Sa'd ibn Mu'adh

ProfileSa'd ibn Mu'adh

Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) was a chief of the Aws, one of the two great tribes of Madinah, about thirty-one years old when the Prophet ﷺ came, and a man who was listened to when he entered a gathering. According to the early biographies, Mus'ab ibn Umayr and As'ad ibn Zurarah were teaching people Islam in a garden, and Sa'd, who was As'ad's cousin, sent Usayd ibn Hudayr to put a stop to it. Usayd sat down, listened, and accepted Islam, and came back to Sa'd with a changed face. Sa'd then went himself and also accepted Islam. He told his people that he would not speak to any of them until they believed in Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, and his clan is said to have accepted Islam that same evening.

Sa'd went to Makkah for umrah and stayed with Umayyah ibn Khalaf, his trading partner. When Abu Jahl scolded him for sheltering Muhammad ﷺ and his Companions, Sa'd answered that he would cut off Quraysh's trade with Syria. He then told Umayyah that he had heard the Prophet ﷺ say he would kill him, and Umayyah said that Muhammad ﷺ never lied (Sahih al-Bukhari).

When the Prophet ﷺ asked his Companions for their view before Badr, a leader of the Ansar answered that they would follow him wherever he led, even into the sea. According to the early biographies this was Sa'd ibn Mu'adh; the report in Sahih Muslim names Sa'd ibn Ubadah, so the books differ on which of them spoke. According to the early biographies, Sa'd stayed beside the Prophet ﷺ at Uhud, where his brother and his stepson were killed.

At the Battle of the Trench, an arrow struck him in the arm. The Prophet ﷺ had a tent put up for him in the mosque so that he could visit him. Sa'd prayed that Allah would keep him alive if there was still any fighting to do with Quraysh, but that if the war with them was over, his wound would burst and cause his death (Sahih al-Bukhari). When Banu Qurayzah agreed to accept his judgment, the Prophet ﷺ told the Ansar to stand up for their leader. Sa'd judged that their fighting men should be killed and their women and children taken captive, and the Prophet ﷺ said he had judged as Allah would (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, they had broken their agreement during the siege. He died soon after, of his wound, having been a Muslim for only about six years.

The Prophet ﷺ said that the Throne of Allah shook at the death of Sa'd (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). When the hypocrites remarked on how light his bier was, the Prophet ﷺ said that the angels were carrying him (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded sahih). Once, when people admired a silk garment the Prophet ﷺ had been given, he said that the handkerchiefs of Sa'd in Paradise were better than it (Sahih al-Bukhari).

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