Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (1): his personal name (2) was Mālik ibn Uhāyb ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn Zuhrah ibn Kilāb, Abū Isḥāq al-Qurashī al-Zuhrī. He was one of the ten who were given the glad tidings of Paradise, and one of the six members of the consultative council for whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed away while pleased with them.
Saʿd embraced Islam early; it is said that he was seventeen years old on the day he accepted the faith. An authentic report from him states: “No one became Muslim on the day I did, and for seven days I remained such that I was one-third of Islam (3), the seventh of seven (4).”
He emigrated and was present at Badr and every battle thereafter. He was the first person to shoot an arrow in the path of Allah (5). A courageous horseman, he was among the Prophet’s commanders.
In the time of Abū Bakr he enjoyed great honor, and the same under ʿUmar, who appointed him governor of Kūfah. He was the one who laid out Kūfah and expelled the non-Arabs from it. His supplications were answered. He conquered al-Madāʾin, and the Battle of Jalūlāʾ (6) took place under his leadership. A respected and obeyed chief, he was removed from the governorship of Kūfah by ʿUmar—not for incapacity or treachery, but for a public interest that had become clear to the caliph—and yet ʿUmar included him among the six members of the shūrā. Thereafter ʿUthmān reinstated him over Kūfah and later relieved him of the post once again.
(1) Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqāt al-Kubrā (vol. 3, p. 137; vol. 6, p. 12); Nisbah Quraysh (p. 263 ff.); Khalīfa, Tabaqāt (pp. 15, 126); Khalīfa, Tārīkh (p. 223); Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad (vol. 1, p. 168); al-Bukhārī, al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (vol. 4, p. 1908); al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr (vol. 1, p. 99 ff.); al-ʿAjlī, Thiqāt al-ʿAjlī (p. 180); al-Maʿārif (p. 241); al-Balādhurī, Futūḥ al-Buldan (p. 215); al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (vol. 4, p. 93); Ibn Ḥibbān, Thiqāt Ibn Ḥibbān (vol. 1, p. 154); Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amsār (p. 10); Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (vol. 1, p. 92); al-Istīʿāb (vol. 2, p. 606); al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād (vol. 1, p. 144); Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh Dimashq (vol. 7, p. 66, section B); al-Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl (vol. 9, p. 10); al-Dhahabī, Asad al-Ghāba (vol. 2, p. 366); Tahdhīb al-Asmāʾ wa-al-Lughāt (vol. 1, p. 213); Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq (vol. 9, p. 250); Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (vol. 10, p. 309); Tabaqāt ʿUlamāʾ al-Ḥadīth (vol. 1, p. 84); Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (vol. 1, p. 92); Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ (vol. 1, p. 22); Dawlat al-Islām (p. 40); Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 2, p. 281); Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (vol. 2, p. 11); al-Kāshif (vol. 1, p. 280); Tajrīd Asmāʾ al-Ṣaḥāba (p. 2272); al-ʿIbar (vol. 1, p. 60); Nukat al-Humaydān (p. 155); Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (vol. 9, p. 153); al-ʿAqd al-Thamīn (vol. 4, p. 537); Ghāyat al-Nihāya (vol. 1, p. 304); al-Iṣāba (vol. 4, p. 160); Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (vol. 3, p. 483); al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (vol. 1, p. 147); Tabaqāt al-Ḥuffāẓ (p. 5); Ḥasan al-Muḥāḍara (vol. 1, p. 205); Khulāṣat al-Khazarjī (p. 135); Kanz al-ʿUmmāl (vol. 13, p. 212); Shatharāt al-Dhahab (vol. 1, p. 256); Tahdhīb Ibn ʿAsākir (vol. 6, p. 95).
(2) The name means “Abū Waqās.”
(3) Narrated by al-Bukhārī (no. 3727).
(4) Narrated by al-Bukhārī (no. 5412).
(5) Ibn Qutayba, al-Awwālūn (p. 63).
(6) Also called the Battle of Jalūla, fought in 16 AH and won by the Muslims. The site corresponds to modern Jalūla in Iraq. The event is recorded in al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Rusul wa-al-Mulūk (vol. 4, p. 24 ff.), and also in al-Balādhurī, Muʿjam al-Buldan (vol. 4, p. 156), and in Bilād al-Khilāfa al-Sharqīya (p. 87).