He also said, “Whenever I conveyed any piece of knowledge to a person whose mind could not take it in, it only turned into a source of misguidance for him.” (1)
More than one scholar has stated that ʿUrwah was born at the end of ʿUmar’s caliphate and that he was twenty years younger than his brother ʿAbd Allāh. Others have voiced different views on the matter.
Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī (2) relates—through ʿĪsā ibn Hilāl, Shurayḥ ibn Yazīd, Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah, and al-Zuhrī—from ʿUrwah, who said:
“I was a boy with two side-braids. One day I stood to pray two rakʿahs after the ʿAṣr prayer. ʿUmar happened to see me while carrying his whip. The moment I spotted him, I ran away, but he caught up with me and seized me by one of my braids. He then forbade me from doing that, and I said, ‘I will not repeat it.’” (3)
The likelier scenario is that this incident involved his brother ʿAbd Allāh, or that it took place with ʿUthmān rather than ʿUmar.
- Khārijah ibn Zayd ibn Thābit, Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī (ʿ)
The jurist, the imam, son of an imam, and one of the seven celebrated Medinan jurists.
(1) Al-Maʿrifa wa-l-Tarikh, vol. 1, p. 550; Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 11, p. 286 a.
(2) Al-Maʿrifa wa-l-Tarikh, vol. 1, pp. 364–365.
(3) Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 11, p. 283 b, with the wording: “He was brought at my request until he clutched my forelock, saying: ‘O Commander of the Believers, I shall not repeat it.’” The same wording is found in al-Fasawi, Al-Maʿrifa wa-l-Tarikh.
(*) Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat, vol. 5, p. 262; Khalifa, Tabaqat, no. 2185; al-Bukhari, Tarikh, vol. 3, p. 204; Ibn Qutayba, Al-Maʿarif, p. 260; al-Fasawi, Al-Maʿrifa wa-l-Tarikh, vol. 1, pp. 376, 567; Ibn Abi Hatim, Al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, vol. 1/2, p. 374; Abu Nuʿaym, Al-Hilya, vol. 2, p. 189; al-Shirazi, Tabaqat al-Fuqahaʾ, p. 60; Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh Dimashq, vol. 5, p. 200 b; al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asmaʾ wa-l-Lughat, vol. 1/1, p. 172; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Aʿyan, vol. 2, p. 223; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, vol. 3, p. 362; al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, vol. 1, p. 85; al-Dhahabi, Al-ʿIbar, vol. 1, p. 119; Ibn Hajar, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 1, p. 184 b; Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, vol. 9, p. 187; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, vol. 3, p. 74; Ibn Taghribirdi, Al-Nujum al-Zahira, vol. 1, p. 242; al-Suyuti, Tabaqat al-Huffaz, p. 35; Ibn ʿAbd al-Hadi, Khulasat Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, p. 99; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, vol. 1, p. 118; Ibn ʿAsakir, Tahdhib, vol. 5, p. 27.