Abbad ibn Bishr
It was the fourth
year after the Hijrah. The city of the Prophet was still
under threat from within and without. From within the
influential Jewish tribe, the Banu an-Nadir, broke their
agreement with the Prophet and made plans to kill him. For this,
they were banished from the city. This was in the month of
Safar.
Two months of uneasy quiet passed. Then the Prophet
received news that tribes from distant Najd were planning
an attack. To pre-empt them, the Prophet gathered a force
of over four hundred men, and leaving one of his
companions Uthman ibn Affan in charge of the city, set out eastward.
Among this force was the young Madinan, Abbad ibn Bishr.
Arriving at Najd, the Prophet found the habitations of the
hostile tribes strangely deserted of men. Only women were
about. The men had taken to the hills. Some of them regrouped
and prepared to fight. The time of Salaah al-Asr (the afternoon
prayer) came. The Prophet feared that the hostile
tribesmen would attack them during prayer. He arranged the
Muslims in ranks and divided them into two groups and performed
the prayer as the Salaah al-Khawf (the Prayer of Fear). With
one group he performed one rakah while the other group
stood on guard. For the second rakah the groups changed places. Each
group completed its prayer with one rakah after the Prophet
had finished...
On beholding the disciplined ranks of
the Muslims the hostile tribesmen became uneasy and afraid. The
Prophet had made his presence felt and something of his mission
was now known at first hand in the central highlands of
Arabia whence he departed peacefully.
On the way back,
the Prophet pitched camp in a valley for a night. As soon
as the Muslims had settled their camel mounts, the Prophet ,
asked: "Who will be our guard tonight?" "We, O
Messenger of Allah," said Abbad ibn Bishr and Ammar ibn
Yasir both of whom had been paired off as 'brothers' by the
Prophet when he arrived in Madinah after the Hijrah.
Abbad and Ammar left for the mouth of the valley to take up duty.
Abbad saw that his "brother" was tired and asked
him: "What part of the night do you wish to sleep, the first
or the second?" "I shall sleep during the first
part," said Ammar who was soon fast asleep quite close to
Abbad.
The night was clear, calm and peaceful. The
stars, the trees, and the rocks all appeared to celebrate in
silence the praises of their lord. Abbad felt serene. There was
no movement, no threatening sign. Why not spend the time
in ibadah (worship) and reciting the Quraan? How delightful it would
be to combine the performance of Salaah with the measured
recitation of the Quraan which he so much enjoyed.
In fact Abbad was enthralled by the Ouraan from the moment he
first heard it being recited by the mellow and beautiful
voice of Musab ibn Umayr. That was before the Hijrah when Abbad
was just about fifteen years old. The Quraan had found a
special place in his heart and day and night thereafter he would
be heard repeating the glorious words of Allah so much so
that he became known among the Prophet 's companions as the
"friend of the Quraan". Late at night, the Prophet
once stood up to perform the Tahajjud Prayer in Aishah's house
which adjoined the masjid. He heard a voice reciting the
Quraan, pure and sweet and as fresh as when the angel Jibril
revealed the words to him. He asked: "Aishah, is that the
voice of Abbad ibn Bishr?' "Yes, O Messenger of Allah,"
replied Aishah. "O Lord, forgive him," prayed the Prophet
out of love for him.
And so in the stillness of
the night, at the mouth of the valley in Najd, Abbad stood up
and faced the Qiblah. Raising his hand in surrender to Allah,
he entered into the state of Prayer. Finishing the compulsory
opening chapter of the Quraan, he began reciting Surah al-Kahf
in his sweet, captivating voice. Surah al-Kahf is a long
Surah of one hundred and ten verses which deals in part with
the virtues of faith, truth and patience and with the
relativity of time.
While he was thus absorbed in
reciting and reflecting upon the divine words, eternal words of
illumination and wisdom. ing and reflecting upon the divine words,
eternal words of illumination and wisdom, a stranger stalked the
outskirts of the valley in search of Muhammad and his followers.
He was one of those who had planned to attack the Prophet
but who had fled into the mountains on the approach of the
MusIims. His wife whom he had left in the village had been
taken as a captive by one of the Muslims. When he eventually
found that his wife was gone, he swore by al-Lat and
al-Uzzah that he would pursue Muhammad and his companions
and that he would not return unless he had drawn blood.
From a distance, the man saw the figure of Abbad silhouetted at
the mouth of the valley and he knew that the Prophet
and his followers must be inside the valley. Silently he drew his
bow and let fly an arrow. Unerringly it embedded itself in
Abbad's flesh.
Calmly, Abbad pulled out the arrow from
his body and went on with his recitation, still absorbed in his
Salaah. The attacker shot a second and a third arrow both of
which also found their mark. Abbad pulled out one and then
the other. He finished his recitation, made ruku and then sujud. Weak
and in pain, he stretched out his right hand while still in
prostration and shook his sleeping companion. Ammar awoke.
Silently, Abbad continued the Salaah to its end and then said:
"Get up and stand guard in my place. I have been
wounded."
Ammar jumped up and began to yell.
Seeing them both the attacker fled into the darkness. Ammar
turned to Abbad as he lay on the ground, blood flowing from his
wounds.
"Ya Subhanallah (Glory be to Allah)! Why
didn't you wake me when you were hit by the first arrow?"
"I was in the midst of reciting verses of the Quraan which
filled my soul with awe and I did not want to cut short the
recitation. The Prophet had commanded me to commit this surah
to memory. Death would have been dearer to me than that
the recitation of this surah should be interrupted."
Abbad's devotion to the Quraan was a sign of his intense devotion
to and love for Allah, His Prophet and His religion.
The qualities he was known for were his constant immersion in
ibadah, his heroic courage and his generosity in the path of
Allah. At times of sacrifice and death, he would always be in
the front line. When it was time for receiving his share of
rewards, he would only be found after much effort and
difficulty. He was always trustworthy in his dealings with the
wealth of Muslims. All this was recognized. Aishah, the wife of
the Prophet , once said: "There are three persons among
the Ansar whom no one could excel in virtue: Sad ibn
Muadh, Usayd ibn Khudayr and Abbad ibn Bishr."
Abbad died the death of a shahid (martyr) at the battle of
Yamamah. Just before the battle he had a strong
presentiment of death and martyrdom. He noticed that there was a
lack of mutual confidence among the Muhajirin and Ansar.
He was grieved and upset. He realized that there would be no
success for the Muslims in these terrible battles unless the
Muhajirin and Ansar were grouped in separate regiments so that
it could be clearly seen who really bore their responsibility
and who were truly steadfast in combat.
At the
break of day when the battle commenced, Abbad ibn Bishr stood on a
mound and shouted:
"O Ansar, distinguish
yourselves among men. Destroy your scabbards. And do not forsake
Islam."
Abbad harangued the Ansar until about four
hundred men gathered around, him at the head of whom were
Thabit ibn Qays, al-Baraa ibn Malik and Abu Dujanah, the keeper of
the Prophet 's sword. With this force, Abbad unleashed an
offensive into the enemy's ranks which blunted their thrust and
drove them back to the "garden of death".
At the walls of this garden, Abbad ibn Bishr fell. So numerous were
his wounds, he was hardly recognizable.
He had
lived, I fought and died as a believer.
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