Thawban

ProfileThawban

Thawban (may Allah be pleased with him) was a freed slave of the Prophet ﷺ. According to the early biographies, his name was Thawban ibn Bujdad or ibn Jahdar, and his kunya was Abu Abdullah or Abu Abd ar-Rahman, though he had no children. According to the early biographies, he was from Yemen, and came into the Prophet's ﷺ hands as a captive in one of the campaigns, though the books do not say which. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ told him that he could go back to his people, and if he wished to stay, he would be one of the household, and he stayed.

Thawban told that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished his prayer he asked forgiveness three times and then said that Allah is Peace and peace is from Him, and blessed is He, Possessor of Majesty and Honour (Sahih Muslim). He told that the Prophet ﷺ said that the best dinar is the one a man spends on his family, and the one he spends on his animal in the cause of Allah, and the one he spends on his companions in the cause of Allah (Sahih Muslim). He told that the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever guarantees him that he will not beg from people, he will guarantee him Paradise, and Thawban said that he would not, and he never asked anyone for anything (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih by al-Albani). Ma'dan ibn Abi Talhah told that he met Thawban in the mosque of Damascus and asked him about Abu ad-Darda's report that the Prophet ﷺ vomited and broke his fast, and Thawban said that he spoke the truth, and that he had poured the water for the Prophet's ﷺ wudu (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih by al-Albani).

He is known most for what he narrated of the end of time. He told that the Prophet ﷺ said that the nations would soon call on one another against his community as people call each other to a dish, and when they asked whether it would be because they were few, he said no, they would be many, but like the foam on a torrent, and Allah would take the fear of them from the hearts of their enemies and put weakness in their hearts, the love of this life and the dislike of death (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih by al-Albani). He told that the Prophet ﷺ said that once the sword is drawn among his community, it will not be lifted until the Day of Judgment (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih by al-Albani). He told that the Prophet ﷺ said that he knew of people of his community who would come on the Day of Resurrection with good deeds like the mountains of Tihamah, and Allah would make them like scattered dust, and when Thawban asked him to describe them so that they would not be among them without knowing, he said that they were their brothers, who prayed at night as they did, but when they were alone with what Allah has forbidden, they broke it (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan).

According to the early biographies, he loved the Prophet ﷺ so much that he could not be patient when he did not see him. According to the early biographies, one day the Prophet ﷺ saw that his colour had changed and asked him why, and he said that there was no illness, but that when he did not see the Prophet ﷺ he missed him, until he remembered the next life and feared that he would not see him there, since the Prophet ﷺ would be raised with the prophets, and even if he entered Paradise he would be in a lower place. According to the early biographies, the verse that promises that whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger will be with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous, was revealed then, and some commentators say it was about him; this is told in books of commentary and not graded here.

According to the early biographies, after the Prophet's ﷺ death he could not bear to stay in Madinah, and went to Syria, and fought in the campaigns, and lived in Damascus, Ramla, Egypt and then Homs, where he taught many of the Successors, among them Abu Idris al-Khawlani and Khalid ibn Ma'dan. Abu Sallam al-Habashi told that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz sent for him, and said that he wanted to hear from him directly the hadith he narrated from Thawban about the basin. He told that Thawban, the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, had told him that the Prophet ﷺ said that his basin was as wide as the distance between Ayla and Aden, whiter than milk and sweeter than honey, with cups as many as the stars in the sky, and whoever drank from it would never be thirsty again. The first to come to it would be the poor among the Muhajirun, with dirty clothes and untidy hair, who do not marry refined women and for whom no doors are opened. Umar wept until his beard was wet, and said that he had married refined women and had doors opened for him, and that he would not wash his clothes until they were dirty or comb his hair until it was untidy (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan).

According to the early biographies, when he fell ill at Homs, the governor, Abdullah ibn Qurt, did not visit him, and he asked a man to write to him, from Thawban the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying that if one of the freed slaves of Moses or Isa had been in his town, he would have visited him. The governor came at once. According to the early biographies, Thawban told him a hadith of the seventy thousand who enter Paradise without reckoning, and died in 54 AH.

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