“Excellent indeed is the man Abū Bakr; excellent indeed is the man ʿUmar; excellent indeed is the man Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jar­rāḥ; excellent indeed is the man Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr; excellent indeed is the man Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās; [excellent indeed is the man Muʿādh ibn Jabal]; excellent indeed is the man Muʿādh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Jamūḥ.”

He—may Allah be pleased with him—was martyred at the Battle of al-Yamāmah in the year 12 AH, during the caliphate of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq. His story will be mentioned, God willing, when we reach that point, by Allah’s power, strength, and assistance.

Among them was Ḥanẓalah ibn al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣayfī ibn Rabāḥ ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Mukhāshin ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Sharīf ibn Jirwah ibn Usayyid ibn ʿAmr ibn Tamīm al-Tamīmī al-Usayyidī, the scribe. His brother Rabāḥ was also a Companion, and his uncle Aktham ibn Ṣayfī was known as the sage of the Arabs.

Al-Wāqidī said that he wrote a document for the Prophet ﷺ. Others report that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent him to the people of al-Ṭāʾif to negotiate peace, and that he fought alongside Khālid (ibn al-Walīd) in his campaigns in Iraq and elsewhere. He lived on into the time of ʿAlī but refrained from fighting with him at the Battle of the Camel and other confrontations. He then left Kūfa when ʿUthmān was reviled there, and he died after the era of ʿAlī.

Ibn al-Athīr relates in al-Ghābah that when he died, his wife was overwhelmed with grief, and her neighbours reproached her. She responded with these verses:

Dadd was amazed at a sorrow-stricken wife,
weeping for one whose hoary locks had paled;
If you ask me today what has worn me thin,
I will tell you a word that is no lie:
The very blackness of my eye has faded away—
grief for Ḥanẓalah the scribe has robbed it of its shine.

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Barqī said, “He kept aloof from the civil strife until he died after ʿAlī; two ḥadīths are narrated from him.” I say: rather, three.

Imām Aḥmad said, “ʿAbd al-Ṣamad and ʿAffān narrated to us; they said: Hammām narrated to us, from Qatādah, from Ḥanẓalah the scribe, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Whoever observes the five daily prayers—performing their bowings, their prostrations, and their ablutions …’”