the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying, “I fast often; should I fast while travelling?” He replied,
“If you wish, then fast, and if you wish, then break your fast.” (1)
He witnessed the conquest of Greater Syria and was the bearer of glad tidings to al-Ṣiddīq (Abu Bakr) on the day of Ajnadayn. Al-Waqidī states that he was also the one who conveyed to Kaʿb ibn Mālik the news of Allah’s acceptance of his repentance, whereupon Kaʿb gave him his two garments.
Al-Bukhārī relates in his Taʾrīkh (2) with a sound chain that he said: “We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on a pitch-black night, and my fingers began to shine so brightly that by their light I gathered up every item of the people’s belongings.”
The authorities agree that he died in this very year—that is, 61 AH.
Shaybah ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Ṭalḥah (3), the ʿAbdarī chamberlain, keeper of the Key to the Kaʿbah.
His father was one of those slain by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as an unbeliever on the Day of Uḥud. Shaybah openly embraced Islam on the day Mecca was conquered, attended Ḥunayn while still harboring some doubt, and even resolved to assassinate the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Allah informed His Messenger of this, and the Prophet told him of what he had intended; Shaybah then accepted Islam inwardly, his faith became sound, and he fought that day, standing firm with the steadfast.
Al-Waqidī transmits from his teachers that Shaybah said: “I used to declare, ‘By Allah, even if all people believed in Muhammad, I would never believe in him.’ When Mecca was conquered and he marched out against Hawāzin, I went with him hoping to find a chance to avenge the whole of Quraysh upon him.
“One day the battle lines became confused, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dismounted from his mule, and I drew near, unsheathing my sword to strike him—when it was turned back against me…"
= Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh, vol. 4, p. 101; Ibn Ḥajar, Asad al-Ghābah, vol. 2, p. 55; al-Ṣuyūṭī, Tahdhīb al-Asmāʾ wa al-Lughāt, vol. 1, p. 169; Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 7, p. 264; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, vol. 7, p. 333; al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 3, p. 14; al-Shahrastānī, al-ʿIbar, vol. 1, p. 65; al-Wāqidī, al-Kāshif, vol. 1, p. 190; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, vol. 1, p. 178; Tajrīd Asmāʾ al-Ṣaḥābah, vol. 1, p. 139; Ikmāl Maġlatāy, p. 294; Nihāyat al-Sūl, p. 77; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, vol. 3, p. 31; Khulāṣat al-Khaṭrajī, p. 93; al-Saghānī, Shudhurāt al-Dhahab, vol. 1, p. 280; Tahdhīb Ibn ʿAsākir, vol. 4, p. 450.
(1) al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Ṣawm, vol. 3, hadith no. 1943; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, hadith no. 1121, in the chapter “The Option to Fast or Break the Fast While Traveling.”
(2) Ṭarjama, vol. 3, p. 173.
(3) Ibn Saʽd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, vol. 5, p. 448; Nisbat Quraysh, p. 252; al-Khulafāʾ, p. 2504; Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ, pp. 198, 226, 251; Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad Aḥmad, vol. 3, p. 409; al-Muḥbir, p. 17; al-Bukhārī, Tārīkh al-Kabīr, vol. 4, p. 241; al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl, vol. 4, p. 335; Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār, p. 158; Jamʿ Ansāb al-ʿArab, p. 114; al-Istīʿāb, vol. 2, p. 712; Jamʿ bayna rijāl al-Ṣaḥīḥayn, vol. 1, p. 219; Ansāb al-Simānī, vol. 4, p. 64 & vol. 7, p. 440; Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 8, p. 77a; Ibn Ḥajar, Asad al-Ghābah, vol. 2, p. 534; Mukhtaṣar Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 11, p. 8; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, vol. 12, p. 604; al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, vol. 2, p. 293; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, vol. 2, p. 84b; al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 3, p. 12; Tajrīd Asmāʾ al-Ṣaḥābah, entry no. 2753; al-Shahrastānī, al-ʿIbar, vol. 1, p. 64; al-Wāqidī, al-Kāshif, vol. 2, p. 15; Ikmāl Maġlatāy, vol. 2, p. 176; al-Qurṭubī, Murāʾat al-Jinān, vol. 1, p. 131; al-Muʾizzī, al-ʿAqd al-Ṭamīn, p. 19; Nihāyat al-Sūl, p. 143; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, vol. 4, p. 376; al-ʿAynī, al-Iṣābah, no. 3945; Khulāṣat al-Khaṭrajī, p. 168; al-Saghānī, Shudhurāt al-Dhahab, vol. 1, p. 268; Tahdhīb Ibn ʿAsākir, vol. 6, p. 349.