Rabi'ah ibn Ka'b al-Aslami

ProfileRabi'ah ibn Ka'b al-Aslami

Rabi'ah (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the Aslam tribe, who lived near Madinah. According to the early biographies, he was a youth when he first saw the Prophet ﷺ, after the Hijrah, and he said that he loved him with his whole being from the moment he saw him. He had no home or wife or money, and he joined the young men who slept in the mosque. When food was sent to the Prophet ﷺ, he would come out and share it with them. According to the early biographies, he decided to give himself to the Prophet's ﷺ service, and went to him and said so, and was accepted. He stayed near him all day until the last evening prayer, and then waited by his door, in case he needed anything. According to the early biographies, he heard him pray through the night and dozed and woke, and heard him again, and sometimes he prayed half the night and sometimes a third.

He told that he brought water and what the Prophet ﷺ needed, and that the Prophet ﷺ told him to ask. He said that he asked for his company in Paradise. The Prophet ﷺ asked if there was anything else, and he said that it was all, and the Prophet ﷺ told him to help him to this by prostrating often (Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih, and Sunan an-Nasa'i, graded sahih). According to the early biographies, he had gone home the night before to think of what to ask for, and was tempted to ask for a wife or wealth, then thought that his provision would come anyway, and that the Prophet ﷺ had a place with Allah, so he asked for the next world. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ was quiet for a long time before he answered, and then, when Rabi'ah took on much prayer, the Prophet ﷺ asked him whether he wished to marry. He said that he did not want anything to take him from the Prophet's ﷺ service, and, when asked again, that he had nothing. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ then told him to go to a certain family and say that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told them to marry their daughter to him, and when they hesitated, the girl said that the Prophet ﷺ would not let her be lost, and the marriage was made. The Prophet ﷺ had the Aslam gather gold for the dowry, and a ram and barley from his own house for the wedding feast, and came to the feast, and gave Rabi'ah a piece of land near that of Abu Bakr. The story is in Musnad Ahmad.

According to the early biographies, he quarrelled with Abu Bakr over a date palm on the boundary of their land, and Abu Bakr said something that hurt him, and at once regretted it, and asked him to say it back, so that no one would hold it against him. Rabi'ah would not. Abu Bakr went to tell the Prophet ﷺ, and Rabi'ah's people wanted him to go to the Prophet ﷺ and complain, but he sent them away, afraid of angering Abu Bakr. The Prophet ﷺ told him not to repeat the word, but to say, may Allah forgive you, Abu Bakr, and Abu Bakr wept and went away. According to the early biographies, after the Prophet ﷺ died he went back to his people, and lived quietly. He narrated only a few hadith, and his son narrated from him. According to the early biographies, he was among those killed at al-Harrah, in 63 AH, when the army of Yazid sacked Madinah.

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