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.
Abu Ubayd Ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi,
may Allah be pleased with him.
There he was, the Caliph of the Messenger of Allah,
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq,
lying upon his bed,
awaiting the decree of Allah concerning him,
after the burden of illness had weighed heavily upon him.
And there were the people of Medina,
visiting the house of the Caliph of the Muslims,
anxious and deeply concerned.
While al-Siddiq was in this state,
he summoned his successor and said,
"O Umar,
I truly hope to pass away this very day.
So, when I die,
do not let the morning come before you call the people to fight the Persians.
Then, send those among them who respond to you
as reinforcements for the Muslim army fighting there.
And let no calamity, however great, distract you from the affairs of your religion."
Shortly thereafter, he surrendered his soul before the sun set that day.
The Faruq (Umar) buried his companion in the earth that night.
And no sooner had the morning dawned
than the first task Umar undertook
was to call the people to fight the Persians,
encouraging them to do so with the utmost fervor.
Yet he was surprised that no one responded to him,
due to their intense fear of the Persians
and the many stories they had heard of their might and brutality.
When the next day came,
he called the people once again,
but no one answered his call.
When the third day came,
he called them a third time,
but no one volunteered.
When the fourth day came,
he went out to the people, heavy-hearted and distressed,
and called them to fight the Persians.
Then Abu Ubayd Ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi stood up before him
and said,
"O Commander of the Faithful,
we have heard your call
and have obeyed your command.
I am the first to respond to you,
along with my children, my family, and my kin."
Umar’s face brightened with joy,
and a spirit of zeal stirred in the hearts of the men,
so they flocked to join the invading army
in the cause of Allah.
When the gathering of the Muslims was complete,
one of them said to Umar Ibn al-Khattab,
"Appoint over the army one of the early converts
to Islam from the Muhajirun or the Ansar,
for they are the people of highest standing
and greatest stature."
He replied, "No, by Allah!
Their standing was raised and their stature made great
only by their precedence in good deeds
and their haste to meet the enemies of Allah.
If they become sluggish in Jihad in the cause of Allah,
and someone else rushes to it before them,
then he is the one who has precedence over them
and is more worthy of leadership."
"By Allah, I will not appoint over them
anyone but the first of the Muslims to respond to the call of Jihad."
Then he summoned Abu Ubayd Ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi
and entrusted him with the banner of the Muslim army
heading to war against the Persians.
Abu Ubayd set out with his army, numbering
five thousand mujahidin,
accompanied by his brother, his three sons, and his wife.
Whenever he passed by a tribe of the Arabs,
he would urge them to Jihad
and encourage them toward martyrdom.
The army continued to grow and expand
until it reached ten thousand mujahidin.
News of the approaching Muslim army,
led by Abu Ubayd, reached the ears of the Persians,
so they mobilized their soldiers and prepared their forces,
resolving to strike the Muslims a decisive blow
from which they would never recover.
They placed in command of their army one of their great leaders,
called Jaban,
and placed on his right flank a knight from among their most famous,
known as Mardan.
The two hosts met at al-Nariq,
and a fierce, grinding battle ensued between them,
in which the Muslim army,
led by Abu Ubayd,
displayed such valor and sacrifice
that it shook the footing of the Persians,
inflicted upon them a crushing defeat,
and scattered them completely.
Jaban, the commander of the army, fell
into the captivity of a Muslim soldier
named Matar Ibn Fadda al-Taymi,
and Mardan fell into the captivity of another soldier
named Aktal Ibn Shammakh al-Ikli.
Aktal killed his captive,
but as for Jaban,
he realized that his captor did not recognize him,
so he began to humble himself before him,
showing him weakness, helplessness, and his advanced age,
and asked him to grant him safety for his life,
promising him whatever reward he wished.
Matar felt pity for him, granted him safety, and set him free.
But no sooner had Jaban escaped from his captor
than the Muslim soldiers recognized him and seized him,
bringing him to the army commander, Abu Ubayd,
and saying, "This is Jaban, the commander of the Persian army.
One of the Muslim soldiers granted him safety,
not knowing who he was."
Then they suggested he be executed.
He replied, "By Allah, I will not kill him after he has been granted safety,
for the Muslims are like one body;
what binds one of them binds them all."
And he set him free.
The defeated soldiers surrendered to Abu Ubayd
and made peace with him on the condition that they pay the jizya.
They brought him delicacies of food and al-akhbisa—
al-akhbisa being a type of sweet.
When they placed it before him,
he turned away from it and said,
"Have you honored all the Muslim soldiers
with the same as you honor me?"
They replied, "That was not possible for us today,
but we will do so tomorrow."
He said, "Take it away, for we have no need of it."
Then his eyes welled with tears and he said,
"Wretched is the man Abu Ubayd is,
if he leads the Muslim soldiers from their homes,
and tears them away from their families and children,
then takes for himself something they do not have.
No, by Allah, I will not eat anything of what you have brought,
nor of the spoils of war that Allah has bestowed upon us,
except what the average Muslim soldier eats."
So they took it away.
Abu Ubayd gathered the spoils,
and among what he had captured
was a type of fine date
called al-Narsiyan,
named after Narsi,
the cousin of the King.
It was attributed to him
because he had monopolized its cultivation
and restricted it to himself, away from other people.
The King of Persia used to reserve
this unique type of date for himself,
so that no one ate it except him and his family,
or those he wished to honor with a gift.
Abu Ubayd distributed it
among the Persian farmers
who used to plant and harvest it,
yet never tasted it.
He sent one-fifth of it to the Muslim treasury in Medina
and wrote to Umar Ibn al-Khattab, saying,
"Allah has provided us with food that the Chosroes used to protect
and reserve for themselves, away from their subjects.
We wanted you to see it, O Commander of the Faithful,
so that you may thank Allah the Exalted for His bounty and grace."
News of the crushing defeat that befell the Persians
reached the ears of their leader, Rustam,
and he learned what had happened to Jaban and his right-flank commander.
He was filled with rage,
and it was unbearable for him that the victorious Persian armies
should be defeated by this small number of barefoot, naked Arabs.
He gathered his inner circle and said to them,
"Which of the Persians, in your view, is most formidable against the Arabs?"
They replied, "It is Bahman Dhu al-Hajib."
He said, "You have spoken correctly."
Then he summoned Bahman
and entrusted him with the banner over eighty thousand fierce fighters,
and included in his army twenty elephants,
the likes of which the eye had never seen for size or strength.
Bahman marched with this massive army
until he encamped on the eastern bank of the Euphrates,
near the site of Kufa.
As for Abu Ubayd, he headed with his soldiers
and encamped on the bank of the river opposite the Persian camp.
Bahman wrote to Abu Ubayd, saying,
"Either you cross over to us,
and we will not raise a hand against you in harm as you cross,
or we shall cross over to you."
Abu Ubayd said to those around him,
"The Persians shall not be bolder than us in the face of death."
And he resolved to cross,
despite the opposition of many of his men
to what he had decided,
and he informed the Persians of that.
On the night before the crossing,
the wife of Abu Ubayd saw in a dream
that a man descended from the sky
with a pitcher containing a drink,
and he gave her husband, his brother, and his three sons to drink from it.
When she recounted her vision to Abu 'Ubayd,
he said to her, "Glad tidings to you,
for martyrdom has been decreed for me, my brother, and my sons."
Then he stood before his troops and said,
"O people,
if I am killed, appoint my brother al-Hakam as your commander.
If he is killed, appoint my son Wahb.
If he is killed, appoint his brother Malik.
If he is killed, appoint his brother Jabr.
If he is killed, appoint al-Muthanna ibn Harithah al-Shaybani."
Then he ordered the Muslims to cross.
They obeyed the command,
and began to pour toward the eastern bank of the river like a rushing torrent.
They crossed over a bridge they had erected there.
When the two armies met on the battlefield,
the Muslims were taken by surprise by the elephants advancing with the Persian army.
Thick branches of palm fronds had been fastened to their backs and necks,
and large, clanging bells were hung upon them.
Each elephant appeared like a wooded mountain walking upon the earth.
The Muslim soldiers, who had never encountered such things before, were awestruck,
and their horses shied away in fear.
Abu 'Ubayd realized that he had to eliminate the elephants and their riders
in order to secure victory for his army.
He called out to the Muslim soldiers, "Advance upon the elephants, cut their girths,
throw the men from their backs, and strike them in their vital spots.
I am advancing before you."
No sooner had he finished speaking than he approached the largest elephant,
cut its girth, and brought down the rider on its back.
However, the elephant immediately struck him with its trunk, throwing him to the ground,
then trampled him and killed him.
Command passed after Abu 'Ubayd to his brother al-Hakam,
who fell as a martyr.
He was succeeded by his eldest son,
who joined his father and uncle in martyrdom.
He was succeeded by his second son,
who also joined them.
He was succeeded by his third son,
who met the same fate as his father, his brothers, and his uncle.
Thus, the vision of Abu 'Ubayd's wife was fulfilled,
and his interpretation of it proved correct,
as martyrdom was decreed for them all.
The Muslims did not achieve in this battle,
which was called the Battle of the Bridge,
the victory they had hoped for.
Nevertheless, they filled the hearts of their enemies with terror,
and instilled deep dread and fear within them.
Indeed, the Battle of the Bridge
was a grave and momentous event with significant consequences.
For the bright and glorious day of al-Qadisiyyah
was not far removed from the day of the Bridge.