In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Mawaddah Association is pleased
to present to you glimpses from the lives of the Companions,
by Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
may Allah have mercy upon him.
Al-Bara' ibn Malik al-Ansari, may Allah be pleased with him.
He was disheveled, dusty, slight of frame, and lean of bone;
one might overlook him at first glance,
and turn away from him in disdain.
Yet, despite this,
he killed one hundred of the polytheists
in single combat,
not counting those he slew in the heat of battle alongside the warriors.
He was a brave, daring, and intrepid knight,
concerning whom the Faruq (Umar ibn al-Khattab) wrote to his governors in the provinces,
instructing them never to appoint him as a commander over any Muslim army,
for fear that his reckless bravery might lead them to destruction.
He is al-Bara' ibn Malik al-Ansari,
the brother of Anas ibn Malik,
the servant of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
If I were to set out to recount for you the tales of al-Bara' ibn Malik’s heroism,
the discourse would be long and the time insufficient.
Therefore, I have chosen to present to you one story from his heroic exploits,
which will inform you of the rest.
This story begins in the early hours
following the death of the noble Prophet and his joining the Highest Companion.
At that time, the Arab tribes began to leave the religion of Allah in droves,
just as they had entered it in droves,
until none remained upon Islam except the people of Makkah, Madinah, and Ta'if,
and scattered groups here and there
whose hearts Allah had made firm in faith.
The Siddiq (Abu Bakr), may Allah be pleased with him, stood firm
against this destructive, blind tribulation,
with the steadfastness of immovable mountains.
He prepared eleven armies from the Muhajirun and the Ansar,
bestowed eleven banners upon their commanders,
and dispatched them across the Arabian Peninsula
to return the apostates to the path of guidance and truth,
and to bring the wayward back to the straight path by the edge of the sword.
The most formidable and numerous of the apostates
were the Banu Hanifah, the followers of Musaylimah the Liar.
For Musaylimah had gathered from his people and their allies forty thousand
fierce warriors.
Most of them followed him out of tribal partisanship,
not out of belief in him.
Indeed, some of them would say,
"I bear witness that Musaylimah is a liar and Muhammad is truthful,
but the liar of Rabi'ah is dearer to us than the truthful one of Mudar."
Musaylimah defeated the first army sent against him from the Muslim forces,
led by 'Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl,
and drove them back.
So the Siddiq sent him a second army,
led by Khalid ibn al-Walid,
in which he gathered the elite of the Companions from the Ansar and the Muhajirun.
And in the vanguard of them all
was al-Bara' ibn Malik al-Ansari,
along with a group of the bravest Muslim warriors.
The two armies met on the land of al-Yamamah in Najd.
It was but a short time
before the tide turned in favor of Musaylimah and his companions,
and the earth shook beneath the feet of the Muslim soldiers.
They began to retreat from their positions,
until Musaylimah’s men stormed the tent of Khalid ibn al-Walid,
uprooted it from its foundations,
and nearly killed his wife,
had one of them not granted her protection.
At that moment, the Muslims felt the imminent danger,
and realized that if they were defeated by Musaylimah,
Islam would never rise again after this day.
Khalid rushed to his army,
reorganized it,
distinguished the Muhajirun from the Ansar,
and distinguished the Bedouins from both groups.
He gathered the men of each lineage under the banner of one of their own,
to see the performance of each group in battle,
and to know from where the Muslims were being attacked.
A fierce battle raged between the two sides,
the likes of which the Muslim wars had never seen before.
Musaylimah’s people stood firm on the battlefield
with the steadfastness of immovable mountains,
unconcerned by the heavy casualties they sustained.
The Muslims displayed such extraordinary heroism
that, if gathered, it would form an epic among the greatest epics.
There was Thabit ibn Qays,
the standard-bearer of the Ansar,
who perfumed and shrouded himself,
dug a pit in the ground for himself,
stood in it up to his shins,
and remained firm in his position,
defending his people’s banner until he fell as a martyr.
And there was Zayd ibn al-Khattab,
the brother of Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with them both,
calling out to the Muslims,
"O people, bite down on your molars,
strike at your enemy, and press forward!
O people, by Allah, I shall never speak again after these words
until Musaylimah is defeated,
or I meet Allah and present my plea to Him."
Then he charged the enemy and continued fighting until he was killed.
And there was Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hudhayfah,
carrying the banner of the Muhajirun.
His people feared he might weaken or falter,
so they said to him, "We fear that we might be attacked from your side."
He replied, "If you are attacked from my side,
then I would be a wretched bearer of the Qur'an."
Then he charged the enemies of Allah with heroic intensity until he was struck down.
Yet the heroism of all these men
pales in comparison to the heroism of al-Bara' ibn Malik,
may Allah be pleased with him and with them all.
For when Khalid saw the heat of battle intensifying,
he turned to al-Bara' ibn Malik and said,
"Charge them, O youth of the Ansar!"
Al-Bara' turned to his people and said,
"O company of the Ansar,
let none of you think of returning to Madinah;
there is no Madinah for you after today,
there is only Allah alone, then Paradise!"
Then he charged the polytheists, and they charged with him,
and he began to cleave through the ranks,
wielding his sword against the necks of the enemies of Allah,
until the feet of Musaylimah and his companions faltered.
They retreated into the garden,
which became known in history thereafter as the Garden of Death,
due to the number of those killed there that day.
This Garden of Death was vast in its expanse,
with towering walls.
Musaylimah and thousands of his soldiers locked themselves inside,
fortified by its high walls,
and began raining arrows down upon the Muslims from within,
falling upon them like rain.
At that point, the brave Muslim warrior stepped forward,
al-Bara' ibn Malik, and said,
"O people,
place me on a shield,
raise the shield on your spears,
and toss me into the garden near its gate.
Either I shall be martyred,
or I shall open the gate for you."
In the blink of an eye,
al-Bara' ibn Malik sat on a shield—
for he was slight and lean of body—
and dozens of spears lifted him up,
and cast him into the Garden of Death,
among the thousands of Musaylimah’s soldiers.
He descended upon them like a thunderbolt,
and continued to fight them before the garden gate,
wielding his sword against their necks,
until he killed ten of them and opened the gate.
He bore over eighty wounds,
from arrow shots
or sword strikes.
The Muslims then flooded into the Garden of Death
over its walls and through its gates,
and set their swords upon the necks of the apostates,
leaving none within its walls,
until they had killed nearly twenty thousand of them,
and reached Musaylimah,
and struck him down.
Al-Bara' ibn Malik was carried
to his tent to be treated,
and Khalid ibn al-Walid stayed by him
for a month, tending to his wounds,
until Allah granted him recovery.
And it was by his hands
that victory was written for the Muslim army.
Al-Bara' ibn Malik al-Ansari remained
yearning for the martyrdom that had eluded him
on the day of the Garden of Death.
He continued to engage in battles,
one after another,
longing to achieve his greatest wish,
and yearning to join his noble Prophet.
Until the day of the conquest of Tustar
in the lands of Persia.
The Persians had fortified themselves in one of the impregnable fortresses,
so the Muslims besieged them,
surrounding them like a bracelet around a wrist.
When the siege dragged on,
and the hardship intensified for the Persians,
they began to lower from the fortress walls
iron chains,
to which were attached steel hooks
heated in the fire,
until they glowed brighter than embers.
They would snag the bodies of the Muslims,
and hook onto them,
and they would hoist them up, either dead
or on the verge of death.
One of these hooks caught Anas ibn Malik,
the brother of al-Bara' ibn Malik.
As soon as al-Bara' saw him,
he leaped onto the fortress wall,
grabbed the chain holding his brother,
and began to work the hook
to extract it from his body.
His hand began to burn and smoke,
yet he paid it no mind,
until he saved his brother,
He descended to the earth
after his hand had been reduced to bone, stripped of all flesh.
During this battle,
Al-Bara' Ibn Malik
al-Ansari prayed to Allah to grant him martyrdom,
and Allah answered his prayer,
for he fell as a martyr,
rejoicing in his meeting with Allah.
May Allah brighten the face of Al-Bara' Ibn Malik
in Paradise,
and gladden his eyes with the companionship of His Prophet,
Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and may He be pleased with him and grant him contentment.
Do not appoint Al-Bara'
to lead any of the Muslim armies,
for fear that his boldness might lead his soldiers to their destruction,
said 'Umar Ibn al-Khattab.