Ibn Saʿd (1) said: Al-Mughīrah’s hair was markedly reddish-blond; he would divide it into four parts. His lips were thin, his front teeth were broken, his head was large, his forearms sturdy, and the distance between his shoulders broad.
He was a consummate strategist, to the point that people called him “Mughīrah the master of counsel.”
Al-Shaʿbī relates that al-Mughīrah once covered the journey from Damascus to Kūfah in five days.
Among those who transmitted reports from him were his sons ʿUrwah, Ḥamzah, and ʿAqqār; al-Miswar ibn Makhramah; Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī; Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim; Masrūq; Abū Wāʾil; ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr; al-Shaʿbī; Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī; ʿAlī ibn Rabīʿah al-Wālibī; and a number of others, the last of whom was Ziyād ibn ʿIlāqah.
Al-Walīd ibn Muslim reported to us: Abū al-Naḍr narrated to us, Yūnus ibn Maysarah related, having heard Abū Idrīs say:
“When al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah arrived in Damascus, I questioned him, and he replied, ‘I assisted the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in performing ablution during the Tabūk expedition, and he wiped over his leather socks.’” (2)
Maʿmar narrated from al-Zuhrī, who said:
“The master tacticians among the people during the time of civil strife were five: from Quraysh—ʿAmr (ibn al-ʿĀṣ) and Muʿāwiyah; from the Anṣār—Qays ibn Saʿd; and from Thaqīf …”
(1) We did not find this statement in al-Tabaqat; it is perhaps located in the missing part of his biography. See al-Tabaqat, vol. 4, p. 286. The report is found in Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 17, fol. 35 b.
(2) Reported by Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 17, fol. 33 b. It is also transmitted through another chain by al-Bukhari, Sahih, vol. 1, p. 265: Book of Purification, chapter on wiping over leather socks; as well as in the Book of Prayer (chapter on praying in a Syrian cloak; chapter on praying in leather socks), the Book of Jihad (chapter on the cloak during travel and war), the Book of Maghazi (chapter on the Prophet’s encampment at al-Hijr), and the Book of Dress (chapter on wearing a narrow-sleeved cloak while travelling; chapter on woollen cloaks in battle). Muslim, no. 274 (Book of Purification, chapter on wiping over leather socks); Malik, al-Muwatta, vol. 1, p. 36 (Book of Purification, chapter on wiping over leather socks); Abu Dawud, nos. 149 and 151; al-Tirmidhi, nos. 97–100; and al-Nasa’i, vol. 1, p. 82—all record it in the Book of Purification, chapter on wiping over leather socks.
In one of al-Bukhari’s versions the incident occurs during a journey; in another it is linked to the Tabuk expedition, though some transmitters hesitate on this point. Malik, Ahmad, and Abu Dawud, via the chain of Abbad b. Ziyad from Urwa b. al-Mughira, state decisively that it took place during the Tabuk campaign at the time of the dawn prayer.