Ubadah ibn as-Samit

ProfileUbadah ibn as-Samit

Ubadah (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the Khazraj of Madinah, known as Abu al-Walid (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, he was a leader of his tribe like his father before him, tall, very dark-skinned and so imposing that people made room for him when he came into a room, and he was known for settling disputes before Islam. He was one of the first people of Madinah to accept Islam, and he took part in both pledges at Aqabah. He told of the night when the Prophet ﷺ took the pledge from a group of his Companions around him: not to worship anything besides Allah, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to kill their children, not to invent slanders, and not to disobey in anything good. The Prophet ﷺ told them that whoever kept it would be rewarded by Allah, that whoever fell into one of them and was punished for it in this world, the punishment would be an expiation for him, and that whoever was not punished was left to Allah's will. He said that he was a leader, a naqib, on that night, and that he fought at Badr (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim). He also said that they pledged to listen and obey in ease and hardship, to stand firm for the truth wherever they were, and not to fear the blame of those who blame in the matter of Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari).

According to the early biographies, he fought in every battle beside the Prophet ﷺ, and was one of those who wrote down the revelation and who had learned the whole Quran in the Prophet's ﷺ lifetime, one of the five of the Ansar remembered for it. He was patient with those he taught. He told how he taught some of the people of the Suffah to write and recite the Quran, and one of them gave him a bow. He asked the Prophet ﷺ whether he could use it in the way of Allah, and the Prophet ﷺ told him that if he wanted a necklace of fire, he should take it (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih; Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan). According to the early biographies, he was a man of the night who wept in prayer, a patient teacher by day, and a fierce fighter in battle.

After the Prophet's ﷺ death he stayed with the believers as a judge and a teacher. According to the early biographies, when many people in Syria entered Islam, Mu'awiyah wrote to Umar asking for Companions to teach them the Quran and the law. Umar called together those who had learned the Quran, and three of them went to Syria: Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Ubadah and Abu ad-Darda. According to the early biographies, Ubadah settled in Palestine and taught there, and when Umar asked the people how their teachers and governors were treating them, they spoke well of him. The Prophet ﷺ's pledge had made him a man who would not stay quiet when he saw a wrong, and this was tested with Mu'awiyah. On a campaign in the Byzantine land, Ubadah saw people selling gold for gold at different weights and told them that this was interest, because he had heard the Prophet ﷺ forbid it unless it was like for like. Mu'awiyah said that he saw no interest in it unless there was a delay. Ubadah said that he was telling him a hadith from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Mu'awiyah was giving him an opinion, and that if Allah brought him back safely he would not live in a land where Mu'awiyah had authority over him. When he came back to Madinah, Umar asked him what had brought him, and he told the story. Umar told him to go back to his land, since a land without him and men like him was a bad land, and wrote to Mu'awiyah that he had no authority over Ubadah and that people must follow what Ubadah said, because he was right (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan).

According to the early biographies, Umar sent him with the army to Egypt with a note saying that he was worth a thousand men. At the siege of the fortress of Babylon, the Egyptian ruler, the Muqawqis, asked to meet the Muslims, and Ubadah came forward as their spokesman. When the Muqawqis saw his dark skin he said that this man should be taken away and someone else sent, but the Muslims told him that Ubadah was the best of them and their leader, and that to them dark and light were the same, since only piety raised anyone. The Muqawqis said that Ubadah should speak softly because his looks frightened him. Ubadah answered that if he feared his blackness, a thousand men as dark as him stood behind him. He said that he was old, but he would not fear a hundred of the best of the Roman soldiers, and that they did not fight for the world but for the pleasure of Allah, and wanted nothing of it beyond food and a garment. According to the early biographies, the Muqawqis said that he had never heard such words and was more afraid of this than of his appearance. After Egypt, Ubadah took part in the first naval expedition of the Muslims, led by Mu'awiyah, with his wife Umm Haram (Sahih al-Bukhari). She fell from her mount and died after coming ashore, as the Prophet ﷺ had said she would be among the first to sail.

According to the early biographies, he did not live long after that, and spent his last years in Palestine teaching the Quran and narrating hadith. When he was dying, someone came to see him and began to cry. He told him to stop, because if he was asked to bear witness he would bear witness for him, and if he was asked to intercede he would intercede, and that he would help him as much as he could. He told him that he had told him every hadith that would benefit him, except one, and that he would tell it now that his time was near: that whoever testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, Allah forbids the Fire to him (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, he asked his family to bring him out into the courtyard and gather everyone who had ever dealt with him, servants, neighbours and soldiers, and asked if he had wronged any of them by hand or tongue, and told them to take their right now before he died. No one had anything to say against him.

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