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 upon him.
Anas ibn al-Nadr al-Ansari,
may Allah be pleased with him.
Have you seen that star
which had barely begun to shine
in the sky of Islam
before the hand of fate eclipsed it,
while it was at its most
brilliant and radiant?
For he was raised by a family
among the most noble of Arab families
in lineage,
the most honorable in mother and father,
the most faithful in kindness to the Arabs
during the Jahiliyyah,
and the most sincere in devotion to Allah
and His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
in Islam.
That is the beloved martyr and Companion,
Anas ibn al-Nadr al-Ansari.
And it is enough for Anas ibn al-Nadr
in terms of glory, honor,
and pride
that a noble hadith was revealed concerning him,
narrated by the two Shaykhs, al-Bukhari
and Muslim,
and that a noble Qur'anic verse was revealed concerning him,
which the believers will recite until
Allah inherits the earth and whoever is upon it,
and which the devout will pray with
in the hours of the night
and at the edges of the day.
Is there any pride after this pride
that the necks of the ambitious might reach for,
or that the hearts
of the hopeful might yearn for?
And is there, above this nobility,
a nobility that the noble seek to attain?
The hadith that
was narrated regarding Anas ibn al-Nadr
is a story among the most wonderful of stories,
and the Qur'an that
was revealed regarding him has a story
that surpasses the previous one.
As for the story of the hadith,
it is that
Anas ibn al-Nadr had a sister
of great stature among the women
of the Arabs, of esteemed
status among her people,
and she was al-Rubayyi' bint al-Nadr,
known as Umm Harithah.
This Umm Harithah
had a son in
the prime of his youth and the bloom of his life,
who had attained perfection in intellect,
sweetness in character,
and loftiness in conduct and faith.
The noble Messenger,
may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him,
saw him shortly before Badr,
and he looked at him with tenderness and kindness
and said to him,
"How are you, O Harithah?"
He replied, "I am a believer
in Allah, truly."
So he, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
said to him, "Consider
what you say, O Harithah,
for every statement has a reality."
He said,
"O Messenger of Allah,
my soul has turned away from the world,
so I have kept my nights awake in prayer,
and I have made my days thirsty
through fasting,
and it is as if I am looking at the people of the Fire
burning in its flames,
and crying out in its hell."
Then he said,
"Pray for my martyrdom, O Messenger of Allah."
So the noble Prophet,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
prayed for him for that.
Not long after that meeting
between the Messenger, may the prayers
and peace of Allah be upon him,
and the young man,
did Badr occur,
and the call to arms was made.
Harithah was the first horseman
to mount his steed,
and he was martyred.
His mother, the elderly,
bereaved woman, grieved for him deeply,
and she came to the Messenger of Allah,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and said, "If Harithah is
in Paradise, I will not weep
for his loss nor grieve for his bereavement,
but if he is in the Fire,
I will weep for him as long as
I have eyes that shed tears
and a heart that burns."
The noble Messenger,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said to her,
"It is not just one Paradise,
O Umm Harithah,
but it is many gardens,
and Harithah is in the highest
Firdaws."
The dignified, bereaved
old woman returned to her home,
and she began to wipe away her tears,
suppress her anguish,
console herself,
and find comfort in the condolences
of the people.
While the noble lady
from the Ansar was tasting
the bitterness of suffering
as she was,
and enduring the agitation of emotions
as she was,
she was provoked by a slave girl
belonging to a group of the people of Yathrib,
and she could not help
but strike her a blow
that broke her front tooth.
Then she regretted what she had done
with the deepest regret.
Her brother,
Anas ibn al-Nadr, approached the girl's family,
offering them the blood money.
The notables of the people rose to them,
hoping they would pardon her,
but they refused them
and insisted on complaining about her
to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
When they complained to him,
he ruled for retaliation against her,
in implementation of the law of Allah
and to ensure equality among the Muslims.
Her brother,
Anas, was stunned when he heard this and said,
"Will the front tooth of Umm Harithah be broken,
O Messenger of Allah?
By the One who sent you with the truth, it shall not be broken!"
The Messenger,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said to him,
"O Anas,
it is the Book of Allah
that decrees this."
Before Anas could utter another word,
the noble Messenger,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
looked at the girl's family,
who were rigid and insistent,
and they became softer than carded wool
and smoother
than soft silk,
as if
something hidden was pushing them
away from what they had been upon.
They turned to the Prophet,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
saying,
"Yes, do not break her front tooth,
O Messenger of Allah!
Yes, do not break it!
We have pardoned her, O Messenger of Allah,
we have pardoned her,
O most noble of the Prophets of Allah."
So the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him,
looked at Anas ibn al-Nadr kindly
and said, "Indeed, among the servants of Allah
are those who, if they were to swear
by Allah, He would fulfill it."
That is the story of the hadith
that was narrated regarding Anas ibn al-Nadr.
As for the noble Qur'an
that was revealed concerning him, it has
another matter. That is
that he missed Badr
for a reason that was not in his power
to prevent, so it weighed heavily
upon him that he did not witness with the Messenger,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
the first of the days of Allah,
and this matter troubled him
and grieved him,
He began to reproach himself, saying,
"Woe to you, Anas!
How could you be absent from the first battle
that the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
witnessed?"
"Can you guarantee that you will live long enough
to witness another day
with the Prophet of Allah, peace be upon him,
that equals Badr
in merit and reward?"
"By Allah, if my Lord honors me
with a day where I encounter the polytheists,
they shall see what I do."
Anas,
may Allah be pleased with him,
intended to say more,
but he was too awestruck to do so,
and he remained silent.
Not long after the vow
that Anas Ibn al-Nadr had made to himself,
the battle of
Uhud took place—
a day of testing for the Muslims,
in which Allah purified
the hearts of the sincere believers
and brought forth on its fields
the noble, blessed heroes,
those who sought martyrdom
and were destined for the highest gardens of Paradise.
The Messenger,
may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
endured great hardship and harm therein;
he was pelted with stones,
cast into a pit,
his face was wounded,
his lips were cut, and his blood flowed.
The alarmists spread the rumor
that he had been killed,
and most of the Muslims
and the mujahidin with him believed what was broadcast
at that moment.
Anas Ibn al-Nadr realized
that the opportunity had arrived
to fulfill what he had
vowed to Allah, the Almighty.
He looked out onto the battlefield
and saw the Muslims
having retreated from
the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
while the polytheists
surrounded him,
intent on killing him
and extinguishing the light of Allah
with the edge of their swords.
He said,
"O Allah, I apologize to You
for what these have done,"
meaning the Muslims fleeing
from the battlefield,
"and I disavow before You what these have done,"
meaning the attacking polytheists.
Then he encountered
'Umar Ibn al-Khattab nearby,
who was agitated and anxious.
He turned to him and asked,
"What has the Messenger of Allah done, O 'Umar?"
He replied,
"I fear he has been killed."
Anas said,
"If Muhammad has died,
then Allah is Ever-Living and does not die."
Then he drew his sword,
broke its scabbard,
and threw himself into the thick of
the battle, without doubt
or fear.
While he was rushing to meet
the polytheists, he saw
Sa'd Ibn Mu'adh nearby.
He turned to him and said,
"Paradise, O Sa'd!
Paradise, by the Lord of al-Nadr!
I can smell its fragrance from before
Uhud." Then he went forth,
looking back at nothing.
Sa'd said,
"I intended to follow him,
to walk his path and do
as he did, but
I could not resolve to do what he
resolved, nor could I do
what he did." Then the battle cleared,
and behold,
Anas Ibn al-Nadr lay
a martyr on the soil of Uhud,
having sustained over eighty
sword strikes,
spear thrusts,
or arrow shots.
The malice of the polytheists toward him
was such that they mutilated his body
after he had died,
leaving him unrecognizable,
so that no one knew him
except his sister, Umm Harithah,
who recognized him only by his fingertips.
Allah honored
Anas Ibn al-Nadr al-Najjari,
for He revealed a Qur'anic verse about him
that the Muslims recited
throughout the night and the day,
and it will continue to be recited
until Allah inherits
the earth and everyone upon it.
Allah revealed concerning him
His words, the Almighty and Majestic:
"Among the believers
are men who have been true to
what they pledged to Allah;
of them are some
who have fulfilled their vow,
and among them
are some who still wait,
and they have not altered
[their commitment] in the least."
There is a noble hadith
regarding Anas Ibn al-Nadr,
and the Holy Qur'an
was revealed in his honor.
Regarding Muhammad and his Companions,
the lofty structure has been built,
O poet,
so help me to speak at length
in their praise; are they not
the ones who have triumphed?