—for allowing you to recognize none but your Lord, to believe in what your Prophet brought, and to be spared the ordeal that befell others?
By Allah, the Prophet ﷺ was sent in the harshest situation ever faced by a messenger: during a lull in revelation and an age of pagan ignorance in which people knew no religion more excellent than the worship of idols. Yet he came with the Criterion, so that a man might look upon his own father, son, or brother as a disbeliever while Allah had unlocked the padlock of his own heart for faith. He would then realize that anyone who enters the Fire has perished, and his eye could never rest while he knew that a loved one was in the Fire. This is exactly what Allah, exalted is He, refers to in His words: “Our Lord, grant us from our spouses and offspring a comfort to our eyes” (al-Furqān (1): 74).
In Musnad Aḥmad, through the narration of Buraydah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “You must love four: ʿAlī, Abū Dharr, Salmān, and al-Miqdād.” (2)
Kharīmah bint al-Miqdād reported that al-Miqdād bequeathed 36,000 dirhams to al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, and 7,000 dirhams to each of the Mothers of the Believers.
It was also said that he drank castor oil and died.
82 – Ubayy ibn Kaʿb ibn Qays ibn ʿUbayd al-Anṣārī * (ʿ)
son of Zayd ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿAmr ibn Mālik ibn al-Najjār.
(1) Reported by Abu Nuaym, Hilyat al-awliyaʾ, vol. 1, pp. 175-176.
(2) Reported by Ahmad, Musnad, 5/351 and 356; al-Tirmidhi, no. 3720, chapter “Virtues”; Ibn Majah, no. 149, Introduction; and by Abu Nuaym, Hilyat al-awliyaʾ, 1/172. The chain there includes Sharik ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qadi, who is weak and the sole transmitter of the report, while his shaykh, Abu Rabiʿa al-Ayadi, is likewise unauthenticated.
(*) Further biographical sources: Musnad Ahmad 5/113-144; Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat 3/2/59; Khalifa, Tabaqat 88-89; Khalifa, Tarikh 167; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-kabir 2/39-40; Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿarif 261; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-taʿdil 2/290; al-Istibsar 48; Abu Nuaym, Hilyat al-awliyaʾ 1/250-256; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istiʿab 1/126; Ibn ʿAsakir 2/292/2; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-ghabah 1/61; al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al-asmaʾ wa-l-lughat 1/108-110; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-kamal 70; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam 2/27; al-Dhahabi, Duwal al-Islam 1/16; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar 1/23; al-Haythami, Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid 9/311-312; Ibn al-Jazari, Tabaqat al-qurraʾ 1/31; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-tahdhib 1/187; Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba 1/26; al-Dhahabi, Tabaqat al-huffaz 5; Ibn Hajar, Khulasat tadhhib al-kamal 24; Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-dhahab 1/32-33; al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-ʿummal 13/261-268; abridged Ibn ʿAsakir, Tahdhib tarikh Ibn ʿAsakir 2/325-334.