Suheil ibn 'Amr al-Qurashi

[23,026 - Suhayl ibn 'Amr al-Qurashi]

Suhayl b. 'Amr b. 'Abd Shams ibn 'Abd Wud b. Nasr b. Malik b. Huzal b. 'Amr b. Lu'ayy b. Ghalib b. Fahd al-Qurashi al-'Amiri. His mother was Habba bint Qais b. Dhubyan b. Tha'laba b. Hayyan b. Ghunm b. Milih b. 'Amr al-Khazaji.

He was known as Abu Yazid.

He was one of the nobles of Quraysh and their wise men and orators and leaders.

He was taken captive on the Day of Badr as an unbeliever. He was the most eloquent of them, and 'Umar said: O Messenger of Allah, remove his two teeth, for he will never speak to you again? And he said: 'Leave him, O 'Umar, for perhaps he will take the place of someone who will be praised for him.' And that place was that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ died, Makkah was in turmoil due to the apostasy of the Arabs, and 'Attab b. Asid, the Amir of Makkah, was absent from the Prophet ﷺ. Suhayl b. 'Amr stood up to speak, and said: O people of Quraysh, do not be the last to submit and the first to apostatize. By Allah, this religion will spread like the sun and the moon from their rising to their setting...

He spoke at length, like Abu Bakr's speech on the death of the Prophet ﷺ, and he brought 'Attab b. Asid, and Quraysh remained steadfast on Islam.

He was taken captive on the Day of Badr by Malik b. al-Dukhshum.

He accepted Islam on the Day of the Conquest.

Jarir b. Hazim reported from al-Hasan, who said: The people gathered at the door of 'Umar b. al-Khattab ﵁, and among them was Suhayl b. 'Amr, Abu Sufyan b. Harb, al-Harith b. Hisham, and those old men from the Conquest. 'Umar came out to them, and he would give permission to the people of Badr, Sa'd b. Abi Waqqas, Bilal, 'Ammar, and the people of Badr, whom he loved, and Abu Sufyan said: I have never seen a day like today, for he gives permission to these slaves, and we are sitting, not paying attention to us. Suhayl b. 'Amr said, and al-Hasan said: Look at this man, what a wise man! And he said: O people, I swear by Allah, I see what is in your faces. If you are angry, be angry with yourselves. Leave the people and be left alone. Hurry and be slow. By Allah, the favor that preceded you is more lost to you than this door that you are competing for.

Then he said: O people, these people have preceded you in what you see, and there is no way to what they have preceded you to, except by looking at this jihad. Hold fast to it, perhaps Allah will grant you martyrdom, and he shook his cloak, and he stood up, and he went to Sham.

Al-Hasan said: By Allah, he spoke the truth. Allah will not make a slave hasten to something that a slower slave will not hasten to.

Suhayl went out with his family, except for his daughter Hind, to Sham to fight, and they died there, and only his daughter Hind and Fakhita bint 'Utbah b. Suhayl remained. They came to 'Umar, and al-Harith b. Hisham had gone out to Sham, and only 'Abd al-Rahman b. al-Harith remained from his family. When they returned, Fakhita and 'Abd al-Rahman came back, and 'Umar said: Marry the orphaned girl, and they did, and Allah multiplied from them a great number, and it was said: Suhayl died in the plague of 'Amwas, in the caliphate of 'Umar, in the year eighteen.

This is Suhayl, who was the one who spoke on the Day of al-Hudaybiyah with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when they agreed, Muhammad b. Sa'd reported from al-Waqidi, from Sa'id b. Muslim, who said: There was no one from the nobles of Quraysh who delayed their Islam, except that they accepted Islam on the Day of the Conquest, more than anyone else in prayer, fasting, charity, and accepting what relates to the Hereafter, except for Suhayl b. 'Amr, until his color changed, and he became pale, and he was often crying, and he was soft when reciting the Quran. He was seen going to Mu'adh b. Jabal to recite the Quran to him, and he was crying, until Mu'adh left Makkah, and Dharar b. al-Azwar said: O Abu Yazid, you go to this Khazrajite to recite the Quran to him, is it not that you go to a man from your people? And he said: O Dharar, this is the one who did to us what he did, until we were preceded in all precedence. By my life, I went to him, for Islam has put the affairs of jahiliyyah in order, and Allah has raised up people through Islam, who were not remembered in jahiliyyah. If only we were with those people, we would have preceded them, and I remember what Allah has given me in the precedence of my family, men and women, and my patron 'Amir b. 'Auf, and he was taken captive, and I praise Allah for him, and I hope that Allah will benefit me through their supplication, for I fear that I have died on what I died upon, and they were killed, for I have witnessed all the battles, and I was an enemy to the truth on the Day of Badr, and the Day of Uhud, and the Day of the Trench, and I was in charge of the Book on the Day of al-Hudaybiyah, O Dharar, I