Waraqah ibn Nawfal

ProfileWaraqah ibn Nawfal

Waraqah (may Allah have mercy on him) was the son of Nawfal ibn Asad, of the Banu Asad of Quraysh, and a cousin of Khadijah. According to the early biographies, he was one of the few men of Makkah who gave up the worship of idols before Islam, and looked for the religion of Ibrahim. According to the early biographies, he was among the four who set out to find it, with Zayd ibn Amr, Ubaydullah ibn Jahsh and Uthman ibn al-Huwayrith, and became a Christian.

Aisha told that Khadijah took the Prophet ﷺ, after he came back from the cave of Hira shaken, to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal ibn Asad, who had become a Christian in the days before Islam, and used to write the Gospel in Hebrew letters, as much as Allah willed him to write. He was an old man, and had lost his sight. Khadijah told him to listen to the story of his nephew. Waraqah asked what he had seen. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ told him. Waraqah said that this was the same one who keeps secrets, the angel whom Allah had sent to Musa, and that he wished that he were young and could live until the day his people would drive him out. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked whether they would drive him out, and Waraqah said yes, that no man had come with what he had brought but was met with hostility, and that if he lived until that day, he would support him strongly. A few days later Waraqah died, and the revelation paused for a time (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

The books of hadith record little more of his life. Scholars have differed on whether he counts as a Companion, since he believed in the Prophet ﷺ but died before the call began.

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