Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid al-Asadi

ProfileTulayha ibn Khuwaylid al-Asadi

Tulayha (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Khuwaylid, of the Banu Asad, a tribe of central Arabia. According to the early biographies, he was a chief, a fine horseman and a poet, and a man of great courage. According to the early biographies, his tribe took part in the war against the Prophet ﷺ in the Trench, and in the Year of Delegations, 9 AH, he came to Madinah with a delegation of the Banu Asad, and accepted Islam.

Abu Hurayrah told that the Prophet ﷺ said that the Hour would not be established until about thirty liars appeared, each claiming to be a messenger of Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, when the Prophet ﷺ fell ill and the tribes began to doubt, Tulayha claimed that he too was a prophet and received revelation, and many of the Banu Asad, Ghatafan and others followed him. According to the early biographies, he said that Allah had no need of men's faces in the dust or their bent backs, and told them they might pray standing and quickly, and give up some of what Islam required. According to the early biographies, his followers gave up the zakah.

Abu Hurayrah told that the Prophet ﷺ spoke of a group of seventy thousand of his people who would enter Paradise without reckoning, and Ukkashah ibn Mihsan al-Asadi, of the same tribe, got up and asked him to pray that Allah make him one of them. The Prophet ﷺ said, "O Allah, make him one of them." Another man got up and asked the same, and the Prophet ﷺ said that Ukkashah had beaten him to it (Sahih al-Bukhari). According to the early biographies, Abu Bakr sent Khalid ibn al-Walid against Tulayha at Buzakhah, and Khalid defeated him, though he had many more men. According to the early biographies, Ukkashah and Thabit ibn Aqram, whom Khalid had sent ahead as scouts, were killed by Tulayha and his brother, and Tulayha fled to Syria.

According to the early biographies, he lived there for some time, until the tribes of Asad and Ghatafan returned to Islam, and then he accepted Islam, and wrote to Abu Bakr to say that he repented. According to the early biographies, he was ashamed to go to him, and came to Makkah for Umrah in the time of Umar. Umar met him and said that he would never love him, because of Ukkashah and Thabit. Tulayha said that these were two men whom Allah had honoured at his hands, and He had not made him die at theirs. According to the early biographies, Umar saw that he was sincere. According to the early biographies, he asked to fight in the army against the Persians, and Umar wrote to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas to take his advice in war but not to put him in command. According to the early biographies, at al-Qadisiyyah he showed great courage, and he fell as a martyr at Nahawand.

WatchA lecture about Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid al-Asadi

Meet them inWhere they appear in the seerah

SourcesSources for this profile