Abu Ayyub
Al-Ansari
Khalid ibn Zayd ibn
Kulayb from the Banu Najjar was a great and close companion of the Prophet. He
was known as Abu Ayyub (the father of
Ayyub) and enjoyed
a privilege which many of the Ansar in Madinah hoped they would have.
When the Prophet,
peace and blessings of God be on him, reached Madinah after his hijrah from
Makkah, he was greeted with great enthusiasm
by the Ansar of
Madinah. Their hearts went out to him and their eyes followed him with devotion
and love. They wanted to give him the most
generous reception
anyone could be given.
The Prophet first
stopped at Quba on the outskirts of Madinah and stayed there for some days. The
first thing he did was to build a mosque
which is described
in the Quran as the "mosque built on the foundation of piety (taqwa)". (Surah
At-Tawhah 9: 1O8).
The Prophet entered
Madinah on his camel. The chieftains of the city stood along his path, each one
wishing to have the honor of the Prophet
alighting and
staying at his house. One after the other stood in the camel's way entreating,
"Stay with us, O Rasulullah." "Leave the camel," the
Prophet would say.
"It is under command.
The camel continued
walking, closely followed by the eyes and hearts of the people of Yathrib. When
it went past a house, its owner would feel
sad and dejected
and hope would rise in the hearts of others still on the route.
The camel continued
in this fashion with the people following it until it hesitated at an open space
in front of the house of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari.
But the Prophet,
upon whom be peace, did not get down. After only a short while, the camel set
off again, the Prophet leaving its reins loose.
Before long,
however, it turned round, retraced its steps and stopped on the same spot as
before. Abu Ayyub's heart was filled with happiness.
He went out to the
Prophet and greeted him with great enthusiasm. He took the Prophet's baggage in
his arms and felt as if he was carrying the
most precious
treasure in the world.
Abu Ayyub's house
had two stories. He emptied the upper floor of his and his family's possessions
so that the Prophet could stay there. But the
Prophet, peace be
on him, preferred to stay on the lower floor.
Night came and the
Prophet retired. Abu Ayyub went up to the upper floor. But when they had closed
the door, Abu Ayyub turned to his wife and
said:
"Woe to us! What
have we done? The messenger of God is below and we are higher than he! Can we
walk on top of the messenger of God? Do
we come between him
and the Revelation (Wahy)? If so, we are doomed."
The couple became
very worried not knowing what to do. They only got some peace of mind when they
moved to the side of the building which
did not fall
directly above the Prophet. They were careful also only to walk on the outer
parts of the floor and avoid the middle.
In the morning, Abu
Ayyub said to the Prophet: "By God, we did not sleep a wink last night, neither
myself nor Umm Ayyub." "Why not, Abu
Ayyub?" asked the
Prophet. Abu Ayyub explained how terrible they felt being above while the
Prophet was below them and how they might have
interrupted the
Revelation. "Don't worry, Abu Ayyub," said the Prophet. "We prefer the lower
floor because of the many people coming to visit
us." "We submitted
to the Prophet's wishes," Abu Ayyub related, "until one cold night a jar of ours
broke and the water spilled on the upper
floor. Umm Ayyub
and I stared at the water We only had one piece of velvet which we used as a
blanket. We used it to mop up the water out of
fear that it would
seep through to the Prophet. In the morning I went to him and said, 'I do not
like to be above you,' and told him what had
happened. He
accepted my wish and we changed floors."
The Prophet stayed
in Abu Ayyub's house for almost seven months until his mosque was completed on
the open space where his camel had
stopped. He moved
to the roots which were built around the mosque for himself and his family. He
thus became a neighbor of Abu Ayyub. What
noble neighbor to
have had!
Abu Ayyub continued
to love the Prophet with all his heart end the Prophet also loved him dearly.
There was no formality between them. The
Prophet continued
to regard Abu Ayyub's house as his own. The following anecdote tells a great
deal about the relationship between them.
Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with him,
once left his house in the burning heat of the midday sun and went to the
mosque. Umar saw him and
asked, "Abu Bakr,
what has brought you out at this hour? Abu Bakr said he had left his house
because he was terribly hungry and Umar said
that he had left
his house for the same reason. The Prophet came up to them and asked, "What has
brought the two of you out at this hour?"
They told him and
he said, "By Him in Whose hands is my soul, only hunger has caused me to come
out also. But come with me."
They went to the
house of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. His wife opened the door and said, "Welcome to the
Prophet and whoever is with him."
"Where is Abu
Ayyub?" asked the Prophet. Abu Ayyub, who was working in a nearby palm grove,
heard the Prophet's voice and came hurriedly.
"Welcome to the
Prophet and whoever is with him," he said and went on "O Prophet of God, this is
not the time that you usually come." (Abu
Ayyub used to keep
some food for the Prophet every day. When the Prophet did not come for it by a
certain time, Abu Ayyub would give it to his
family.) "You are
right," the Prophet agreed.
Abu Ayyub went out
and cut a cluster of dates in which there were ripe and halfripe dates. "I did
not want you to eat this," said the Prophet.
"Could you not have
brought only the ripe dates?" "O Rasulullah, please eat from both the ripe dates
(rutb) and the half ripe (busr). I shall
slaughter an animal
for you also. " "If you are going to, then do not kill one that gives milk,"
cautioned the Prophet. Abu Ayyub killed a young
goat, cooked half
and grilled the other half. He also asked his wife to bake, because she baked
better he said.
When the food was
ready, it was placed before the Prophet and his two companions. The Prophet took
a piece of meat and placed it in a loaf
and said, "Abu
Ayyub, take this to Fatima. She has not tasted the like of this for days.
When they had eaten
and were satisfied, the Prophet said reflectively: "Bread and meat and busr and
rutb!" Tears began to flow from his eyes
as he continued:
"This is a
bountiful blessing about which you will be asked on the Day of judgment. If such
comes your way, put your hands to it and say,
Bismillah (In the
name of God) and when you have finished say, Al hamdu lillah alladhee huwa
ashbana wa anama alayna (Praise be to God Who
has given us enough
and Who has bestowed his bounty on us). This is best."
These are glimpses
of Abu Ayyub's live during peace time. He also had a distinguished military
career. Much of his time was spent as a warrior
until it was said
of him, "He did not stay away from any battle the Muslims fought from the time
of the Prophet to the time of Muawiyah unless he
was engaged at the
same time in another."
The last campaign
he took part in was the one prepared by Muawiyah and led by his son Yazid
against Constantinople. Abu Ayyub at that time
was a very old man,
almost eighty years old. But that did not prevent him from joining the army and
crossing the seas as a ghazi in the path of
God. After only a
short time engaged in the battle, Abu Ayyub fell ill and had to withdraw from
fighting. Yazid came to him and asked:
"Do you need
anything, Abu Ayyub?" "Convey my salaams to the Muslim armies and say to them:
"Abu Ayyub urges you to penetrate deeply into
the territory of
the enemy as far as you can go, that you should carry him with you and that you
should bury him under your feet at the walls of
Constantinople."
Then he breathed his last.
The Muslim army
fulfilled the desire of the companion of the Messenger of God. They pushed back
the enemy's forces in attack after attack until
they reached the
walls of Constantinople. There they buried him.
(The Muslims
beseiged the city for four years but eventually had to withdraw after suffering
heavy losses.)
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