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The beginning of Islam of the Ansar: the meeting of the six and the twelve at the first Aqaba, the pledge of women of ’Ubada ibn as-Samit, the sending of Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr, the conversion of Usayd and Sa’d ibn Mu’adh, and the qasidas of Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Ibn Ishaq said: when Allah willed to manifest His religion, exalt His prophet, and fulfill His promise to him, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went out in the season in which he met the party of the Ansar: he would offer himself to the tribes of the Arabs as he used to do every season. While he was at the Aqaba he met a group of the Khazraj whom Allah intended good. Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada told me, from elders of his people: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) met them he said to them: "who are you?" They said: a party of the Khazraj. He said: "clients of the Jews?" They said: yes. He said: "will you not sit that I may speak with you?" They said: yes. So they sat with him: he called them to Allah, offered them Islam, and recited to them the Quran. And among what Allah did with them for Islam was that the Jews were with them in their land: they were people of the Book and of knowledge: while they were polytheists, keepers of idols: and the Jews held supremacy over them in their land: and whenever a dispute arose between them they would say to them: a prophet has been sent just now, his time has come: we shall follow him, and kill you with him as Ad and Iram were slain.
When therefore the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spoke to that party and called them to Allah, some of them said to others: O people: you know, by Allah, that this is the very prophet the Jews threaten you with: so do not outstrip us to him. They answered his call by confirming him, accepted from him what he offered them of Islam, and said to him: we have left our people: and no people have more hostility and evil between them than what is between them: and perhaps Allah will unite them through you: we shall go to them first, call them to your affair, and offer them the religion to which we answered you: and if Allah unites them under you, no man will be more honored than you. Then they departed, returning to their land, believing and confirming.
Ibn Ishaq said: and they were, according to what was mentioned to me, six men, all of the Khazraj: and they are: Abu Umama, As’ad ibn Zurara ibn ’Udas ibn Ubayd ibn Tha’laba ibn Ghanm ibn Malik ibn an-Najjar: and Abu Nu’aym said: and it is said he was the first of the Ansar of the Khazraj to accept Islam: and of the Aus, Abu l-Haytham ibn at-Tayyihan: and it is said: the first to accept Islam was Rafi’ ibn Malik and Mu’adh the son of Afra’: and Allah knows best: and Awf ibn al-Harith ibn Rifa’a ibn Sawad ibn Malik ibn Ghanm ibn Malik ibn an-Najjar: and he is the son of Afra’ an-Najjari, one of the two: and Rafi’ ibn Malik ibn al-’Ajlan ibn Amr ibn Zurayq az-Zuraqi: and Qutba ibn Amir ibn Hadida ibn Amr ibn Sawad ibn Ghanm ibn Ka’b ibn Salama ibn Sa’d ibn Ali ibn Asad ibn Sareda ibn Tazid ibn Jusham ibn al-Khazradj, as-Salami, then of Banu Sawad: and ’Uqba ibn Amir ibn Nabii ibn Zayd ibn Haram ibn Ka’b ibn Ghanm, as-Salami likewise: then of Banu Haram: and Jabir ibn Abdallah ibn Ri’ab ibn an-Nu’man ibn Sinan ibn Ubayd ibn Adi ibn Ghanm ibn Ka’b ibn Salama, as-Salami likewise: then of Banu Ubayd. And thus it was reported from ash-Sha’bi, az-Zuhri and others: they were that night six men of the Khazraj.
And Musa ibn ’Uqba mentioned, in what he reported from az-Zuhri and Urwa ibn az-Zubayr, that their first meeting with him (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was of eight men: and they are: Mu’adh ibn Afra’, As’ad ibn Zurara, Rafi’ ibn Malik, Dhakwan, who is the son of Abd Qays, ’Ubada ibn as-Samit, Abu Abd ar-Rahman Yazid ibn Tha’laba, Abu l-Haytham ibn at-Tayyihan, and ’Uwaym ibn Sa’ida. So they accepted Islam, and made appointment with him for the following year: then they returned to their people and called them to Islam: and they sent to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) Mu’adh ibn Afra’ and Rafi’ ibn Malik: send us a man who teaches us the religion. So he sent them Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr: and he stayed with As’ad ibn Zurara. And he mentions the complete account: and Ibn Ishaq will relate it more complete than the version of Musa ibn ’Uqba: and Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: when they came to Medina to their people, they spoke of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and called them to Islam: until it spread among them: and no house of the houses of the Ansar remained but in it the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was mentioned.
And when the following year came, twelve men of the Ansar attended the season: and they are: Abu Umama As’ad ibn Zurara, previously mentioned: and Awf ibn al-Harith, previously mentioned: and his brother Mu’adh, the two sons of Afra’: and Rafi’ ibn Malik, likewise previously mentioned: and Dhakwan ibn Abd Qays ibn Khalda ibn Mukhallad ibn Amir ibn Zurayq az-Zuraqi: and Ibn Hisham said: he is Ansari and Muhajir: and ’Ubada ibn as-Samit ibn Qays ibn Asram ibn Fihr ibn Tha’laba ibn Ghanm ibn Awf ibn Amr ibn Awf ibn al-Khazradj: and their ally Abu Abd ar-Rahman Yazid ibn Tha’laba ibn Khazma ibn Asram al-Balawi: and al-Abbas ibn ’Ubada ibn Nadla ibn Malik ibn al-’Ajlan ibn Zayd ibn Ghanm ibn Salim ibn Awf ibn Amr ibn Awf ibn al-Khazradj, al-’Ajlani: and ’Uqba ibn Amir ibn Nabii, previously mentioned: and Qutba ibn Amir ibn Hadida, previously mentioned: and those are ten of the Khazraj: and of the Aus, two men: ’Uwaym ibn Sa’ida, and Abu l-Haytham Malik ibn at-Tayyihan. Ibn Hisham said: at-Tayyihan is pronounced light or heavy, like mayt and mayyit. as-Suhayli said: Abu l-Haytham ibn at-Tayyihan: his name is Malik ibn Malik ibn Atik ibn Amr ibn Abd al-A’la ibn Amir ibn Za’war ibn Jusham ibn al-Harith ibn al-Khazradj ibn Amr ibn Malik ibn al-Aus. He said: and it is said: he is Irashi: and it is said: Balawi: and for this reason neither Ibn Ishaq nor Ibn Hisham ascribed him to them. And al-Haytham: the eaglet: and a kind of plant.
The point is that these twelve men attended the season at that time, resolved to meet the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), met him at the Aqaba, and pledged to him there the pledge of women: and that is the first Aqaba. And Abu Nu’aym reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recited to them from His word in surah Ibrahim: "And (remember) when Abraham said: O my Lord, make this city a place of security, and preserve me and my children from worshipping idols", to the end of the surah.
Ibn Ishaq said: Yazid ibn Abi Habib told me, from Marthad ibn Abdallah al-Yazani, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn ’Ussayla as-Sounabihi, from ’Ubada ibn as-Samit: I was among those who attended the first Aqaba: and we were twelve men: we pledged to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) the pledge of women: and that before war was prescribed: to associate nothing with Allah, to not steal, to not commit adultery, to not kill our children, to not come with a lie we forge between our hands and our feet, and to not disobey him in what is right: "if you fulfill, for you is Paradise: and if you fail therein in anything, your affair is to Allah: if He wills He punishes, and if He wills He forgives." And al-Bukhari and Muslim reported this hadith, through al-Layth ibn Sa’d, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, in like manner.
Ibn Ishaq said: and Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri mentioned, from Uthman ibn Abdallah Abu Idris al-Khawlani, that ’Ubada ibn as-Samit informed him: we pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the night of the first Aqaba, to associate nothing with Allah, to not steal, to not commit adultery, to not kill our children, to not come with a lie we forge between our hands and our feet, and to not disobey him in what is right: "if you fulfill, for you is Paradise: and if you fail therein in anything, and you are taken by its punishment in this world, it is an expiation for it: and if you conceal it until the Day of Resurrection, your affair is to Allah: if He wills He punishes, and if He wills He forgives." And this hadith is reported in the two Sahihs and elsewhere, through chains from az-Zuhri, in like manner. And his word: upon the pledge of women: meaning: according to what came down afterward of the pledge of women, in the year of al-Hudaybiya: and this is among what the word of Allah came down according to what his companions pledged on the night of the Aqaba: and this is not strange: for the Quran came down according to ’Umar ibn al-Khattab in many places: as we established in his sira and in the commentary: and if this pledge occurred from an unrevealed revelation, that is more apparent. And Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: when the people turned away from him, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent with them Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf ibn Abd ad-Dar ibn QuSayy: and commanded him to teach them the Quran, to teach them Islam, and to instruct them in the religion. And al-Bayhaqi reported it, from Ibn Ishaq: Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada told me that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) only sent Mus’ab when they wrote to him to send him to them. And that is what Musa ibn ’Uqba mentioned, as preceded: except that he made the second time the first. Al-Bayhaqi said: and the account of Ibn Ishaq is more complete.
And Ibn Ishaq said: and Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr used to say: I know not what the first Aqaba is. Then Ibn Ishaq said: nay, by my life, there was an Aqaba and an Aqaba. They all said: Mus’ab stayed with As’ad ibn Zurara: and he was called in Medina: the reciter. Ibn Ishaq said: Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada told me that he prayed with them: and that because some of the Aus and the Khazraj disliked that one of them lead the others, all of them.
Ibn Ishaq said: Muhammad ibn Abi Umama ibn Sahl ibn Hunayfa told me, from his father, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ka’b ibn Malik: I led my father when his sight went: and whenever I brought him out to the Friday assembly, as soon as he heard the call, he prayed upon Abu Umama As’ad ibn Zurara. He remained thus a while, not hearing the call of Friday but praying upon him and seeking forgiveness for him. I said to myself: by Allah, it is weakness in me not to ask him. I said: O father, why, when you hear the call of Friday, do you pray upon Abu Umama? He said: O my son: he was the first to gather us in Medina, at the cutting of the palm shoots, from the lava tract of Banu Bayada, in a pool called: the pool of the watercourses. I said: and how many were you that day? He said: forty men. And Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah reported this hadith, through Muhammad ibn Ishaq. And ad-Daraqutni reported, from Ibn Abbas, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) wrote to Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr commanding him to establish the Friday assembly: and in his chain is a strangeness. And Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: Ubaydallah ibn al-Mughira ibn Mu’qib, and Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Hazm, told me that As’ad ibn Zurara went out with Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr, taking him to the house of Banu Abd al-Ashhal and the house of Banu Dhafr: and Sa’d ibn Mu’adh was the maternal cousin of As’ad ibn Zurara: and he entered with him into an orchard of the orchards of Banu Dhafr, by a well called: the well of Maraq. They sat in the orchard: and there gathered to them men of those who had accepted Islam: and Sa’d ibn Mu’adh and Usayd ibn Hudayr: who was that day the lord of their people of Banu Abd al-Ashhal: and both were polytheists upon the religion of their people. When they heard of it, Sa’d said to Usayd: go to these two men who have come to our houses to make fools of our weak: drive them off, and forbid them our houses: for were it not for As’ad ibn Zurara, who is linked to me as you know, I would have spared you that: he is my maternal cousin, and I find nothing to press against him.
Usayd ibn Hudayr took his spear, then came toward the two: and when As’ad ibn Zurara saw him he said to Mus’ab: this is the lord of his people: he has come to you: so be sincere to Allah concerning him. Mus’ab said: if he sits, I shall speak to him. He stood over the two frowning, and said: what has brought you two to us, to make fools of our weak? Keep away from us, if you have any need. Musa ibn ’Uqba said: and he said to him: why have you come to us in our houses with this lone, strange, banished man, making fools of our weak with falsehood and calling them to him? Ibn Ishaq said: Mus’ab said to him: will you sit and hear: if you are pleased with an affair you will accept it: and if you dislike it I shall desist from you what you hate.
He said: you have been fair. He planted his spear, and sat beside the two: and Mus’ab spoke to him of Islam, and recited to him the Quran. They said, as is related of the two: by Allah, we recognized Islam in his face before he spoke, in its brightness and its ease: then he said: how good this is, and how beautiful! What will you do if you two wish to enter this religion? They said to him: you wash and purify yourself, and purify your two garments: then you bear witness to the truth: then you pray. So he rose and washed, purified his two garments, bore witness to the truth: then rose and prayed two rak’as. Then he said to them: behind me is a man: if he follows you none of his people will remain behind: and I shall send him to you now: Sa’d ibn Mu’adh. So he took his spear and went to Sa’d and his people, sitting in their club. When Sa’d ibn Mu’adh saw Usayd coming he said: I swear by Allah Usayd has come to you with something other than what he went with from you. When he stood at the club, Sa’d said to him: what have you done? He said: I spoke to the two men: and by Allah I saw no harm in them: and I forbade them, and they said: we shall do as you wish.
And I was told that the Banu Haritha had gone out to kill As’ad ibn Zurara: because they knew he was your maternal cousin, thinking you would shield him. Sa’d ibn Mu’adh rose angry, hastening, fearing what was mentioned to him of the Banu Haritha: and he took the spear in his hand, then said: by Allah you have accomplished nothing. Then he went out to the two: and when he saw them reassured he knew that Usayd only wanted of him that he hear from the two: and he stood over them frowning: then said to As’ad ibn Zurara: O Abu Umama: by Allah, were it not for the kinship between you and me I would not have permitted this of you: do you hide from us, in our houses, what we dislike? As’ad had said to Mus’ab: there has come to you, by Allah, a lord behind whom is his people: if he follows you not two of them will remain behind. Mus’ab said to him: will you sit and hear: if you are pleased with an affair and desire it you will accept it: and if you dislike it we shall spare you what you hate. Sa’d said: you have been fair.
Then he planted the spear and sat: Islam was offered to him, and the Quran was recited to him: and Musa ibn ’Uqba mentioned that he recited to him the beginning of az-Zukhruf. He said: we recognized, by Allah, Islam in his face before he spoke, for its brightness and its ease: then he said to them: what will you do when you have accepted Islam and entered this religion? They said: you wash and purify yourself, and purify your two garments: then you bear witness to the truth: then you pray two rak’as. So he rose and washed, purified his two garments, bore witness to the truth: then prayed two rak’as: then took his spear and came straight to the club of his people, and with him Usayd ibn al-Hudayr.
When his people saw him coming they said: we swear by Allah Sa’d returns to you with something other than what he went with from you. When he stood upon them he said: O sons of Abd al-Ashhal: what do you know of my standing among you? They said: our lord: the best of us in counsel: and the most judge-like of us. He said: the speech of your men and your women is forbidden to me, until you believe in Allah and His Messenger. And by Allah there remained not, by evening, in the house of Banu Abd al-Ashhal a man or a woman but Muslim or Muslim woman. And As’ad and Mus’ab returned to the house of As’ad ibn Zurara: and he stayed there, the two of them calling the people to Islam: until no house of the houses of the Ansar remained but in it were men and women Muslims: except what was of the house of Banu Umayya ibn Zayd, and Khath’am, and Wa’il, and Waqif: and those are Aus: and they were of the Aus ibn Haritha: and that because they had among them Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat: whose name is Sayfiyy: and az-Zubayr ibn Bakkara said: his name is al-Harith: and it is said: Abdallah. And the name of his father al-Aslat is: Amir ibn Jusham ibn Wa’il ibn Zayd ibn Qays ibn Amir ibn Murra ibn Malik ibn al-Aus: and Ibn al-Kalbi ascribed him likewise. He was their poet and leader: they heard him and obeyed him: and he held them back from Islam until after the Trench.
I say: and this Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat: Ibn Ishaq mentioned of him devout, beautiful poems, close to the poems of Umayya ibn as-Salt ath-Thaqafi. Ibn Ishaq said, in what preceded: when the affair of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spread among the Arabs and reached the lands, it was mentioned in Medina: and no tribe of the Arabs knew better the affair of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when it was mentioned and before it was, than this tribe of the Aus and the Khazraj: and that by what they heard from the rabbis of the Jews. When therefore his affair settled in Medina, and they began speaking of what Quraysh had of disagreement about him, Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat, brother of Banu Waqif, said a qasida: and as-Suhayli said: it is Abu Qays Sirmah ibn Abi Anas: and the name of Abi Anas is: Qays ibn Sirmah ibn Malik ibn Adi ibn Amr ibn Ghanm ibn Adi ibn an-Najjar: and he is the one concerning whom, and ’Umar, was revealed: "It is made lawful for you, the night of the fast, to go in to your wives", the verse of al-Baqara.
He loved Quraysh, and he had with them a marriage kinship: Arna bint Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn QuSayy was under his roof: and he would dwell years among them with his wife. He said a qasida in which he glorifies the sanctity, forbids Quraysh war, mentions their merit and their good sense, reminds them of the chastisement Allah brought upon those who attacked them, and His turning away their Elephant and their scheme: and commands them to hold back from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him):
O rider: if you pass by, deliver, a word chained, from me to Lu’ay ibn Ghalib,
the messenger of a man whom the dispute between you made, at the parting, sad and toilsome,
I have had a bed for sorrows: without fulfilling of it my need or my aims,
I bring you tidings of sorrows: every tribe has its strap and its whip,
I seek refuge for you in Allah from the evil of your deeds: and the evil of your feuding, and the ambush of scorpions,
And the displaying of manners, and the ailing whisper: like the sting of the barb whose fall strikes sure,
So remind them of Allah at the first fright: and the sanctifying of the sacred gazelles of cloven horn,
And say to them, Allah judges by His judgment: leave war: it departs from you amid places of honor,
Whenever you raise it you raise it blameworthy: it is the ghoul, to the far or the near,
It severs wombs of kin, destroys a community: and cuts the two flanks of the camel’s hump,
And you exchange, after it, the musk of old: for rags and tatters of the warrior’s clothes,
And for much-strewn dust, you who were in musk and camphor: as if its two soots were the eyes of locusts,
Beware of war, let it not seize you: neither at the pool, nor the tent of bitter waters of the drinking places,
It adorns itself for the peoples: then they see its end, when the truth of its master is uncovered,
It burns without roasting the weak: and plucks the mighty of you with volleys of shafts,
Know you not what was in the war of Dahis? Take heed: or in the war of Hatib,
And how many a noble of dark tents, long of tent-poles, whose guest was never disappointed,
Of the great ash of fire, whose deeds are praised: and of pure manliness, noble of encampments,
And water poured in loss: as if the wind of Saba and the winds had spread it,
A man truly knowing its days will inform you of it: and knowledge is the knowledge of experience,
So sell the spears of the spearman: and remember your reckoning: and Allah is the best of reckoners,
The patron of a man, let him choose a religion: no watcher over you but the Lord of the stars,
Establish for us a religion upright: you are our goal whereto the waters guide,
And you are to this people light and protection: hoped in, and the minds are not wavering,
And you, when the people are refined to pure essence: you are the core of the plain, the sweet of the gleanings,
You protect bodies noble, generous: of noble lineages, unstained,
You see the seeker of needs toward your houses: like guides of pilgrims guided by guides,
The peoples have known that your constancy, in every state, is the best of the people of the dwellings:
And best of counsel, and highest of conduct: and most just to the truth amid the caravans,
So rise, pray to your Lord, and wipe: at the corners of this House, among the sanctuaries,
With you of it is the striking chastisement: on the morning Abu Yakssum, guide of the troops,
His army driven to the soft ground: his foot lingering upon the hurlers, at the summits of the ridges,
And when the help of the Lord of the Throne came to you: the armies of the King, between smooth and stony, He repelled them,
They fled swift, returning not to their people: Abyssinians bewildered, without guides,
If you perish, perish: and perish the seasons wherein lives the word of a man no liar.
And the war of Dahis, which Abu Qays mentioned in his poem, was famous in the Jahiliyya: and its cause was, as Abu Ubayda, Ma’mar ibn al-Muthanna and others related: that a mare called Dahis belonged to Qays ibn Zuhayr ibn Jadhima ibn Rawaha al-Ghatafani: and he raced her against a mare of Hudhayfa ibn Badr ibn Amr ibn Ju’ayya al-Ghatafani, called al-Ghabra’. Dahis came in first: and Hudhayfa commanded that her face be struck: Malik ibn Zuhayr leapt and slapped the face of al-Ghabra’: and Hamal ibn Badr rose and slapped Malik: then Abu Ju’aydib al-’Absi met Awf ibn Hudhayfa and killed him: then a man of Banu Fazarah met Malik and killed him: and war flared between Banu ’Abs and Fazarah: slain were Hudhayfa ibn Badr, and his brother Hamal ibn Badr: and others in companies: and they composed on that many poems, whose exposition would be long. And Ibn Hisham said: and it is said: Qays raced Dahis and al-Ghabra’, and Hudhayfa raced al-Khattar and al-Hanfa’: and the first is sounder.
As for the war of Hatib: he means Hatib ibn al-Harith ibn Qays ibn Haysha ibn al-Harith ibn Umayya ibn Mu’awiya ibn Malik ibn Awf ibn Amr ibn Awf ibn Malik ibn al-Aus: he had killed a Jew, client of the Khazraj: and Yazid ibn al-Harith ibn Qays ibn Malik ibn Ahmar ibn Haritha ibn Tha’laba ibn Ka’b ibn Malik ibn Ka’b ibn al-Khazraj, called Ibn Fushuma, went out against him with a party of Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj: and they killed him: and war broke out between Aus and Khazraj: and they fought fiercely: and the victory was to the Khazraj: and slain that day was al-Aswad ibn as-Samit al-Awsi: slain by al-Mujadhdhar ibn Dhiyad, ally of Banu Awf ibn al-Khazradj: then there were between them wars whose mention likewise would be long.
The point is that Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat, despite his knowledge and understanding, profited nothing by it: when Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr came to Medina and called its people to Islam: many of them accepted Islam: and no dwelling, meaning quarter, of the quarters of Medina remained but in it were Muslims and Muslim women: except the house of Banu Waqif, the tribe of Abu Qays: he held them back from Islam: and he is likewise the author of:
Do people have things that befall: the hard is wound by the gentle,
Do people have: if we have strayed, ease us to the known path,
Had it not been for our Lord we had been Jews: and the religion of the Jews has no chains,
And had it not been for our Lord we had been Christians: with the monks in the mount of Galilee,
But we were created, when we were created: hanifs: our religion from every grandsire,
We lead the offering: obedient she-camels, shoulders bared at the crossings.
The sum of his word is that he is perplexed at what came to pass of the affair he heard of the sending of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): so the Waqif remained in suspense therein, despite his knowledge and recognition. And the one who first held them back from Islam was Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul: after Abu Qays informed him that he is the one the Jews had given them glad tidings of: so he prevented him from Islam.
Ibn Ishaq said: he did not accept Islam until the day of the conquest: he and his brother Wahwah. And az-Zubayr ibn Bakkara denied that Abu Qays accepted Islam: and likewise al-Waqidi: he said: he had resolved to accept Islam at the first call of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): but Abdallah ibn Ubayy blamed him: and he swore he would not accept Islam until a year had passed: and he died in Dhu l-Qi’da. And others mentioned, as Ibn al-Athir relates in his book Usd al-Ghaba: that when death presented itself to him, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) called him to Islam: and he was heard saying: there is no god but Allah.
And Imam Ahmad said: Hasan ibn Musa told us, from Hammad ibn Salama, from Thabit, from Anas ibn Malik: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) visited a man of the Ansar and said: "O maternal uncle, say: there is no god but Allah." He said: a maternal uncle, or a paternal uncle? He said: "rather a maternal uncle." He said: is it better for me to say: there is no god but Allah? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "yes." Ahmad alone reported it. And Ikrima and others mentioned that when he died his son wanted to marry his wife, Kubaysha bint Ma’n ibn Asim: and she asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about that: and Allah sent down: "And marry not the women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed. It is an indecency, an abomination, and an evil way", the verse of an-Nisa.
And Ibn Ishaq said, and Sa’id ibn Yahya al-Umawi in his Maghazi: this Abu Qays had taken to monasticism in the Jahiliyya: he wore the loose mantle, had forsaken the idols, washed from major impurity, purified himself from the menstruation of women: and he inclined to Christianity: then held back from it: and he entered a house of his and made it a place of prayer: none entered it in state, no menstruating woman and no man in major impurity: and he said: I worship the god of Ibrahim: when he forsook the idols and disliked them: until the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came to Medina: and he accepted Islam, and his Islam was beautiful: and he was a very aged elder: and he was truthful in speech, magnifying Allah in his Jahiliyya, saying on that beautiful verses: and he is the one who says:
Abu Qays says, risen at morning: apply then what you can of my bequest,
I bequeath to you Allah, and kindness and piety: and your honors: and kindness with Allah comes first,
If your people lead, envy them not: and if you are people of leadership, be just,
And if one of the great calamities befalls your people: set your selves before the tribe,
And if a grievous peril comes, be gentle to them: and bear what they load you with in the trials,
And if you eat together, be abstinent: and if the best of good is in you, excel.
And Abu Qays said likewise:
Glorify Allah at the east of every morning: when its sun rises, and every new moon,
Knower of the secret and of speech all together: what our Lord has said is not astray,
To Him the birds: they seek and alight, at dawns, in the secure dales of the mountains,
To Him the wild beasts of the desert: you see them, on firm legs, in the shadows of the sands,
To Him humbled the Jews, and yielded: every religion, from fear of chastisements,
To Him fasted the Christians, and stood: every feast, for their Lord, in celebration,
To Him the chained monk whom you see: pledge of misery, he who was blessed, head high,
O my sons, the kinships, cut them not: join them, short or long,
And fear Allah for the weak orphans: and for what is permitted, other than the lawful,
And know the orphan has a guardian: knowing, who guides without asking,
And the wealth of the orphan, eat it not: the wealth of the orphan a guardian tends,
O my sons, the bounds, transgress them not: transgressing the bounds is the affair of fools,
O my sons, the days, trust them not: and beware their guile, and the passage of nights,
And know their passage ends creation: nothing remains of new or lasting,
And gather your affair upon kindness and piety: and leaving the foul, and taking the lawful.
Ibn Ishaq said: and Abu Qays Sirmah said likewise, mentioning what Allah honored them with of Islam, and what He singled them out with of the coming of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) among them:
He dwelt in Quraysh some thirteen pilgrim seasons: remembering, were he to meet a pitying friend,
And its account will come in full hereafter, Allah willing: and He is the One trusted.