…Abyssinia and then to Medina. She was a woman of outstanding righteousness. The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—used to visit her in her home and would say, “She is my mother after my own mother.” Abū Bakr and ʿUmar likewise went to see her in her house, as has already been mentioned in the discussion of the freedmen. She died—may Allah have mercy on them—five months after him; some say six months.

Among those who also died that year was Thābit (1) ibn Aqram ibn Thaʿlabah ibn ʿAdī ibn al-ʿAjlān al-Balawī, an ally of the Anṣār. He fought at Badr and every subsequent battle. He was present at Muʾtah, and when ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah was killed, the banner was handed to him; he passed it on to Khālid ibn al-Walīd, saying, “You are more experienced in warfare than I.” It was noted earlier that Ṭulayḥah al-Asadī killed him together with ʿUkkāshah ibn Miḥṣan, and on that occasion Ṭulayḥah (2) recited:

(from al-Ṭawīl)
“On the evening I left Ibn Aqram lying motionless,
and ʿUkkāshah al-Ghanamī amid the fray.”

This took place in the year 11 AH, though some say 12 AH. ʿUrwah held that he was killed during the Prophet’s lifetime—an unusual view; the first opinion is the sound one, and Allah knows best.

Among them was also Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās (3) al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī, Abū Muḥammad, the spokesman of the Anṣār—indeed, he was called the spokesman of the Prophet ﷺ. It is soundly reported that the Prophet—may Allah have mercy on them—gave him glad tidings of martyrdom, as mentioned earlier in the Signs of Prophethood. He was martyred on the Day of al-Yamāmah while bearing the banner of the Anṣār.

Al-Tirmidhī (4) narrates with a chain that meets Muslim’s criteria, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “What an excellent man Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās is.”

Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī (5) said: “Aḥmad ibn al-Maʿlā al-Dimashqī related to us; Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir narrated to me, from ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurasānī, who said: I came to Medina and asked who could relate to me a report about Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās. They directed me to his daughter. I asked her, and she said, ‘I heard my father say…’”