7. ABŪ HURAYRAH
(603-681 CE)
One of the
companions of the Prophet who narrated the ḥadīths (traditions) of the
Prophet the most was Abū Hurayrah. He was the most prolific narrator of ḥadīths as he had narrated about 5,375 ḥadīths despite the three years
he spent in the Prophet’s company. Imām al-Bukhārī said that more than eight
hundred people among the ṣaḥābah (the Prophet’s companions) and the tābi‘īn
(people belonging to the generation following that of the ṣaḥābah)
who reported from him, including Ibnn ‘Abbās, Ibn ‘Umar, Jābir ibn ‘Abd Allāh,
and Anas ibn Mālik.
Abū Hurayrah was born in Yemen of al-Dawsī al-Azdī tribe in 19 BH (before
Hijrah)/603 CE, and was named at birth ‘Abd Shams (“Servant of the Sun”
or “Worshipper of the Sun”). His father Ṣakhr (“Rock”) had died, leaving him
with his mother Maymūnah bint Ṣubayḥ
without any other relative. When Ṭufayl ibn ‘Amar, the
chieftain of his tribe, returned after meeting the Prophet, Abū Hurayrah was one of the first to answer the call to Islam among his
tribe. He was a boy of sixteen years old.
When Abū Hurayrah came with his mother to
Madīnah in the seventh year after Hijrah (629 CE) the Prophet was at the
campaign of Khaybar, so he stayed in the mosque among the Ahl al-Ṣuffah.[1]
Because of hunger he staggered, and people pressed their feet on his neck, mistakenly
thinking that he was being attacked by epilepsy. He was a little over 33 at
that time, was single without a wife or a child. The Prophet changed his name
with ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, and when he saw him carrying a kitten, he gave him the
nickname “Abū Hurayrah” (lit. “Father of a Kitten”, meaning “the Owner of a
kitten”).[2]
When Abū Hurayrah’s mother was still an idolater and rejected to embrace
Islam and said some bad words about the Prophet he came to him crying, and
asked him to pray for her to accept Islam. When he returned home he heard the
splashing of water and her mother told him to wait. When she came out and let
him get in she was dressed and pronounced the shahādah, “I bear witness that
there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allah.” He came again to the Prophet with tears of joy of the good news of
his mother’s conversion to Islam. But because he and his mother were strangers
and had no relative, he asked the Prophet to pray for them. The Prophet prayed
that Allah would make people love them.[3]
Abū Hurayrah
remained courteous to his mother throughout his life. Before leaving home he
stood at the door of her room and greeted her and prayed for her, and his
mother answered his greeting also with prayer. He also used to say to her, “May
Allah have mercy on you as you cared for me when I was young.” His mother
replied, “May Allah have mercy on you as you delivered me from being lost when
I was old.”
Abū Hurayrah once rebuked a young
man whom he thought less respective to his parent. He saw a young man walking
with an old man. He asked the young man about the old one. When he learned that
he was his father, he advised him not to call his father by his name, not to
walk in front of him, and not to sit before him (while his father was
standing).
When some people complained that Abū Hurayrah
narrated from the Prophet more than they did, he said that the muhājirīn (emigrants)
were being busy in the market, whereas the anṣār (the people Madinah who
helped the muhājirīn) were working in their fields and gardens, he kept accompanying the Prophet wherever he
went.
When Abū Hurayrah became
extremely hungry he placed a stone on his stomach. One day Abū Bakr was passing
by, and he asked him about the meaning of a verse of the Qur’ān—although he
knew it-- expecting to be invited for a meal, but this did not happen. He tried
also with ‘Umar, but ‘Umar told him smilingly that he could not invite him as
he had nothing to feed him. When the Prophet was passing by, he realized that
he was hungry. He asked him to follow him to his house. He found a bowl of milk
sent by someone, and asked Abū Hurayrah to go to the Aṣḥāb al-Ṣuffah and
to invite them. They were the emigrant who had no home, business or work, but
were the first to respond to any call for jihad against disbelievers. They came
and all of them drank from the bowl of milk, and still had some for the Prophet
and Abū Hurayrah. In
another occasion the Prophet invited them and presented to them a plate of
dates, each with two dates, whereas Abū
Hurayrah also took two dates, one for himself and another for his mother.
When people thought that he had done too much,
one day he stood at the door of the mosque. Whenever someone came out he asked
him what the imām had read in the ‘ishā’ (night) prayer, and some
of them became confused. He then said to them: “You have just now prayed with
the imām, and yet you forget what the imām cited in his
prayer, now you want to be like me in memorizing the ḥadīths of
the Prophet.”
Abū
Hurayrah also said that he narrated many ḥadīths because Allah said:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ
مَا أَنْزَلْنَا مِنَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَالْهُدَى مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا بَيَّنَّاهُ لِلنَّاسِ
فِي الْكِتَابِ أُولَئِكَ يَلْعَنُهُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَلْعَنُهُمُ
اللَّاعِنُونَ . إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا وَأَصْلَحُوا
وَبَيَّنُوا فَأُولَئِكَ أَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَنَا
التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ .
(160 البقرة:159-160)
Verily, those who conceal the clear proofs,
evidences and
the
guidance, which We have sent down, after We have made
it clear
for the people in the Book, they are the ones cursed by
Allah
and cursed by the cursers. Except those who repent an
do
righteous deeds, and openly declare (the truth which
they
concealed). These, i will accept their repentance.
And I am
the One Who accepts repentance, the
Most
Merciful. (q. 2:159-160)
Had it not been for the two verses
in the Qur'an as mentioned above, he would not have narrated a single ḥadīth.
Abū Hurayrah said
further that his muhājirīn (emigrant) brothers were busy in the market, whereas
his anṣār (the people of Madinah who assisted the muhājirīn) brothers
were busy in their fields. But he (Abū Hurairah) used to stick to the Prophet,
contented with what would fill his stomach and he used to attend that which
they used not to attend, and he used to memorize that which they used not to
memorize. (Reported by Bukhari)
After the death of the
Prophet Abū Hurayrah went to the market
and told people that the inheritance of the Prophet was being distributed in
the mosque, and urged them to come to have their share in the inheritance. So,
they came to the mosque, but they found nothing distributed, so they came to
him, saying that there was nothing there distributed. He asked them what they
had seen in the mosque. When they told him that what they had seen there were
people praying, reading the Qur’ān, and discussing about ḥalāl and ḥarām. “That is the
inheritance of the Prophet,” said Abū Hurayrah.
At the time of Abū Bakr he took part in the battle against
the apostates and deniers of zakat, and in the battle of Yarmuk against
the Romans. At the time of ‘Umar he was appointed Governor of Bahrayn Province
(Eastern part of the Peninsula) for two and a half years, as ‘Umar did not keep
anyone in any important position for long. Abū Hurayrah returned to Makkah with
wealth. ‘Umar asked him how he became rich, he informed him that he traded in
his spare time and earned profits, gifts from people as well as piling his own salary. ‘Umar said:
“Nay! I believe since you were the
Governor, they traded with you on favorable terms in order to win your favor.
You better cut it into two and deposit one half in the public treasury.”
Abū Hurayrah did not protest and did not say,
for example, “I acquired my wealth through ḥalāl (lawful) means, and it
is up to me how much I shall give to the public treasury.” Instead, he agreed
with ‘Umar’s suggestion. He must have
thought of the accountability in the Hereafter, and therefore he was happy to
deposit half of his wealth to the bayt
al-Māl (Public Treasury).
‘Umar offered
him again to employ him, but he declined.
‘Umar asked him why he rejected the position and said:
‘Umar asked him why he rejected the position and said:
“You have rejected the
position which had been asked by a person better than you.”
“Who
was that person,” asked Abū Hurayrah.
“Yūsuf
son of Ya‘qūb a.s.” said ‘Umar.
“Yūsuf was a prophet, and son
of a prophet, and I am just Abū Hurayrah son of Umaymah. I am after three
things or two,” said Abū Hurayrah.
“Do you mean five?,” asked ‘Umar
“I fear to speak without knowledge and judge without wisdom, my back
beaten, my wealth taken, and my honour abused,” said Abū Hurayrah.
At the time of ‘Uthmān when he was in his house surrounded
by his enemy who wanted to kill him, Abū Hurayrah was with him to defend him.
But ‘Uthman told him to lay down his sword, because it is him, not Abū Hurayrah
whom they wanted. So, he threw his sword, and since then, he did not know where
it was.
When
the caliph Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam wanted to test Abū Hurayrah’s memory, he sat him
in a room, and unknown to him, a scribe behind a curtain was ordered to write
down whatever he said. A year later, he called Abū Hurayrah again to recall the
ḥadīths he had said before, and it was the same with what the scribe had
recorded without any mistake, indicating his strong memory.
While Abū Hurayrah was sick and lying
in his bed the caliph Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam visited him and found him weeping.
When he asked him why he was weeping, he said: “I am not weeping because of
leaving this world of yours, but I am weeping because of the long journey, lack
of provision, and I am standing at the end of the road leading either to Heaven
or Hell, and I do not know which one I shall follow.” The caliph said to him:
“May Allah heal you, O Abū Hurayrah.” But he prayed: “O Allah, I like to meet
You, so like also to meet me, and make it quick.” No sooner than the caliph left
his house, he passed away. He died in 59
AH/681 CE in Madinah at the age of 78 and was buried at al-Baqi‘ cemetery.
CIVIC, 28 August,
2015
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
الشيخ عطية محمد سالم. شرح الأربعين النووية: المكتبة الإلكترونية
http://islamqa.info/ar/145514
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Hurairah
http://sunnahonline.com/library/history-of-islam/306-abu-hurayrah
www.nabulsi.com/blue/ar/art.php?art=2566
http://articles.islamweb.net/media/index.php%3Fpage%3Darticle%26lang%3
[1] Ṣuffah is a shelter at the
backside of the Prophet’s mosque prepared for poor people among his companions
who did not have either a place to live or a relative to stay with. They were
called Ahl al-Ṣuffah (“the people living in the Shelter”) or Aṣḥāb
al-Ṣuffah (“the Companions of the Shelter”).
[2] It is said that Abū Hurayrah in pre-Islamic era was a
sheep tender. One day he found a stray kitten, took care of it as a company,
and in the evening, he put it on a branch of a tree, for fear of being attacked
by wild animals a night. The next morning he took it again to accompany him in
tendering sheep. He was then called “the Owner of a Kitten” (“Abū Hurayrah”).
[3]The Muslims loved him when they heard Abū Hurayrah’s
name was mentioned, and considered him blessed by Allah with unfailing memory,
except people among the Shī‘ah who considered him unreliable transmitter.
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