Uwaym ibn Sa'idah

ProfileUwaym ibn Sa'idah

Uwaym (may Allah be pleased with him) was of the Banu Amr ibn Awf of the Aws, in Quba. According to the early biographies, he was among those who accepted Islam early, and the Prophet ﷺ made him a brother of Umar ibn al-Khattab when the Muhajirun were paired with the Ansar, though some sources give Utbah ibn Malik as Umar's brother instead. The verse in Surat at-Tawbah about the mosque founded on piety from the first day says that in it are men who love to be purified, and that Allah loves those who purify themselves. The Prophet ﷺ said that this verse was revealed about the people of Quba, who used to clean themselves with water after relieving themselves (Sunan Abi Dawud, graded sahih; Jami at-Tirmidhi, graded hasan; Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan). The Prophet ﷺ went to the people of Quba, told them that Allah had praised them in His book, and asked what they did. They said that they washed with water after the toilet as the Jews, their neighbours, did, and that they did so before Islam too. He told them to keep to it (Sunan Ibn Majah, graded hasan, in another wording).

According to the early biographies, many of the Companions said that the verse was about Uwaym ibn Sa'idah in particular. According to the early biographies, the Arabic word used for purifying is the one that covers both the cleaning of the body and the cleaning of the heart, so the verse praises purity of the body, and the cleaning of the heart of envy and slander. According to the early biographies, he was a quiet man who did not put himself forward in public matters, but he did not miss the Prophet's ﷺ battles, and Umar said, when standing at his grave, that there was no one on the earth who could say that he was better than the man in that grave, since he never saw a banner raised for the Prophet ﷺ without finding Uwaym under it.

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