In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Mawaddah Association is pleased
to present to you
portraits from the lives of the Companions,
by Abd al-Rahman
Ra'fat al-Basha,
may Allah have mercy upon him.
Tamim al-Dari,
may Allah be pleased with him.
The Lakhm tribe of Qahtan migrated
from the lands of blessed Yemen
after the destruction of the Ma'rib Dam,
and settled in the Levant.
A group of them settled
in Ramla and the Golan Heights,
while another group descended
upon Jerusalem.
For a time, it was called Bayt Lahm,
then people corrupted the name,
calling it Bethlehem.
The Lakhmids established contact
with their Roman neighbors,
and some of them embraced Christianity,
while others remained
worshipping Jupiter,
and making pilgrimage to an idol called
al-Uqaysir, which was erected on
the outskirts of the Levant.
Tamim ibn Aws ibn Kharijah
al-Dari al-Lakhmi was,
when he embraced Christianity,
so deeply immersed in it that
he became the monk of Bethlehem.
One day,
Tamim al-Dari had
an errand in a neighboring village,
so he stood up, took his black
cloak, and put it on,
tightened his belt around his waist,
let its ends hang by his side,
and donned the necklace
from which hung
his silver cross.
Then he put on his small cap,
and set his face toward the village.
“When the night grew dark upon him he beheld a star. He said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not things that set.” (6:76)
A matter occurred to him
that he would not forget for the rest of his life.
Let us leave Tamim
al-Dari to speak,
to tell us his exciting story.
Tamim al-Dari said:
"I was residing in the Levant
when the Prophet,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was sent.
I went out to the neighboring places
to attend to some of my needs,
when night overtook me
at a deep, dark valley.
Awe seized me,
and fear crept into my soul.
I remembered what the Arabs
used to say about seeking refuge
with the jinn in such
situations.
So I called out, 'I am under the protection of the
master of this valley tonight.'
Then I took to my resting place
to sleep,
when suddenly a caller called out,
whom I could not see, saying:
'Seek refuge with Allah, O man,
and seek protection with Him,
for the jinn do not protect anyone against Allah.'
I said to the voice,
'I adjure you by Allah,
are you telling the truth?'
He replied:
'The Messenger of the unlettered has emerged,
so we have believed and followed him.
The guile of the jinn has been thwarted,
and they have been pelted with shooting stars.
So go to the Messenger of the Lord of the worlds,
and embrace Islam.'"
Tamim al-Dari said:
"My soul calmed down a little,
and I spent my night recalling
what the voice had said,
and pondering it.
I began to remember what I used to read
in the Torah and the Gospel
about the appearance of a new prophet."
Tamim said:
"When morning came, I went to the monastery of Job,
where there was
an elderly monk
whose knowledge and understanding I trusted.
I told him the news,
and asked him about it. He said:
'The voice told you the truth,
for this Prophet is emerging from the land of Makkah,
and he is the best of the prophets.
Hasten to him,
and let no one precede you
to him if you are able.'"
Tamim al-Dari cast off
his monastic garments,
and accompanied a brother of his named Hind.
They began to traverse
the road between Bethlehem
and Medina,
to meet the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and announce
their Islam before him,
and reside in his proximity.
When the two brothers reached Medina,
they made their mounts kneel
near the mosque,
and approached the Messenger of Allah,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
The two brothers greeted him
with the greeting of Islam,
and announced before him the word of monotheism,
and entered the religion of Allah.
Then,
Tamim said to the Prophet, peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him:
"Allah will manifest your religion, O Messenger of Allah,
and spread your banner
across the horizons.
I have left behind
my family and my homeland,
and I have come to devote myself to Allah
and His Messenger.
So grant me my village,
Jabrin, if Allah grants victory
to the Muslims,
and they possess Jerusalem."
He, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said:
"It is yours."
Tamim said: "Write for me
a document for that, O Messenger of Allah."
So the Prophet,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, wrote
a document for him to that effect.
Then the days passed,
and the armies of the Muslims began
to spread in the vast land of Allah,
east and west.
The fortresses of polytheism began
to crumble under the hooves
of the best of believers, fortress after fortress.
The glad tidings of conquest
followed one another to the city of
the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and no sooner would one
piece of good news arrive than another would follow,
until it was
the year fifteen of the Hijrah,
when the bearer of good news came
to the Commander of the Faithful, Umar ibn al-Khattab,
from his commander, Amr ibn al-As,
bringing him the news
of the surrender of Jerusalem,
and informing him of the insistence
of its people that the
Caliph of the Muslims, Umar ibn al-Khattab,
be the one to conclude the peace treaty for them,
and inviting him to travel
to the first of the two Qiblahs,
in the two sanctuaries.
So the Faruq, may Allah be pleased with
him, set out for the liberated land of Palestine,
and personally concluded
the peace treaty for its people.
The banners of Islam were raised
over the hills of Jerusalem,
and the sounds of the Adhan echoed
throughout the Golan,
where the Lakhm tribe resided.
Here, the youth of Lakhm,
Tamim al-Dari, stood before Umar ibn al-Khattab
and said:
"O Commander of the Faithful,
this is Jerusalem, which Allah has conquered
for the Muslims,
and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
gifted me my village,
Jabrin.
So fulfill for me what
the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, gifted me."
One of the
Companions stood up and said:
"And who bears witness to that for you?"
Umar ibn al-Khattab said:
"I bear witness to that."
And the Faruq fulfilled
the gift of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
to Tamim al-Dari.
Tamim al-Dari remained devoted
ever since he embraced Islam
to the mosque of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
and he would hardly
ever leave it.
He dedicated himself to the word of Allah,
reciting it through the hours of the night
and the edges of the day,
until he would complete the entire Qur'an
once every seven days.
He committed his entire self
to the service of the Book of Allah,
being one of the four
who had compiled the Qur'an during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
Tamim al-Dari experienced
the joy of worship,
and thereafter, he would not trade it
for any worldly pleasure.
He tasted the sweetness
of the night vigil (tahajjud),
and he turned toward it with his body
and his soul, committing himself to it
with the utmost dedication.
When the night would fall
and people would lay their sides down to rest,
he would rise from his sleep,
perform his ablution perfectly,
and reach for a garment of his
that he had purchased for a thousand dirhams.
He would wrap himself in it,
adorning himself completely
and perfectly to stand before
the King of kings,
seeking to draw near to Him in private,
away from the people.
He would then spend his entire night
in prayer, reciting the verses
of the Qur'an.
Whenever he passed by a verse
mentioning Paradise, he would yearn
truly to reach it,
and when he passed by another
mentioning the Fire,
he would let out a sigh as if the flames
of Hell were within his very chest.
One night, he recited the words of the Almighty:
"Or do
those who commit
evil deeds think that We will make
them like those
who have believed and done
righteous deeds, [so that]
their life
and their death
would be
equal? How evil
is their judgment!"
A trembling seized him
out of awe of Allah,
and he was overcome by dread
from the fear of His punishment.
He continued to pray with this
verse from the time of Isha until the dawn broke.
Every time he repeated it,
his weeping intensified
in anguish at the terror of that Great Day.
Once, sleep overcame
Tamim,
and he did not rise for the night vigil,
so he punished himself
by standing in prayer for a full year
without sleeping.
Tamim al-Dari remained
a resident of the city of the Messenger of Allah,
peace be upon him,
until the martyrdom of
Dhu al-Nurayn, Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him.
He then left the city,
sorrowful and grieving for the Caliph
of the Muslims,
the companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
He returned to
his homeland to meet his end
in his village in the Levant.
May Allah be pleased
with Tamim al-Dari,
the devout worshipper,
buried in the Golan region.
May Allah grant him light
in his grave and settle him
in the highest gardens of Paradise.
Tamim al-Dari was
one of the four
who collected the Qur'an during the
time of the Messenger of Allah,
peace be upon him.
Muhammad,
and with his companions, he
built the lofty structure.
O seeker,
assist me, and let me pour forth
in their praise; shall we
continue?