In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The best of generations in their conduct and example,
Following the Messenger whenever he strove or spoke.
Mawaddah Association
Presents:
Portraits from the Lives of the Tabi'un
By Dr. Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
May Allah have mercy upon him.
Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr,
May Allah have mercy upon him.
Has the news of this noble Tabi'i reached you?
He gathered glory from all its corners,
Until nothing of it escaped him.
For his father was Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Siddiq,
And his mother was the daughter of Kisra Yazdegerd,
The last of the Persian kings.
His paternal aunt was 'A'ishah, the Mother of the Believers, may Allah be pleased with her.
And above all that,
He crowned his head with the crown of piety and knowledge.
Do you think there is any glory above this for which competitors might vie?
That is al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Siddiq,
One of the seven jurists of Medina,
The most knowledgeable of the people of his time,
The sharpest of them in intellect, and the most intense of them in piety.
So let us begin the story of his life from its inception.
Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad was born in the final years of the caliphate of 'Uthman ibn 'Affan, may Allah be pleased with him.
But the young child had barely begun to stir in his nest,
When the violent winds of discord (fitnah) swept through the lands of the Muslims.
The devout and ascetic Caliph, the Possessor of the Two Lights, was martyred,
While he was bent over the pages of the Qur'an.
Then the great conflict erupted between the Commander of the Believers, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib,
And Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of the Levant.
In a terrifying and staggering series of successive events,
The young child found himself being carried with his sister from Medina to Egypt.
For they had to join their father,
After he had become its governor on behalf of the Commander of the Believers, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib.
Then he saw the bloody claws of discord reach out to his father,
Killing him in the most heinous of ways.
He then found himself being moved once again from Egypt to Medina,
After the supporters of Mu'awiyah had seized control of it.
He had become an orphan, bereft and alone.
Al-Qasim would speak of this journey of suffering, his eyes filled with tears,
Saying: "When my father was killed in Egypt,
My uncle 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr came,
He took me and my little sister and brought us to Medina.
No sooner had we reached it,
Than my aunt 'A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, sent for us.
She took us from my uncle's house to her own,
And raised us in her care.
I have never seen a mother or father more kind than she,
Nor more compassionate.
She would feed us with her own hands, while she herself would not eat with us;
If any of our food remained, she would eat it.
She would show us the tenderness of a nursing mother toward a weaned child,
Washing our bodies and combing our hair,
And dressing us in the purest white garments.
She never ceased to urge us toward goodness and habituate us to its practice,
While forbidding us from evil and compelling us to abandon it.
She was diligent in teaching us what we could grasp of the Book of Allah,
And narrating to us what we could understand of the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
She would increase our joy and delight during the two Eids;
When the eve of 'Arafah arrived,
She would trim my hair,
And wash me and my sister.
When morning came,
She would dress us in new clothes,
And send us to the mosque to perform the Eid prayer.
When we returned from it,
She would gather me and my sister and provide for us.
One day,
She dressed us in white clothes,
Then she sat me on one of her knees,
And sat my sister on her other knee.
She had summoned my uncle 'Abd al-Rahman.
When he entered,
She greeted him and then spoke,
Praising Allah, the Almighty and Majestic,
And extolling Him as He deserves.
I have never seen a speaker, man or woman, before or since,
More eloquent in tongue or sweeter in expression than she.
Then she said:
"O my brother,
I have continued to see you turning away from me since you took these two children from you,
And I brought them to myself.
By Allah, I did not do that out of arrogance toward you, nor out of suspicion of you,
Nor out of accusing you of falling short in their care.
But you are a man with wives,
And they are two small children who cannot manage their own affairs.
I feared that your wives might see something from them that they would dislike,
And thus not be pleased with them.
I found that I was more entitled than they to take charge of their affairs in this situation.
Now they have grown,
And have become capable of managing their own affairs.
So take them and bring them to yourself."
My uncle 'Abd al-Rahman took us and brought us to his house.
However, the young boy of the house of Bakr
Remained with his heart attached to the house of his aunt, the Mother of the Believers, may Allah be pleased with her.
For it was on the ground of her house, perfumed with the scents of Prophethood, that he grew up,
And in the care of its mistress that he was raised and nurtured,
And from her overflowing compassion that he drank and was satisfied.
So he began to divide his time between her house and his uncle's house.
The memories of his aunt's fragrant, gentle, and sheltering home remained
Alive in his mind as long as he lived.
Listen to some of his accounts of those memories, as he says:
"I said one day to my aunt 'A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her:
'O Mother, uncover for me the grave of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
And the graves of his two companions, for I wish to see them.'
The three graves were still inside her house,
And she had covered them with something that concealed them from sight.
So she uncovered for me three graves, neither raised high nor flattened,
Which had been leveled with the small red pebbles that were in the courtyard of the mosque.
I said: 'Where is the grave of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him?'
She pointed with her hand and said: 'This one.'
Then two large tears rolled down her cheeks,
And I hastened to wipe them away so that I would not see them.
The grave of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was placed in front of the graves of his two companions.
I said: 'And where is the grave of my grandfather, Abu Bakr?'
She said: 'Here it is,' and he was buried at the head of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
I said: 'And this is the grave of 'Umar?'
She said: 'Yes,' and the head of 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, was at the waist of my grandfather,
Close to the feet of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him."
When the young man of the house of Bakr grew up, he had memorized the Book of Allah, the Almighty and Majestic,
And had taken from his aunt 'A'ishah the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
As much as Allah willed for him to take.
Then he turned toward the noble Prophetic Sanctuary,
And devoted himself to the circles of knowledge that were scattered in every corner of it,
Just as the bright stars are scattered across the face of the sky.
He narrated from Abu Hurayrah, 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas,
'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, 'Abdullah ibn Ja'far,
'Abdullah ibn Khabbab, Rafi' ibn Khadij,
Aslam the freedman of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab,
And others, may Allah be pleased with them, until he became an independent scholar (mujtahid) and leader.
He became one of the most knowledgeable people of his time regarding the Sunnah.
For a man was not considered a man among them until he had mastered the Sunnah.
When the young man of the house of Bakr had completed his tools of knowledge,
People flocked to him, seeking knowledge from him with passion,
And he turned to them, bestowing it upon them with generosity.
He would come to the mosque of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, every morning,
At a time he never missed.
He would pray two rak'ahs to enliven the mosque,
Then he would take his place in front of the door of 'Umar in the noble Rawdah,
Between the grave of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and his pulpit.
Students of knowledge would gather around him from every place,
And drink from his pure, refined sources,
Which filled their thirsty souls.
Not much time passed,
Before al-Qasim ibn Muhammad,
And his cousin Salim ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar,
Became the two trusted leaders of Medina,
Its two obeyed masters,
And its two influential figures,
Even though they held no office or authority.
The people made them their leaders,
Because of the piety and godliness they possessed,
The knowledge and fiqh they carried in their hearts,
And the asceticism they displayed regarding what was in the hands of others,
And their desire for what is with Allah, the Almighty and Majestic.
Their status in the hearts of the people reached such a point
That the Umayyad caliphs and their governors
Would not decide any matter
Regarding the affairs of Medina
Except with their counsel.
Among these instances was when al-Walid ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Resolved to expand the noble Prophetic Sanctuary.
He could not achieve this cherished wish
Unless he demolished the old mosque from its four sides,
Removed the houses of the wives of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
And incorporated them into the mosque.
These were matters that were difficult for the people,
And they were not pleased with them.
So he wrote to 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, his governor in Medina, saying:
"I have decided to expand the mosque of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
Until it becomes two hundred cubits by two hundred cubits.
Demolish its four walls,
Incorporate into it the chambers of the wives of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
Purchase the houses in its surroundings,
And move the qiblah forward if you are able.
You can do this because of the status of your maternal uncles, the family of al-Khattab,
And their position in the hearts of the people.
If the people of Medina refuse you that,
Then seek the help of al-Qasim ibn Muhammad and Salim ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar,
And involve them with you in the matter.
Pay the people the prices of their houses generously.
You have in this two righteous predecessors,
They are 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and 'Uthman ibn 'Affan."
'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz summoned al-Qasim ibn Muhammad and Salim ibn 'Abdullah,
And a group of the notables of Medina,
And read to them the letter of the Commander of the Believers.
They were pleased with what the Caliph had resolved and hastened to implement it.
When the people saw the two scholars of Medina and its two great leaders
Participating in the demolition of the mosque with their own hands,
They rose with them as one man,
And carried out what was stated in the letter of the Commander of the Believers.
The victorious armies of the Muslims
Were at that time knocking on the doors of the fortresses leading to the city of Constantinople,
And seizing them one after another,
Under the leadership of the brave commander Maslamah ibn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan,
In preparation for the conquest of Constantinople itself.
When the King of Rome learned of the Commander of the Faithful’s intention
to expand the noble Prophet’s Mosque,
he wished to appease him and draw near to him with what would please him.
He sent him one hundred thousand mithqals of gold,
and dispatched with it one hundred of the most skilled builders from the lands of Rome.
He also provided the workers with forty loads of mosaic tiles.
Al-Walid sent all of this to Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz,
so that he might use it to assist in the construction of the mosque.
Umar spent it according to the counsel of al-Qasim Ibn Muhammad and his companions.
Indeed, al-Qasim Ibn Muhammad was
the person who most closely followed the example of his grandfather, al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him.
To the point that people would say,
"Abu Bakr did not leave behind a son who resembles him more than this young man."
He resembled him in the nobility of his character and the excellence of his virtues,
in the firmness of his faith and the intensity of his piety,
and in his magnanimity and generosity.
Many sayings and actions have been recorded from him that testify to this.
Among them is that a Bedouin came to him in the mosque and asked,
"Which of you is more knowledgeable, you or Salim Ibn Abd Allah?"
He ignored him, so the man repeated the question.
He said, "Subhan Allah," and the man repeated it a third time.
He then said to him, "That is Salim, O son of my brother; he is sitting over there."
Those in the gathering remarked, "May Allah bless his father!"
He disliked saying "I am more knowledgeable than him," for that would be praising himself,
and he disliked saying "He is more knowledgeable than me," for that would be a lie.
Yet he was more knowledgeable than Salim.
It was also seen once in Mina,
while the people of the various lands, the pilgrims to the House of Allah, were crowding around him from every side,
and they were asking him questions.
He would answer them with what he knew,
and regarding what he did not know, he would say to them,
"I do not know, I do not know, I do not know."
They were astonished by this,
so he said to them, "We do not know everything you ask about,
and if we did know, we would not conceal it,
for it is not lawful for us to conceal it.
For a man to live in ignorance after knowing what Allah requires of him
is better for him than to speak of what he does not know."
On one occasion,
he exerted himself in distributing charity among those entitled to it.
He strove in that as much as he was able,
and gave everyone their due right.
However, one of them was not satisfied with the portion he was given,
so he came to him in the mosque while he was standing in prayer,
and began to speak about the charity.
His son said to the man,
"By Allah, you are speaking about a man
who has not taken a single dirham or daniq from your charity,
nor has he even taken a single date from it."
Al-Qasim shortened his prayer,
turned to his son, and said,
"My son, do not speak henceforth about what you do not know."
People said, "His son spoke the truth,"
but he intended to discipline him,
and to guard his tongue from speaking excessively.
Al-Qasim Ibn Muhammad lived
until he was over seventy-two years old.
However, he lost his sight when he was an old man.
In the last year of his life,
he set out for Makkah, intending to perform Hajj.
While he was on his way, death came to him.
When he felt his end approaching,
he turned to his son and said,
"When I die,
shroud me in the garments I used to pray in:
my shirt, my lower garment, and my cloak,
for that was the shroud of your grandfather, Abu Bakr."
"Then level my grave,
and join your family.
And beware of standing by my grave
and saying, 'He was such and such,'
for I was nothing."
If I had any say in the matter,
I would have appointed al-Qasim Ibn Muhammad to the Caliphate,
said Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz.
They filled life
with the pride of their deeds,
and the world flourished through them.