Zara Choudhary on visiting the Companions (Sahaba) of Jordan
Memory is a fickle thing; clear one minute, hazy or gone the next- but I remember the perfume clearly; a beautiful, sweet scent that danced through the air, as if to welcome us upon our arrival. The red carpet, I remember that too, added a touch of warmth and colour to the white walled-room, which was full of light that seeped in through the windows. In the centre of the room, lay a rectangular box with a marble base and dome. It looked like a tiny mosque with a gilded door and windows, decorated with gold calligraphy. Inside, the beloved of the Beloved lay in rest.
I was standing at the feet of Zayd bin Haritha, a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, near the village of Mu’tah in Jordan. Aside from the caretaker of the tomb, who stood outside the room, there was no one else present. Close by, in separate buildings, were the tombs of two other Companions, Ja’far b. Abi Talib and Abdullah b. Rawaha. In accordance with Muslim custom, they were all laid to rest close to where they fell in battle, all those centuries ago. May God be pleased with them all.
The Battle of Mu’tah
In the year 629AD /8AH, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, by now settled in Madina, sent a letter to Bosra, modern day Syria, inviting the people to Islam. The messenger, al-Harith b. ‘Umar al-Azdi, by whom the letter was delivered, was intercepted by a Ghassan tribal chief and cruelly and unjustly killed, an act that was considered a proclamation of war. In response, a Muslim army was dispatched to the region.[1]
The Prophet declared that,
“Zayd b. Haritha will be your leader. If Zayd is killed, then Ja’far b. Abi Talib (will lead). If Ja’far is killed, then Abdullah b. Rawaha (will lead). If he is killed, then the Muslims must agree to appoint a man among themselves to be leader.”[2] Zayd was given the white standard that was carried in battle.
When the Muslim army reached the borders of Shaam, they were greeted by the sight of a force greater in number than any they had ever before faced, outnumbering them considerably. Along with the Ghassanid tribes, their Byzantine allies had reinforced their numbers with imperial troops.
Overwhelmed at the site of such numbers, Zayd held a council of war. Most men were in favour of relaying a message to the Prophet, so he could either call them back to Madina, or send auxiliaries, but Abdullah b. Rawaha stepped forward with a rallying call,
“We do not rely on our numbers, strength, or supplies. We have nothing to fight with except our religion, which God has honoured us with as our source of strength. Go forth, for you will attain one of the two glorious rewards: victory or martyrdom…”[3]
And so the army marched onwards. Zayd, an accomplished military leader, who had been entrusted to lead the Muslims in battle by the Prophet numerous times already, decided to avoid an immediate engagement with the enemy, and withdrew the Muslims southwards to Mu’tah, giving them time to consolidate. The enemy followed them, and instead of retreating further, Zayd ordered a surprise attack- one that would result in grave loss.
Back in his Mosque in Madina, the Prophet, standing upon the minbar, reported events happening in Mu’tah to the congregation as though they were being played out in front of his eyes. Just hours into battle, he announced three deaths, with tears flowing from his eyes.
“They have rushed to fight the enemy. Zayd has fallen as a martyr. Ask God to forgive him. Ja’far b Abi Talib has taken the standard and fought fiercely until he fell as a martyr. Ask God to forgive him. Abdullah b Rawaha has taken the standard, and stood firmly against the enemy until he too fell as a martyr. Ask God to forgive him. Khalid (b. al-Walid) has taken the standard.”The Prophet raised his hands and said, “O Allah, Khalid is one of your swords. Grant him victory.”[4]
The Prophet led the congregation in prayer, and instead of turning to face them afterwards, as was his usual habit, he withdrew from the mosque. He went to the home of Asma, the wife of Ja’far bin Abi Talib to break the news to her; he wept with Ja’far’s children, while praying for their father.
Ja’far b. Abi Talib
The tomb of Ja’far is slightly bigger than that of Zayd, but otherwise similar in appearance. Ja’far was the elder brother of Ali b. Abi Talib and the paternal cousin of the Prophet. He was among the Companions who emigrated to Abyssinia in the early phases of the Prophet’s mission. Loved by the Prophet, when he returned to the Hijaz in the year 7AH just as the battle of Khaibar was won, the Prophet said upon seeing him “I do not know with which to be happier, the fath (victory) of Khaibar or the arrival of Ja’far!”[5]
Abdullah b. Rawaha
The third tomb, a sarcophagus, covered with a green cloth belongs to Abdullah b. Rawaha, a talented poet appointed by the Prophet to satirise the enemy, as was the custom in tribal Arabia. He was among the seventy Ansar, ‘Helpers’ from Madina, who travelled to Mecca to pledge their allegiance to the Prophet.
He is reported to have made his desire for martyrdom clear as he left the city of the Prophet, thereupon reciting,
“When people pass my grave they will say
How Allah guided him to the right path; what a well-guided fighter was he.”[6]
Zayd b. Haritha
My memories of that day in Mu’tah specifically transport me back to the tomb of Zayd b. Haritha. I often question the veracity of my travel memories, wondering if, tainted by time, they acquire a ’significance’ in my mind only in hindsight (this is one reason writing a travel journal while travelling is a useful exercise). This memory, however, is different.
To my regret, at the time of my visit almost a decade ago now, Zayd b. Haritha was but a name to me. I knew he was a Companion of the Prophet, and that was the reason of my visit, but I knew little more of him.
I wonder now how I would have felt standing there, next to his tomb, if I had known what this man meant to the Prophet. If I had known that he ﷺonce referred to him as his “mawla”, and told him “You are of me and I love you most.”[7]
Or that upon seeing Zayd’s young daughter in tears at news of his death, he held the child in his arms, and wept openly, his body shaking with sobs. When another Companion saw this and asked “O Messenger of God, what is this?”, “This,” replied the Prophet, “is one who loveth yearning for his beloved.”[8]
Living as we do in a time in which Muslim consciousness seems to have transfixed an image of light skinned Arabs upon all of the Sahaba, it is important to note too, that Zayd b. Haritha hailed from the Kalb tribe and was described as “very black.”[9]Zayd spent almost his entire life beside the Prophet, and was among the first to accept Islam. After adopting him as a child (Zayd had chosen the Prophet over his own father), the Prophet stood at the Ka’ba and announced “Bear witness that Zayd is my son!” and before taking a name other than one’s own biological father was forbidden by Revelation, he became known as Zayd b. Muhammad – an indication of the depth of the Prophet’s love for him. He was nicknamed ‘Hibbu RasulAllah’ the ‘beloved of the Messenger’, and later Zayd’s son, Usama, who was also beloved to the Prophet, was nicknamed Hibbu Hibbi RasulAllah, the beloved of the beloved of the Messenger of Allah.[10]
***
As I write this, the world is still in the midst of a global pandemic, affecting our ability to travel, and so memories of trips such as these become more poignant, more valued.
Visiting the graves of those long gone, and especially those considered among the ‘Pious Predecessors’, has always seemed to me to have a providential element attached to it – I suppose not too dissimilar to the way one is pre-ordained to meet some souls and not others in life. I’ve tried to visit specific tombs in the past and been unsuccessful, and come across others in a way that was by all appearances, coincidental.
The perfume, the red carpet, the golden tomb, glistening in the light; I once stood by the tomb of Hibbu RasulAllah. This is a memory that has, thankfully, acquired more significance in hindsight. I suppose it doesn’t matter if memory is fickle either, perhaps we remember what we need to.
***
That night, following the battle of Mu’tah, the Prophet had a vision in which he saw Zayd, Ja’far, Abdullah, and the other martyrs of the battle, in Paradise. At fajr, he led the prayer in the mosque, and turned to face the congregation- the weight of his sorrow lifted. 11 ﷺ
Footnotes
[1]Martin Lings, Muhammad: his life based on the earliest sources, George Allen & Unwin, 1983, p. 287.
[2]Asma Tabaa’ Stars in the Prophet’s Orbit, Trans. Sawsan Tarabishy, p. 29.
[3]Abu Muhammad ‘Abd al-Malik Ibn Hisham, Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya. Vol. 9: 91.
[4]Ibid. Vol.2: 373-380.
[5]Ibid. Vol. 2: 359.
[6]Asma Tabaa’ Stars in the Prophet’s Orbit Trans. Sawsan Tarabishy, p. 285.
[7]Ibid. 30.
[8]Muhammad Ibn Sa’d Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, Vol.3, 32 (quoted in Lings, Muhammad, 289.)
[9]Imran Hamza Alawiye, Ibn Jawzi’s Apologia on Behalf of the Black People and Their Status in Islam: A Critical Edition and Translation of Kitab T anwir al-Ghabash Fi Fadl ‘l-Sudan wa’l Habash, Diss. University of London, 1985, p. 132 (quoted in “Islam, Prophet Muhammad (Sallaho Alaihe Wassllam), and Blackness” by Imam Zaid Shakir.
[10]Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghaba fi Ma’rifa as-Sahaba, (Beirut: Dar Ihya at-Turath al-‘Arabi), 1:81.
[11]Lings,Muhammad, p. 289.
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