the Prophet ﷺ to be pricked by a thorn, so that Abu Sufyan said that he had never seen men love another as the Companions of Muhammad ﷺ loved him. According to the early biographies, as he was dying, he asked Allah to carry his greeting to the Prophet ﷺ, since there was no one there to do so, and the Prophet ﷺ was told by the angel Jibril and returned the greeting. According to the early biographies, when Mu'awiyah, who was a child, was there, his father Abu Sufyan threw him to the ground and lay on his back, because the Arabs believed that one escaped a curse by doing so.

The Prophet ﷺ prayed against the tribes who had killed his Companions at Bi'r Ma'unah and ar-Raji for a month in the dawn prayer (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, two Companions were sent secretly to bring down Khubayb's body, which had not decayed, and one of them was chased and threw a spear, and the earth swallowed the one who followed. According to the early biographies, he is also remembered because Sa'id ibn Amir, who watched him die as an unbeliever, became a Muslim, and the woman who watched over him became a Muslim.

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