—one that had gold woven into it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ put it on, and the people began to stroke it and gaze at it. He said, “Are you astonished by this cloak?” They replied, “O Messenger of Allah, we have never seen a garment more beautiful than it.” He said, “By Allah, the napkins of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh in Paradise are finer than what you are looking at.”

I say: Saʿd is Saʿd ibn Muʿādh ibn al-Nuʿmān ibn Imruʾ al-Qays ibn Zayd ibn ʿAbd al-Ashhal ibn Jashm ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Khazraj ibn ʿAmr. His honorific was al-Nabīt. He is a descendant of Mālik ibn al-Aws, the brother of al-Khazraj; both were sons of Ḥārithah ibn ʿAmr—known as Ḥārithah al-ʿAnqāʾ— to whom the whole of the Aws and Khazraj, the Helpers of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, trace their lineage.

Saʿd’s teknonym was Abū ʿAmr. His mother was Kabshah bint Rāfiʿ, an Anṣārī woman who pledged allegiance to the Prophet. He and Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr embraced Islam through Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr, who had come to Medina before the second pledge of ʿAqabah, inviting people to Islam and teaching the Quran. Once Saʿd accepted Islam, no member of Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal—his clan—remained unbelieving; they all embraced the faith that very day. Afterward Muṣʿab stayed in Saʿd’s house together with Asʿad ibn Zurārah, calling people to Allah. Saʿd and Asʿad were maternal cousins.

Ibn Isḥāq states that the Prophet ﷺ established the bond of brotherhood between Saʿd ibn Muʿādh and Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarāḥ. Al-Wāqidī, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, from Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm and others, reported that the Prophet ﷺ paired him with Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ instead.

Saʿd was present at Badr, and on the Day of Uḥud he stood firm with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when others retreated.

Abū Nuʿaym narrated that Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim al-ʿAbdī reported from Abū al-Mutawakkil: the Prophet ﷺ mentioned fever, saying, “Whoever is afflicted with it, it is his portion of the Fire.” Saʿd ibn Muʿādh then asked his Lord for that trial, and it clung to him and did not leave him until he departed this world.