Pause.
Get to know the Companions, the scholars, and the most eminent among them.
Here is a serious challenge: who am I?
I am a Companion, one of the masters of the Ansar.
My father was the leader of the Khazraj.
Our house was among the most noble and ancestrally distinguished homes of the Arabs.
Following the custom of the wealthy and generous Arabs of that time,
we had a herald who would stand upon an elevated place,
calling guests to their food during the day,
and lighting a fire to guide the weary traveler by night.
People used to say,
"Whoever loves fat and meat,
let him come to the house of Dulaym Ibn Harithah."
There was neither beard nor hair upon my face,
so the Ansar would say,
"We wish we could buy you a beard with our wealth."
Despite that, I was one of the shrewdest of the Arabs,
known for my cunning, skill, and intelligence.
Had it not been for Islam,
I would have devised a scheme that the Arabs could not have withstood.
I served the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
and I held a position with him like that of a chief of police to a prince.
I carried his banner in some of the military expeditions,
and he appointed me to collect the zakat.
When the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, sent
Abu Ubaydah Ibn al-Jarrah,
with three hundred of the Muhajirun and the Ansar,
I was among them.
We suffered great hardship,
so I slaughtered nine camels for them,
until we found a whale on the seashore,
and we ate from it for a month,
until our strength returned to us.
I used to feed people during my travels with the Prophet, peace be upon him,
and whenever my provisions ran out,
I would borrow to feed them.
Every day I would call out,
"Come to the meat and the tharid!"
An old woman came to me and said,
"I complain to you of the scarcity of rats in my house,"
and I said,
"How elegant this metaphor is!"
"Fill her house with bread and meat,
and ghee and dates."
I once sold a piece of land of mine for ninety thousand,
and when I arrived in Medina,
I ordered the herald to call out,
"Whoever needs a loan, let him come."
I lent out fifty thousand of it,
and spent the rest.
Then, I later fell ill,
and my visitors became few.
I said to my wife,
"I see that few have visited me during this illness of mine,
and I believe that is
because of the debts people owe me."
So I ordered the herald to call out,
"Whoever owes us a debt,
they are absolved of it."
By evening, the threshold of my door was broken
from the multitude of visitors.
So, who am I?
Share your answers with us in the comments below the video.
We will pin the correct answer in the comments
when the next episode is released,
if Allah wills.
The best of generations in their stances and examples,
they followed the Messenger whenever he strove or spoke.
They were here, watering the clouds of our lives,
and through their stances, their memory is exalted.
They departed, leaving a question in the conscience:
Is there a star like them that has risen and shone?
They filled life with pride through their deeds,
and the world of the noble flourished because of them.