of pleasant countenance, with a light beard, and he had lost his two front teeth (1). This occurred when, on the day of Uḥud, he pulled the two iron rings from the Prophet’s ﷺ cheeks; fearing that he might hurt the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he pressed so hard on his own incisors that they snapped, and never was a lovelier gap-toothed smile seen than his. He died in the plague of ʿAmwās, as already related under the events of year sixteen according to Sīf ibn ʿUmar. The sounder view, however, is that the plague of ʿAmwās took place this very year—eighteen AH—in the village of Fiḥl, though others say at al-Jābiya. In our own times a grave near the Aqaba pass is popularly ascribed to him, but Allah knows best. He was fifty-eight years old when he died.
Al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (2) was handsome, graceful, and striking in appearance. On the Day of Sacrifice during the Farewell Pilgrimage the Messenger of Allah ﷺ seated him behind him, while he was still a comely youth. He witnessed the conquest of Syria and, according to Muḥammad ibn Saʿd, al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār, Abū Ḥātim, and Ibn al-Barqī (3)—and this is the most reliable opinion—he was martyred in the plague of ʿAmwās. Others claim he died at Marj al-Ṣuffar, others at Ajnādayn, and still others at the Yarmūk, some placing his death in 28 AH.
Muʿādh ibn Jabal (4) ibn ʿAmr ibn Aws ibn ʿĀʾidh (5) ibn ʿAdī ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿAmr ibn Udayy ibn [Saʿd ibn] ʿAlī ibn Asad ibn Sāridah ibn Yazīd ibn Jusham of the Khazraj—al-Anṣārī, al-Khazrajī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Madanī—was a noble Companion of great rank.
Al-Wāqidī said: “He was tall, with beautiful hair and mouth, his incisors gleaming; no child was born to him.” Others maintain that he did have a son, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who fought with him at the Yarmūk. Muʿādh was present at the Pledge of ʿAqabah. When the believers migrated, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ joined him in brotherhood with Ibn Masʿūd, and al-Wāqidī reports consensus on this. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, however, says that he was paired with Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib. He fought at Badr and every subsequent engagement.
He was one of four men of the Khazraj who compiled the Quran during the Prophet’s lifetime ﷺ: Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Zayd ibn Thābit, Muʿādh ibn Jabal, and Abū Zayd, the uncle of Anas ibn Mālik (6).
A sound hadith reported by Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī (7), through Ḥaywah ibn Shurayḥ, ʿUqbah ibn Muslim, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥubulī, and al-Ṣunābihī, relates that Muʿādh said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ told me, “O Muʿādh, by Allah, I love you, so never omit to say at the end of every prayer: ‘O Allah, help me to remember You and to thank You…’”