ibn al-Khazraj ibn Saʿida ibn Kaʿb ibn al-Khazraj, the Khazrajite of the Ansar and their chieftain. His kunya was Abū Thābit, though others say Abū Qays. He was a noble Companion, one of the naqibs on the Night of al-ʿAqaba, and—according to ʿUrwa, Mūsā ibn ʿUqba, and al-Bukhārī (1), as well as Ibn Mākūlā (2)—he was present at Badr.

Ibn ʿAsākir (3) relates through Ḥajjāj ibn Arṭāt, from al-Ḥakam, from Miqsam, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the banner of the Muhājirūn at Badr was in the hand of ʿAlī, while the banner of the Ansār was with Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda—may Allah be pleased with him. I say: the better-known view is that this took place on the day of the Conquest; Allah knows best.

Al-Wāqidī (4) states that he did not participate in the battle because a snake (5) bit him after he had already made his preparations, detaining him; the Messenger of Allah ﷺ nevertheless allotted him his share of the booty and his full reward. He was present at Uḥud and every subsequent engagement, and Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ (6) records the same.

He possessed a large wooden bowl that would accompany the Prophet wherever he went among the apartments of his wives, filled at times with meat and tharid, at times with milk and bread, with bread and clarified butter, or with vinegar and oil. Each night he would stand at the Otmah (7) calling out to any who desired hospitality. He was skilled in Arabic writing, archery, and swimming; whoever mastered all three was called a kāmil (fully accomplished).

Abū ʿUmar Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (8), echoing several historians, reports that he withheld his pledge to al-Ṣiddīq and then departed for Syria, where he died in a village of Ḥawrān in the year 14 (9) AH [and it is also said: he died] (10) (during the caliphate of al-Ṣiddīq; so said Ibn Isḥāq, al-Madāʾinī, and Khalīfa. Another view places it at the beginning of ʿUmar’s caliphate, while another likewise gives 14 AH). Other reports give 15 AH, and al-Fallās and Ibn Bukayr say 16 AH.

I say: Concerning his pledge to al-Ṣiddīq, we have transmitted in the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad (11) that he accepted al-Ṣiddīq’s statement that the caliphs are from Quraysh. As for his death in the Syrian lands, that is established, and the prevailing view is that it occurred in Ḥawrān.

Muḥammad ibn ʿĀʾidh al-Dimashqī reported, through ʿAbd al-Aʿlā from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, that the first city of Syria to be conquered was Buṣrā, and that Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda died there. Many people of our own day maintain that he was buried in a village