- ʿAbbad ibn Bishr ibn Waqsh ibn Zughbah ibn Zaʿūrāʾ al-Anṣārī, from the line of ʿAbd al-Ashhal—Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Anṣārī (1), al-Ashhalī.
He was one of the participants at Badr and ranked among the nobles of the Aws.
He lived forty-five years, and he is the Companion whose staff shone for him the night he returned home after sitting with the Messenger of Allah (2), peace and blessings be upon him.
He accepted Islam at the hands of Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr, and he was among those who killed Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf the Jew (3).
The Prophet ﷺ placed him in charge of the obligatory alms of Muzaynah and Banu Sulaym, and during the expedition of Tabuk he appointed him over his personal guard. Highly esteemed, he distinguished himself at the Battle of al-Yamāmah and was counted among the famed warriors.
Ibn Isḥāq relates—through Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (4), from his father—that ʿĀʾishah said: “Three men of the Anṣār were unsurpassed in excellence, all of them from Banu ʿAbd al-Ashhal: Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, ʿAbbad ibn Bishr, and Usayd ibn…"
(*) Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat, 3/2/16; Khalifa, Tabaqat, p. 78; Khalifa, Tarikh, p. 113; al-Tarikh al-Saghir, p. 36; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa al-Taʿdil, 6/77; Ibn Hibban, Mashahir ʿUlama al-Amsar, p. 113; al-Istibsar, pp. 220–222; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istiʿab, 5/310; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-Ghabah, 3/150; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 1/370; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, 1/15; Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah, 5/311.
(1) The printed text omits the word “al-Ansari.”
(2) This hadith was already documented on p. 299, note (1).
(3) Al-Bukhari narrates it (no. 4037) in the Book of Military Expeditions, chapter “The Killing of Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf.” See Ibn Hajar’s commentary in Fath al-Bari on this hadith. For Kaʿb’s poetic incitement against the Muslims, consult Ibn Hisham, 2/51–58. According to Ibn Ishaq and others, al-Ashraf was an Arab from Banu Nabhan, a clan of Tay; his father had shed blood in the Jahiliyyah, came to Medina, entered into alliance with Banu al-Nadir, gained status through them, and married ʿAqilah daughter of Abu al-Huqayq, who bore him Kaʿb.
(4) The phrase “b. ʿAbd Allah” is missing from the printed text.