I would have driven it into your eye. Permission to enter was ordained only to prevent such intrusive looking.’ Agreed upon. (1)
73 – Maslamah ibn Mukhalid ibn al-Sāmit al-Anṣārī (D)
Of the Khazraj, a commander who served as Muʿāwiyah’s deputy in Egypt.
His kunyah was Abū Maʿn; some say Abū Saʿīd, others Abū Muʿāwiyah.
He was a Companion, though his father was not.
ʿUlayy ibn Rabāḥ said: I heard him say, ‘I was born when the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Madinah, and he passed away when I was ten years old.’ (2)
Those who narrated from him include Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī—who was older than he—Abū Qabīl, Ibn Sīrīn, Hishām ibn Abī Ruqayyah, and several others.
He was among Muʿāwiyah’s commanders at the time of Ṣiffīn, and afterwards Muʿāwiyah, then Yazīd, appointed him governor of Egypt.
(1) Reported by al-Bukhari, Sahih, 10:309-310 (Book of Dress, chapter: Combing the hair); 11:20-21 (Book of Seeking Permission, chapter: Seeking permission to avoid looking); and 12:215 (Book of Blood-Money, chapter: Whoever peeps into a people’s house and they gouge out his eye, no indemnity is due).
(*) Main biographical sources: Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat al-kubra 7:504; Khalifah, Tabaqat, nos. 607, 2716; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-kabir 7:387; al-Kindi, al-Wulat wa-l-qudat 38; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak 3:495; Ibn Hazm, Jamharat ansab al-Arab 366; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istiʿab 1397; Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh 16:228 A; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-ghabah 5:174; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-kamal 1329; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam 3:78; idem, al-ʿIbar 1:66; al-Mizzi, Tadhhib al-tahdhib 4:40 A; Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah 3:418; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-tahdhib 10:148; Khalil, Khulasat tadhhib al-kamal 322; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-dhahab 1:70.
(2) Ibn ʿAsakir, 16:229. Ibn Saʿd also transmits it (7:504) through the chain of Maʿn b. ʿIsa from Musa b. ʿAli; the isnad is authentic. The wording runs: “I embraced Islam at the age of four, and the Messenger of Allah passed away when I was fourteen.” The author will quote this report shortly from al-Waqidi.