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 on him.
'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani, may Allah be pleased with him.
Here is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, reaching the outskirts of Yathrib
after prolonged longing and eager anticipation.
And here are the people of the fragrant city of Medina,
crowding into the alleyways and atop the rooftops,
chanting *tahlil* and *takbir* in sheer joy at meeting the Prophet of Mercy
and his companion, al-Siddiq.
And here are the young maidens of Medina,
coming out with tambourines in hand and longing in their eyes,
ululating and singing:
"The full moon has risen over us,
from the valley of Thaniyyat al-Wada'.
Gratitude is incumbent upon us,
so long as a supplicant calls unto Allah."
And here is the procession of the noble Messenger moving gracefully through the ranks,
enveloped by yearning souls,
surrounded by eager hearts,
as tears of joy and radiant smiles are showered all around him.
But 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani
did not witness the procession of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,
nor was he blessed to welcome him alongside those who welcomed him.
That was because he had gone out into the desert with a small flock of sheep
to graze them there,
after extreme hunger had beset them and he feared their perish,
and they were all he possessed of worldly belongings.
Yet the joy that overwhelmed the Radiant Medina
soon swept through its near and distant deserts,
shining brightly in every corner of its blessed terrain,
and its glad tidings reached 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani
while he was with his sheep far off in the wilderness.
So let us leave the narrative to 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir
to recount to us the story of his meeting with the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
'Uqbah said:
"The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, arrived in Medina
while I was tending a small flock of sheep of mine.
No sooner had the news of his arrival reached me
than I left them and rushed to him, paying heed to nothing else.
When I met him, I said:
'Will you accept my pledge of allegiance, O Messenger of Allah?'
He asked: 'Who are you?'
I replied: ''Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani.'
He said: 'Which is dearer to you:
that you pledge allegiance as a Bedouin,
or the pledge of emigration (Hijrah)?'
I said: 'Rather, the pledge of emigration!'
So the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, accepted my pledge
upon that which he took the pledge of the Emigrants (Muhajirun).
I stayed with him for a night,
and then I returned to my sheep.
We were twelve men who had embraced Islam,
residing far from Medina
to graze our sheep in its pastures.
So we said to one another:
'There is no good in us if we do not go
to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
day after day,
so that he may instruct us in our religion
and let us hear the heavenly revelation descending upon him.
So let one of us go each day to Yathrib,
and leave his sheep with us
so that we may graze them for him.'
I said:
'Go to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
one after another,
and whoever goes may leave his sheep with me.'
For I was deeply protective of my little flock
to ever leave them in the care of anyone else.
Then my companions began going, one
after another, to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
leaving his sheep for me to tend for him.
Whenever one returned,
I would take from him what he had heard
and learn from him what he had understood of fiqh.
But soon, I came to my senses and said to myself:
'Woe to you!
Is it for the sake of a few sheep that neither fatten nor satisfy hunger
that you deprive yourself of the companionship of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
and of taking knowledge directly from him without an intermediary?'
So I gave up my little flock of sheep,
and set out for Medina to reside in the Mosque
in the close company of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him."
It never crossed the mind of 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani,
when he made this decisive, resolute choice,
that a decade later he would become one of the greatest scholars among the Companions,
a master Qur'an reciter among the foremost reciters,
an eminent commander among the leaders of the conquests,
and a distinguished governor among the rulers of Islam.
Nor could he ever have imagined,
as he abandoned his little flock of sheep
and turned wholly to Allah and His Messenger,
that he would be at the vanguard of the army that conquered the jewel of the world, Damascus,
and would build a home for himself amidst its lush gardens near Bab Touma.
Nor could he ever have conceived
that he would be one of the commanders who would conquer the green emerald of the world:
Egypt;
and that he would become its governor,
laying out a home for himself at the foot of its Mount Mokattam.
For all these were matters hidden within the unseen,
known to none but Allah.
'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani stayed attached to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
just as a shadow accompanies its master.
He would hold the reins of his mule wherever he rode,
and walk before him wherever he turned.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, would often seat him behind him on his mount,
until he came to be known as "the Prophet's co-rider."
At times, the noble Prophet would dismount from his mule for him,
so that 'Uqbah would ride
while the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would walk.
'Uqbah narrated, saying:
"I was leading the mule of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, through one of the woods of Medina,
when he said to me:
'O 'Uqbah, will you not ride?'
I thought of saying no,
but I feared that doing so might be an act of disobedience to the Messenger of Allah.
So I said: 'Yes, O Prophet of Allah.'
The Messenger dismounted from his mule and I rode it,
in compliance with his command,
while he walked.
Soon thereafter, I dismounted from it,
and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, rode.
Then he said to me:
'O 'Uqbah,
shall I not teach you two Surahs the like of which have never been seen?'
I said: 'Certainly, O Messenger of Allah!'
So he recited to me: 'Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of daybreak,'
“Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the Daybreak” (113:1)
and 'Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of mankind.'
Then the prayer was established,
and he stepped forward and led the prayer reciting both of them.
Then he said:
'Recite them whenever you go to sleep and whenever you wake up.'
'Uqbah said:
'And I never ceased reciting them throughout the span of my life.'"
'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani directed
his entire concern toward two pursuits:
knowledge and jihad.
He devoted himself to them body and soul,
dedicating his utmost effort
in the most generous and noble manner.
As for the realm of knowledge,
he drank deeply from the abundant,
sweet springs of the Messenger of Allah,
until he became a master reciter, a scholar of hadith,
a jurist, an expert in the laws of inheritance,
a man of letters, an eloquent orator, and a poet.
He possessed one of the most beautiful voices in reciting the Qur'an.
Whenever the night fell dark
and the universe grew still,
he would turn to the Book of Allah,
reciting from its lucid verses,
so that the hearts of the noble Companions would listen intently to his chanting,
their hearts humbling in reverence,
and their eyes overflowing with tears out of fear of Allah.
One day, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab called for him
and said:
"Recite some of the Book of Allah for me, O 'Uqbah."
He replied:
"I hear and obey, O Commander of the Believers."
Then he began to recite what was easy of the verses of the Wise Reminder,
while 'Umar wept
until his tears moistened his beard.
'Uqbah left behind a copy of the Qur'an written in his own hand,
and this copy remained until recent times,
preserved in Egypt
in the mosque known as the Mosque of 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir.
At the end of it, it was inscribed:
"Written by 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani."
This copy of 'Uqbah's was among the oldest manuscripts of the Qur'an found on the face of the earth,
but it was lost along with what has been lost of our precious heritage
while we remained oblivious of it.
As for the realm of jihad,
it suffices us to know that 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani
witnessed the Battle of Uhud and the subsequent military expeditions with the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
and that he was one of the valiant, heroic warriors
who fought with the utmost gallantry on the day Damascus was conquered.
Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah rewarded him for his remarkable valor
by sending him as a bearer of glad tidings to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab in Medina to inform him of the victory.
So he rode for eight continuous days and nights,
from Friday to Friday,
hastening his pace without interruption,
until he gave al-Faruq the glad tidings of the great victory.
Furthermore, he was one of the commanders of the Muslim armies that conquered Egypt,
so the Commander of the Believers, Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, rewarded him
by appointing him as its governor for three years.
Then he dispatched him to lead the expedition against the island of Rhodes
in the Mediterranean Sea.
Such was 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani's passion for jihad
that he committed the hadiths of jihad to memory
and specialized in narrating them to the Muslims;
he was also dedicated to mastering archery,
to the extent that whenever he sought recreation, he spent it in archery.
When 'Uqbah ibn 'Amir al-Juhani fell terminally ill
while in Egypt,
he gathered his sons, gave them his counsel, and said:
"O my sons, I forbid you from three things, so guard them well:
Do not accept a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
except from a trustworthy narrator;
do not take on debt, even if you must wear rough cloaks;
and do not write poetry,
lest it distract your hearts from the Qur'an."
And when death approached him,
they buried him at the foot of Mount al-Muqattam.
Then they turned to examine his estate,
and found that he had left behind seventy-odd bows,
each bow accompanied by a quiver and arrows,
and he had bequeathed them all to be used in the cause of Allah.
May Allah brighten the face of the Qur'an reciter, the scholar, the warrior, 'Uqbah Ibn 'Amir al-Juhani,
and reward him on behalf of Islam and the Muslims with the best of rewards.