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.
Abu Hurayrah al-Dawsi, may Allah be pleased with him.
There is no doubt that you know this shining star among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
For is there anyone in the Ummah of Islam who does not know Abu Hurayrah?
In the pre-Islamic era of ignorance, people used to call him 'Abd Shams.
But when Allah honored him with Islam and blessed him with meeting the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
he asked him, "What is your name?"
He replied, "'Abd Shams."
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said,
"Rather, 'Abd al-Rahman."
He said, "Yes, 'Abd al-Rahman,
may my father and mother be ransomed for you, O Messenger of Allah."
As for his kunyah, 'Abu Hurayrah' (Father of the Kitten),
its origin was that during his childhood he had a small kitten he used to play with,
so his peers began calling him Abu Hurayrah.
This nickname spread and became so widespread that it overtook his real name.
When his life became intertwined with that of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,
the Prophet often called him 'Abu Hirr,'
out of friendliness and affection.
Consequently, he came to prefer 'Abu Hirr' over 'Abu Hurayrah',
and he would say:
"My beloved, the Messenger of Allah, called me by it.
Besides, a *hirr* is male,
while a *hurayrah* is female,
and the male is better than the female."
Abu Hurayrah embraced Islam at the hands of al-Tufayl ibn 'Amr al-Dawsi,
and remained in the land of his people, Daws, until six years after the Hijrah,
when he arrived with a delegation of his people to meet the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, in Madinah.
The young Dawsi devoted himself entirely to serving the Messenger of Allah and keeping his company.
He took the mosque as his dwelling,
and the Prophet as his teacher and leader.
During the Prophet's lifetime, he had neither a wife nor children;
he had only an elderly mother who stubbornly clung to polytheism.
He never ceased calling her to Islam,
out of compassion and filial devotion toward her,
but she would turn away from him and rebuff him.
He would leave her with sorrow tearing at his heart.
One day, he invited her to believe in Allah and His Messenger,
but she said something about the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that deeply saddened and distressed him.
So he went weeping to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, asked him,
"What makes you weep, O Abu Hurayrah?"
He said, "I have never ceased calling my mother to Islam, but she persistently refuses me.
Today, I called her again, and she made me hear words concerning you that I abhor.
Pray to Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, to incline the heart of Abu Hurayrah's mother toward Islam."
So the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, prayed for her.
Abu Hurayrah said: "I went back home,
and found the door closed.
I heard the splashing of water.
When I went to enter, my mother said, 'Stay where you are, O Abu Hurayrah!'
Then she put on her garment and said, 'Enter.'
I entered, and she said, 'I bear witness that there is no god but Allah,
and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.'
I returned to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, weeping with joy,
just as an hour earlier I had wept with grief, and I said:
'Rejoice, O Messenger of Allah!
Allah has answered your supplication
and guided the mother of Abu Hurayrah to Islam.'"
Abu Hurayrah loved the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, with a love
that mingled with his very flesh and blood.
He could never gaze at him enough, and he would say:
"I have never seen anything more radiant or handsome than the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him;
it was as though the sun itself coursed across his face."
He would constantly praise Allah, Blessed and Exalted,
for blessing him with the companionship of His Prophet and following his religion,
saying: "Praise be to Allah Who guided Abu Hurayrah to Islam!
Praise be to Allah Who taught Abu Hurayrah the Qur'an!
Praise be to Allah Who blessed Abu Hurayrah with the companionship of Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him!"
Just as Abu Hurayrah was devoted to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,
he was equally devoted to sacred knowledge,
making it his constant pursuit and ultimate aspiration.
Zayd ibn Thabit related, saying:
"While Abu Hurayrah, a companion of mine, and I were in the mosque,
supplicating Allah the Exalted and remembering Him,
the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came upon us.
He approached us and sat down among us,
so we fell silent.
He said, 'Resume what you were doing.'
So my companion and I supplicated Allah before Abu Hurayrah,
and the Messenger kept saying 'Amin' to our prayers.
Then Abu Hurayrah supplicated, saying:
'O Allah, I ask You for all that my two companions have asked of You,
and I ask You for knowledge that will never be forgotten.'
The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said,
'Amin.'
We then said, 'And we too ask Allah for knowledge that will never be forgotten!'
But he said,
'The young Dawsi has beaten you to it.'"
Just as Abu Hurayrah loved knowledge for himself,
he loved it for others as well.
An example of this is when he once passed through the marketplace of Madinah
and was appalled by people's absorption in worldly pursuits
and their total immersion in buying, selling, taking, and giving.
He stood before them and said,
"How helpless you are, O people of Madinah!"
They asked, "What helplessness do you see in us, O Abu Hurayrah?"
He replied, "The inheritance of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,
is being distributed, and you are here!
Why do you not go and take your share?"
They asked, "And where is it, O Abu Hurayrah?"
He said, "In the mosque."
They rushed out quickly,
and Abu Hurayrah waited for them until they returned.
When they saw him, they said, "O Abu Hurayrah,
we went to the mosque and entered it,
but we did not see anything being distributed!"
He asked them,
"Did you not see anyone in the mosque?"
They said, "Yes,
we saw people praying,
people reciting the Qur'an,
and people discussing the lawful and the unlawful."
He said, "Woe to you!
That is the inheritance of Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him."
Due to his complete dedication to knowledge
and his devotion to the gatherings of the Messenger of Allah, Abu Hurayrah endured
hunger and hardship in living such as no one else experienced.
Relating about himself, he said:
"Severe hunger would overtake me,
to the extent that I would ask a man from among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah about a verse from the Qur'an,
even though I already knew it,
merely so that he might take me with him to his home and feed me.
One day, my hunger grew so intense
that I bound a stone against my stomach,
and I sat in the path of the Companions.
Abu Bakr passed by me,
so I asked him about a verse from the Book of Allah,
asking him only so that he might invite me,
but he did not invite me.
Then 'Umar ibn al-Khattab passed by me,
and I asked him about a verse,
but he did not invite me either.
Finally, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed by me,
and he recognized the hunger upon me.
He called, 'Abu Hurayrah!'
I said, 'At your service, O Messenger of Allah!'
So I followed him.
I entered the house with him,
and he found a bowl containing milk.
He asked his household, 'Where did you get this from?'
They said,
'So-and-so sent it to you as a gift.'
He said,
'O Abu Hurayrah,
go to the people of the Suffah and summon them.'
It grieved me that he sent me to invite them,
and I said to myself,
'What will this milk do for all the people of the Suffah?
I had hoped to take a drink from it to regain my strength,
and then go to them.'
Nevertheless, I went to the people of the Suffah and invited them,
and they came.
When they sat before the Messenger of Allah, he said,
'Take it, O Abu Hurayrah, and give it to them.'
So I began handing it to each man, and he would drink until he was satisfied,
until all of them had drunk.
Then I handed the bowl back to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
He lifted his head toward me, smiling, and said,
'Only you and I remain.'
I said,
'You have spoken the truth, O Messenger of Allah.'
He said, 'Drink!' So I drank.
Then he said, 'Drink!' So I drank again.
He kept telling me to drink,
and I kept drinking until I said,
'By the One Who sent you with the truth,
I can find no room for any more!'
He then took the vessel and drank the remainder."
Not long after that,
abundant wealth poured in upon the Muslims,
and the spoils of conquest flowed to them.
Consequently, Abu Hurayrah acquired wealth, a home, furnishings,
a wife, and children.
Yet none of that altered his noble character in the least,
nor did it make him forget his earlier days.
He would frequently say:
"I grew up an orphan,
emigrated as a pauper,
and worked as a hired hand for Busrah bint Ghazwan in exchange for my daily food:
I served the company when they halted,
and led their camels by chanting when they rode.
Then Allah married her to me!
So praise be to Allah Who made the religion a pillar of support,
and made Abu Hurayrah a leader!"
Abu Hurayrah was appointed governor of Madinah
by Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan on more than one occasion,
yet governance did not diminish his good nature or pleasant humor in the least.
Once, while governing the city, he passed along one of the roads of Madinah
carrying firewood on his back for his family.
He passed by Tha'labah ibn Malik
and said to him,
"Make way for the governor, O Ibn Malik!"
Tha'labah said to him,
"May Allah have mercy on you!
"Is all this space not enough for you?"
So he said to him,
"Clear the way for the governor and the bundle on his back!"
Along with his vast knowledge and generous soul, Abu Hurairah combined
God-fearing piety and scrupulousness.
He used to fast during the day and pray during a third of the night,
then awaken his wife to pray for the second third,
and she would then awaken her daughter to pray for the final third.
Thus, worship in his house was continuous throughout the entire night.
Abu Hurairah had a Black servant girl,
and she offended him and caused distress to his family,
so he raised his whip to strike her with it.
Then he stopped and said,
"Were it not for the retaliation on the Day of Resurrection,
I would have made you feel pain just as you caused us pain.
Instead, I will sell you to someone who will pay me your price full and well,
at a time when I am in the utmost need of it—
go!
For you are free for the sake of Allah, Almighty and Glorious."
His daughter used to say to him,
"O my father, the girls mock me!"
And she would say,
"Why does your father not adorn you with gold?"
He would reply, "O my daughter,
say to them,
'My father fears for me the heat of the blazing Flame.'"
Abu Hurairah’s refusal to adorn his daughter was not due to
stinginess with wealth or greed for it,
for he was magnanimous and open-handed in the cause of Allah.
Marwan ibn al-Hakam once sent him
one hundred gold dinars.
The following day, he sent a message to him, saying:
"My servant made a mistake and gave you the dinars,
when I did not intend them for you;
I intended them for someone else."
Abu Hurairah was caught off guard and distressed, saying,
"I have already spent them in the cause of Allah,
and not a single dinar of them spent the night with me.
So when my stipend comes out, take them from it."
Yet Marwan had only done that to test him;
when he investigated the matter, he found it to be true.
Throughout his entire life, Abu Hurairah remained
devoted and dutiful to his mother.
Whenever he wanted to leave the house,
he would stand at the door of her room and say,
"Peace be upon you, mother, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings."
And she would reply,
"And upon you be peace, my son, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings."
Then he would say,
"May Allah have mercy on you, just as you raised me when I was small."
And she would say,
"May Allah have mercy on you, just as you were dutiful to me when I grew old."
Then when he returned home, he would do the same.
Abu Hurairah was extremely eager
to call people to honor their parents
and maintain their family ties.
One day, he saw two men
walking together, one older than the other.
So he said to the younger of them,
"What is this man to you?"
He replied, "My father."
Abu Hurairah said to him,
"Do not call him by his name,
do not walk ahead of him,
and do not sit down before he does."
When Abu Hurairah fell ill with the illness that led to his death, he wept.
It was said to him,
"What makes you weep, O Abu Hurairah?"
He replied,
"As for me, I am not weeping over this world of yours,
but I am weeping because of the long journey and the scarcity of provisions.
I stand at the end of a road
leading me to Paradise or to Hell,
and I do not know which of them I will be in."
Marwan ibn al-Hakam visited him in his illness and said to him,
"May Allah cure you, O Abu Hurairah!"
Abu Hurairah said,
"O Allah, I love meeting You,
so love meeting me and hasten it for me!"
Marwan had barely left his house
when Abu Hurairah passed away.
May Allah show vast mercy to Abu Hurairah!
For he preserved for the Muslims more than
1,609 hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him),
and may He reward him abundantly on behalf of Islam and the Muslims.
Abu Hurairah preserved for the Ummah of Islam
more than 1,600 hadiths
of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
Historians,
by Muhammad and his Companions,
the firm edifice has been established, O company!
Inspire me to speak at length in their praise; is there any more?