In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Mawaddah Association is pleased
to present to you snapshots from the lives of the Companions,
by 'Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
may Allah have mercy on him.
'Utbah ibn Ghazwan,
may Allah be pleased with him.
The Commander of the Faithful, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, retired
to his bed after the Isha prayer;
he wished to get some rest
to help him conduct his night patrol.
However, sleep eluded the eyes of the Caliph
because the courier had brought him news
that the Persian armies defeated before the Muslims—
whenever his troops were about to finish them off—
received reinforcements from here and there,
so they quickly regained their strength and resumed fighting.
It was said to him
that the city of al-Ubullah
was considered one of the most vital sources supplying the defeated Persian armies
with wealth and men.
Thus, he resolved to send an army to conquer al-Ubullah
and cut off its supplies to the Persians.
But he collided with a shortage of men at his disposal.
That was because the young, mature, and elderly men among the Muslims
had already set out across the lands as warriors in the cause of Allah,
until hardly anyone remained with him in Medina except a very small number.
So he resorted to his well-known strategy,
which was compensating for the scarcity of troops with the strength of the commander.
He emptied his quiver of men before him
and began testing their strength one after another.
Before long, he exclaimed,
"I found him!
Yes, I found him!"
Then he proceeded to his bed, saying,
"He is a true warrior
known to Badr, Uhud, al-Khandaq, and their sister battles,
and attested to by al-Yamamah and its stands.
His sword was never blunted, nor did his spear ever miss its mark.
Moreover, he performed both migrations,
and he was the seventh of seven people who embraced Islam on the face of the earth."
When morning came, he said,
"Call 'Utbah ibn Ghazwan for me."
He appointed him commander over three hundred and some dozen men,
promising to reinforce him successively with whatever men became available.
As the small army prepared to depart,
al-Faruq stood to bid farewell to his commander, 'Utbah, advising him.
He said to him:
"O 'Utbah,
I have directed you to the land of al-Ubullah,
which is one of the enemy's fortresses,
and I pray to Allah to aid you against it.
When you arrive there,
call its people to Allah;
whoever responds to you, accept it from him,
and whoever refuses, take the jizyah from him in submission and humility;
otherwise, put the sword to their necks without relent.
And fear Allah, O 'Utbah, regarding that over which you have been put in charge,
and beware lest your soul tempt you to pride that spoils your Hereafter.
Know that you accompanied the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and Allah honored you through him after humiliation,
and strengthened you through him after weakness,
until you became an authoritative ruler
and an obeyed commander:
you speak and you are heard,
and you command and your order is obeyed.
What a blessing it is, so long as it does not make you arrogant and deluded,
driving you down into Hellfire—
may Allah protect you and me from it!"
'Utbah ibn Ghazwan set out with his men,
accompanied by his wife and five other women
from among the wives and sisters of the soldiers,
until they camped in a reed-filled land
not far from the city of al-Ubullah.
They had nothing with them to eat,
so when hunger severely pressed upon them,
'Utbah said to a group of them,
"Look for something in this land for us to eat."
They rose to search for whatever might satisfy their hunger.
They had a curious story regarding the food, which one of them narrated,
saying:
"While we were searching for something to eat,
we entered a thicket and found two large baskets;
in one of them were dates,
and in the other were small white grains
covered with a yellow husk.
We dragged them until we brought them near the camp.
One of us looked into the basket containing the grain
and said, 'This is poison prepared for you by the enemy,
so do not approach it!'
We turned to the dates and began eating them.
While we were doing so,
a horse broke its tether,
came over to the basket of grain, and started eating from it.
By Allah, we were about to slaughter it before it died
so that we could benefit from its meat,
but its owner stood up and said to us,
'Leave it, and I will guard it tonight;
if I feel it is dying, I will slaughter it.'
When morning came, we found the horse perfectly healthy,
with no harm done to it.
My sister then said,
'O my brother,
I heard my father say
that poison does no harm if placed over fire and cooked thoroughly.'
She then took some of the grain, placed it in the pot,
and kindled a fire under it.
Before long she said,
'Come and see how its color has reddened!'
Then its husks began to burst open
and release its white grains.
So we poured it into the bowl to eat it,
and 'Utbah said to us,
'Mention the name of Allah over it and eat it.'
We ate it, and it turned out to be exceedingly delicious.
We learned later that it was called rice."
Al-Ubullah, toward which 'Utbah ibn Ghazwan had marched with his small army,
was a fortified city standing on the banks of the Tigris.
The Persians had turned it into a depot for their weapons
and made lookout points from its fortress towers to monitor their enemies.
Yet that did not deter 'Utbah from attacking it,
despite the scarcity of his men and the meager nature of his weaponry;
for he had gathered no more than 600 fighters,
accompanied by a small group of women,
and he had no weapons other than swords and spears.
He simply had to employ his intelligence.
'Utbah prepared banners for the women, mounting them on spear shafts,
and commanded them to march with them behind the army.
He said to them, "When we draw near the city,
stir up the dust behind us until you fill the air with it."
When they approached al-Ubullah, the Persian troops marched out against them;
they saw their bold advance upon them,
looked at the banners fluttering behind them,
and found dust filling the air in their wake.
Some of them said to another,
"They are merely the vanguard of the army,
and behind them is a massive force kicking up the dust,
while we are few."
Panic then crept into their hearts,
and dread overcame them;
so they began carrying whatever was light in weight and high in value,
racing to board the ships anchored in the Tigris,
and fled in retreat.
'Utbah entered al-Ubullah without losing a single one of his men,
then opened the surrounding cities and villages,
winning spoils beyond count
and exceeding all estimation.
In fact, one of his men returned to Medina,
and the people asked him,
"How are the Muslims in al-Ubullah?"
He replied, "What are you asking about?
By Allah, I left them scooping up gold and silver by the measure!"
Hearing this, people began riding out to al-Ubullah.
At that point, 'Utbah ibn Ghazwan realized
that his soldiers' residing in conquered cities
would accustom them to a life of ease,
imbue them with the traits of the inhabitants of those lands,
and blunt the edge of their resolve to continue fighting.
So he wrote to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab,
requesting his permission to build Basra,
describing to him the location he had chosen for it,
and 'Umar granted him permission.
'Utbah marked out the new city,
and the first thing he built was its great mosque.
And no wonder;
for the sake of the mosque,
he and his companions had set out as warriors in the cause of Allah;
and through the mosque,
he and his companions were granted victory over the enemies of Allah.
Then the soldiers competed in allocating land
and building homes.
Yet 'Utbah did not build a home for himself;
rather, he continued to live in a tent made of woven fabric.
That was because he held a deep concern within his heart.
'Utbah saw that worldly spoils were pouring upon the Muslims in Basra
in a manner that might distract a person from their own soul,
and that his men, who just a short while ago
knew no finer food than rice boiled in its husk,
had now tasted the Persian delicacies of faludhaj, lawzinaj, and the like,
and had developed a penchant for them.
Thus, he feared for his religion because of his worldly life,
and he trembled for the eternal over the fleeting present.
So he gathered the people in the mosque of Basra and delivered a sermon to them,
saying:
"O people,
indeed, this worldly life has announced its end,
and you are departing from it to an abode that shall never cease;
so depart to it with the best of your deeds.
I remember when I was the seventh of seven with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
when we had no food except tree leaves,
until the sides of our mouths became ulcerated from it.
I once picked up a cloak,
split it between myself and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas,
and wrapped half of it around my waist
while Sa'd wrapped the other half around his.
Yet today, there is not a single one of us
who has not become a governor over one of the garrison cities!
And indeed, I seek refuge in Allah from being great in my own eyes
...insignificant in the sight of Allah.
Then he appointed a man from among them as his successor over them,
bade them farewell, and set out for Medina.
When he arrived before al-Faruq [Omar],
he asked to be relieved of his governorship, but Omar refused to relieve him.
He persisted in his plea,
yet the Caliph remained firm with him,
ordering him to return to Basra.
So he reluctantly submitted to Omar's command,
mounted his camel, and began praying:
"O Allah, do not send me back to it!
O Allah, do not send me back to it!"
And Allah answered his supplication;
he had not traveled far from Medina when his camel stumbled,
and he fell from it, thrown to the ground, and passed away.
Truly, 'Utbah ibn Ghazwan holds an exalted station in Islam.
Omar ibn al-Khattab...
"O poetry,
aid me that I may pour forth,
for can praise ever do them justice?"