ʿAlqamah ibn Mujazziz (1) ibn al-Aʿwar ibn Jaʿdah ibn Muʿādh ibn ʿAtuwārah ibn ʿAmr ibn Mudlij al-Kinānī al-Mudlijī was one of the commanders whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ placed in charge of certain expeditions. A man of playful humour, he once lit a fire and ordered his men to enter it; they refused. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Had they entered it, they would never have come out,” (2) and added, “Obedience is only in what is right.” ʿAlqamah was open-handed and widely praised. Jawās al-ʿUdhri (3) mourned him, saying—of the kāmil metre:
Peace, and every gracious salutation,
come morning and evening to Ibn Mujazziz.
ʿUwaym ibn Sāʿidah (4) ibn ʿĀbis (5), Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Anṣārī al-Awsī, of the clan of ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf, took part in the Pledge of ʿAqabah, the Battle of Badr, and all subsequent engagements. A hadith on cleansing with water is transmitted from him by Aḥmad (6) and Ibn Mājah (7). Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (8) stated that he died during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, though others say in the caliphate of ʿUmar. Standing by his grave he declared, “No one can claim, ‘I am better than the occupant of this grave,’ for never was a banner raised for the Prophet ﷺ without him standing beneath it.” This report is related by Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim and cited by Ibn al-Athīr through his chain.
Ghaylān ibn Salamah al-Thaqafī (9) embraced Islam in the Year of the Conquest while married to ten women, whereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructed him to keep only four of them,
(1) Biography of Alqama ibn Mujazziz in Asad al-Ghabah 4:87 and al-Isabah 2:505–506.
(2) The hadith in both versions was narrated by Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah ennoble his face); it is recorded by Ahmad in his Musnad (1:94), by al-Bukhari in his Sahih (no. 7257) under singular reports (akhbar al-ahad), and by Muslim in his Sahih (no. 1840) under the chapter on leadership (Imarah).
(3) Jawwas ibn Qutbah al-Udhri was one of the leaders of Banū al-Ahab, a faction of Banī Bathīnah. He and his brother ʿAbd Allah were famous for poetic disputations. ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) sent him with an army to Abyssinia, where they all died from poisoned water. Jawwas lamented them in verses quoted in al-Aghani (22:150, 154–155).
(4) Biography of Uwaym ibn Saʿidah in al-Istiʿab 3:1248; Jamiʿ al-Usul 14:568; Asad al-Ghabah 4:315–316; Tahdhib al-Asmaʾ wa al-Lughat 2:41; Tahdhib al-Kamal 22:466; and al-Isabah 3:44.
(5) The name ʿAbis (with a single b and two long vowels) is confirmed by Ibn Hajar in al-Taqrib and by al-Dhahabi’s handwriting in Tarikh al-Islam (Aya Sofya MS 3005, fol. 233), which is the source the author here follows. The same form appears in Tahdhib al-Kamal (22:466) and al-Isabah (3:44). Some sources (e.g., Tabaqat Ibn Saʿd 3:459; al-Istiʿab 3:1248; Asad al-Ghabah 4:315) read “ʿAyish,” but the correct form is ʿAbis (Bashshar).
(6) Musnad Ahmad 3:422; classified as a hasan (sound) hadith.
(7) The author states this, yet in Sunan Ibn Majah (no. 1861) the hadith “Adhere to the virgins, for they have the sweetest mouths, the choicest wombs, and are content with little” appears only under the name Utbah ibn Uwaym ibn Saʿidah al-Ansari. Al-Mizzi records it first in the Musnad of Utbah ibn Uwaym in Tuhfat al-Ashraf (6:hadith 9756) and then under the Musnad of Uwaym ibn Saʿidah (referring back to Utbah’s Musnad). The correct attribution is to Uwaym ibn Saʿidah’s Musnad, as in al-Tabarani’s al-Musnad al-Kabir (17:350), al-Awsat (458), and Tahdhib al-Kamal (10:164).
(8) In al-Istiʿab 3:1248.
(9) Biography of Ghailan ibn Salamah al-Thaqafi in al-Istiʿab (3:1256) and in Tarikh Dimashq (Dar al-Fikr ed., 48:133–142).