13 – Muṣʿab ibn Thābit, grandson of the Caliph ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām al-Asadī * (D, T, Q)

A model to emulate, an Imām, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Asadī, al-Zubayrī, Madinan.

He reported ḥadith from his father, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, Nāfiʿ al-ʿUmarī, and Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir.

Those who narrated from him include his son ʿAbd Allāh—the governor of Yemen—Ḥātim ibn Ismāʿīl, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Darāwardī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Wāqidī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, and others.

Al-Zubayr, in the appendix (1) to his book Genealogies, said: “His mother was a woman of the Kalbite tribe (2); his father bought her from Sukaynah bint al-Ḥusayn for one hundred she-camels.”

My uncle Muṣʿab told me that his grandfather was among the most devout people of his era; he and his brother Nāfiʿ fasted for fifty years of their lives.

Yaḥyā ibn Miskīn related: “I have never seen anyone who prayed more than Muṣʿab ibn Thābit. Each day and night he would perform one thousand rakʿahs (units of prayer) and maintained continual fasting.”

Asmāʾ bint Muṣʿab likewise said, “My father used to pray one thousand rakʿahs every day and night.”

Muṣʿab ibn ʿUthmān and Khālid ibn Waḍḍāḥ added: “Muṣʿab ibn Thābit fasted perpetually and prayed one thousand rakʿahs within every twenty-four hours. He became gaunt from worship, and he was among the most eloquent men of his time.”