In this same year there passed away:
Abu Musa (1) ʿAbd Allah ibn Qays ibn Sulaym ibn Ḥaḍḍār ibn Ḥarb ibn ʿĀmir ibn Ghanm (2) ibn Bakr ibn ʿĀmir ibn ʿAdī ibn Wāʾil ibn Nājah ibn Jamāhir ibn al-Ashʿar, the Yemeni al-Ashʿarī.
He embraced Islam in his own land and arrived with Jaʿfar and his companions in the year of Khaybar. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq reported that he first migrated to Mecca and later to Yemen, but this is not the well-known account.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed him, together with Muʿādh, over Yemen; ʿUmar later made him governor of Basra, and he was the conqueror of Tustar. He attended ʿUmar’s sermon at al-Jābiya, and ʿUthmān entrusted him with Kūfa. He was one of the two arbiters between ʿAlī and Muʿāwiya, and when the two arbiters met, ʿAmr deceived Abu Musa.
He was among the reciters and jurists of the Companions, and in his time no Companion had a more beautiful voice in reciting the Quran (3).
Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī said, “I have never heard the sound of a ṣanj (cymbals), a barbat (4) (lute), or a mizmar (reed-pipe) more melodious than the voice of Abu Musa (5).”
It is established in the hadith that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “He has certainly been given a mizmar from the mazāmīr of the family of David.” (6)
ʿUmar would say to him, “Remind us of our Lord, O Abu Musa,” whereupon he would recite while they listened.
Al-Shaʿbī said, “ʿUmar wrote in his testament: ‘Let none of my governors remain in office for more than a single year, except Abu Musa—let him remain for four years.’”
(1) Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat (vol. 2, p. 344; vol. 4, p. 105; vol. 6, p. 16); Ibn Maʿin, Tarikh (p. 326); Khalifa, Tabaqat (pp. 68, 132, 182); Khalifa, Tarikh (p. 178); Musnad Ahmad (vol. 4, p. 391); al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir (vol. 5, p. 22); Thiqaat al-ʿAjli (p. 272); al-Maʿarif (p. 236); al-Maʿrifa wa al-Tarikh (vol. 1, p. 267); Akhbar al-Qudat (vol. 1, p. 283); al-Jarh wa al-Tadil (vol. 5, p. 138); Ibn Hibban, al-Thiqaat (vol. 3, p. 221); Mashahir Ulama al-Amsar (d. 216); al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak (vol. 3, p. 464); Hilyat al-Awliya (vol. 1, p. 256); al-Istiyab (vol. 3, p. 979); Ibn al-Qaysarani, al-Jamʿ (vol. 1, p. 241); Ansab al-Samʿani (vol. 1, p. 273; vol. 8, p. 381); Ibn Asakir, Tarikh Dimashq (p. 422); Jamiʿ al-Usul (vol. 9, p. 79); Asad al-Ghabah (vol. 3, p. 367); Mukhtasar Tarikh Dimashq (vol. 13, p. 233); Tahdhib al-Kamal (vol. 15, p. 446); Tabaqat Ulama al-Hadith (vol. 1, p. 84); Tarikh al-Islam (vol. 2, p. 255); al-Ibar (vol. 1, p. 52); Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubala (vol. 2, p. 380); Tadhkirat al-Huffaz (vol. 1, p. 23); al-Kashif (vol. 2, p. 106); Maʿrifat al-Qurra al-Kibar (vol. 1, p. 39); Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (vol. 2, n. 174); Tajrid Asma al-Sahaba (vol. 1, entry 3487); Miraat al-Janan (vol. 1, p. 120); Majmaʿ al-Zawaid (vol. 9, p. 358); Ghayat al-Nihaya (vol. 1, p. 442); al-Isabah (vol. 6, p. 194); Tahdhib al-Tahdhib (vol. 5, p. 362); Tabaqat al-Huffaz (vol. 7); Khulasat al-Khazarji (p. 210); Kanz al-Ummal (vol. 13, p. 606); Shadharat al-Dhahab (vol. 1, p. 235).
(2) In the printed edition it is corrupted to “ghz.”
(3) This reading occurs only in manuscript A.
(4) “al-barbat”: a lute or an instrument resembling a lute; a Perso-Arabic loanword.
(5) Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat (vol. 4, p. 108).
(6) It is narrated by Ibn Saʿd in Tabaqat (vol. 4, p. 107), by Ahmad in Musnad Ahmad (vol. 2, p. 450), and by Ibn Majah (no. 1341) in Kitab Iqamat al-Salah, chapter “On a beautiful voice in the Quran”; it is an authentic (sahih) hadith.