Usamah ibn Zayd

ProfileUsamah ibn Zayd

Usamah (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Zayd ibn Harithah and Umm Ayman, both of them freed slaves who were close to the Prophet ﷺ. According to the early biographies, Umm Ayman, whose name was Barakah, had been the only slave of the Prophet's ﷺ father Abdullah, and she cared for the Prophet ﷺ from his birth, and he freed her and treated her like a mother. Usamah was born in Makkah, before the Hijrah, and grew up in the Prophet's ﷺ house. According to the early biographies, he was very dark like his mother, while his father was lighter, and some of the Quraysh whispered that he could not be Zayd's son. Aishah told that the Prophet ﷺ came to her one day with his face shining, and said that a man skilled in reading family resemblance, Mujazziz, had seen Zayd and Usamah lying asleep under a rug that covered their heads, with only their feet showing, and said that these feet were from one another (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim; Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih).

He was loved by the Prophet ﷺ, and was known as the beloved of the Prophet ﷺ. He told that the Prophet ﷺ would take him and al-Hasan on his lap, and pray that Allah love them as he loved them (Sahih al-Bukhari). Aishah told that the Prophet ﷺ once wanted to wipe his running nose, and she asked to do it herself, and he told her to love him, for he loved him (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan). He told that Ali and al-Abbas asked him to seek permission for them to enter, and asked the Prophet ﷺ which of his family was dearest to him. He said Fatimah, and when they said they meant the men, he named Usamah, the one whom Allah had favoured and whom he had favoured, and then Ali. When al-Abbas said that he had put his uncle last, he said that Ali had come before him in emigrating (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan). A report in Ibn Majah about the Prophet ﷺ kissing the blood off his face after he fell at the door is graded weak, and is left out.

He was often behind the Prophet ﷺ on his mount. He told that they once rode a donkey, before Badr, to visit the sick Sa'd ibn Ubadah, and passed a gathering of Muslims, idol worshippers and Jews, among them Abdullah ibn Ubayy and Abdullah ibn Rawahah. The Prophet ﷺ greeted them, stopped, called them to Allah and recited the Quran to them (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). On the Farewell Hajj he rode behind the Prophet ﷺ from Arafah to Muzdalifah, and poured the water for his ablution on the way, and when he asked whether it was time to pray, the Prophet ﷺ told him that the place of prayer was ahead, at Muzdalifah (Sahih al-Bukhari). Asked later how fast the camel went, he said that it went at a modest pace, and when there was room, quickly (Sahih al-Bukhari).

At the conquest of Makkah, Ibn Umar told that the Prophet ﷺ entered the city on his camel with Usamah riding behind him, and with Bilal and Uthman ibn Talhah, who kept the key of the Kaaba. The Prophet ﷺ had the key brought and went into the Kaaba with the three of them, closed the door, and stayed inside for a long time (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). Usamah asked him whether he would stay in his own house in Makkah, and he asked whether Aqil had left any house or property (Sahih al-Bukhari). In the same days a woman of the Banu Makhzum, a noble clan of the Quraysh, was caught stealing, and her people sent Usamah to speak for her. The Prophet's ﷺ face changed, and he asked whether he was interceding about one of the limits set by Allah. Usamah asked him to seek forgiveness for him. The Prophet ﷺ then stood and told the people that those before them were destroyed because when a noble among them stole they let him go, and when a weak one stole they applied the punishment, and that if Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, stole, he would cut off her hand. The punishment was carried out on the woman. The report adds that her repentance proved sincere and that she married, and Aishah said that she used to come to her, and that she would bring her needs to the Prophet ﷺ (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim).

He also told of the hardest moment of his own life. The Prophet ﷺ sent them out to al-Huraqah, and he and a man of the Ansar caught up with a man in the fighting. The man said that there is no god but Allah, and the Ansari stopped, but Usamah killed him with his spear. The Prophet ﷺ asked whether he had killed him after he said it. Usamah said that he said it only to save himself, and the Prophet ﷺ kept repeating the question until Usamah wished he had not become a Muslim before that day (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). In Muslim's report he asked whether he had split open the man's heart to know. According to the early biographies, he refused afterwards to fight any Muslim, and kept out of the fighting between the Muslims.

He was with the Prophet ﷺ in moments of tenderness, too. He told that one of the Prophet's ﷺ daughters sent word that her child was dying, and the Prophet ﷺ told the messenger to give her his greeting and tell her that what Allah takes and gives is His, that everything has its appointed time, and that she should be patient and hope for reward. When she sent again and swore that he come, he went with Sa'd ibn Ubadah, Mu'adh ibn Jabal and others. The child was brought to him, with his breath rattling in his chest, and the Prophet's ﷺ eyes filled with tears. Sa'd asked what it was, and he said that it was mercy which Allah has put in the hearts of His servants, and that Allah is merciful only to those of His servants who are merciful (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). Usamah also narrated that the Prophet ﷺ told them that if they heard of a plague in a land, they should not go to it, and if it broke out where they were, they should not leave it (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). The Prophet ﷺ advised Fatimah bint Qays to marry him, when she had been proposed to by Mu'awiyah and Abu Jahm. She did not want to, and he told her again to marry Usamah, and she did, and said that Allah blessed it and that she was envied (Sahih Muslim). When the slander against Aishah spread, the Prophet ﷺ asked him and Ali about it, and Usamah said that she was his wife, and that they knew nothing but good of her (Sahih al-Bukhari).

When the Prophet ﷺ sent an army and put Usamah in command, some of the people spoke against it. According to the early biographies, he was still a young man, and the army included older Companions. The Prophet ﷺ stood and said that they had spoken against his father's command before, and that Zayd had been fit for it and among the dearest of people to him, and that Usamah was among the dearest to him after him (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). In Muslim's report, he also told them to treat him well, for he was one of the righteous among them. According to the early biographies, the army was to go to the border of Syria, where Zayd had been killed at Mu'tah. When the Prophet ﷺ became very ill and Usamah heard of it, he came back from the camp outside Madinah. The Prophet ﷺ could not speak, but he put his hands on Usamah and then raised them up, and Usamah knew that he was praying for him (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan).

According to the early biographies, when the Prophet ﷺ died, some of the elder Companions came to Abu Bakr and asked him to put an older man in Usamah's place, and Abu Bakr refused, and said that he would not undo what the Prophet ﷺ had decided. The army went out under Usamah, and returned safely. Umar gave him a higher allowance than his own son Abdullah, and told Abdullah that Zayd had been dearer to the Prophet ﷺ than Umar, and Usamah dearer than Abdullah (Sunan at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan). Usamah kept up the fast of Mondays and Thursdays in his old age, and when asked why, he said that the Prophet ﷺ fasted them, and said that people's deeds are presented to Allah on those days (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih). He asked why the Prophet ﷺ fasted so much in Sha'ban, and was told that it is a month between Rajab and Ramadan that people neglect, in which deeds are raised to the Lord of the worlds, and that he liked to have his deeds raised while he was fasting (Sunan an-Nasa'i, graded hasan). He died near Madinah, about 54 AH (the sources give different years).

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