The battles, age, death and other accounts of Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him)

Urwah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Among the names of the Ansar who attended the Pledge of Aqabah, from Banu Salimah, was Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal bin Amr bin A'idh bin Adi bin Ka'b bin Uddi bin Sa'd bin Adi bin Asad bin Saridah bin Tazid bin Jusham (may Allah be pleased with him), and he also took part in Badr.

Ibn Shihab (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Among the names of the Ansar who took part in Badr was Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him).

Muhammad bin Ishaq (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal bin Amr bin Aws bin A'idh bin Adi bin Ka'b bin Uddi (may Allah be pleased with him) took part in both Badr and Aqabah. Ibn Ishaq said: Banu Salimah claimed him as one of their own only because he was the maternal brother of Suhayl bin Muhammad bin al-Jadd bin Qays bin Sakhr bin Khansa' bin Sinan bin Ubayd bin Adi bin Ghanm bin Ka'b bin Salimah.

Yahya bin Sa'id (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) died at the age of twenty-eight, and the one who gave him a greater age says: thirty-two years.

Yahya bin Sa'id (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) died at the age of twenty-eight, and whoever gives him a greater age says: thirty-two years.

Imam Malik bin Anas (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) died at the age of twenty-eight, and someone says: thirty-two years.
And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Mu'adh bin Jabal will be one step (ratwah) ahead of the scholars on the Day of Resurrection." Ibn Bukayr said: "Ratwah means rank."

Muhammad bin Ka'b al-Qurazi (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Mu'adh bin Jabal will be one step ahead of the scholars."

Sa'id bin al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) passed away at the age of thirty-three or thirty-four.

Yahya bin Bukayr (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) died in the plague of Amwas in the year 17 or 18 AH.

Ibn Ka'b bin Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) was a handsome, generous young man, one of the best young men of his people. Whatever he was asked for, he would give, until he took on so much debt that all his wealth was tied up in it. The narrator said: He asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to speak to his creditors, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) did so, but they did not forgive him any part of the debt. If anyone's debt had been forgiven on the intercession of anyone, Mu'adh's debt would certainly have been forgiven on the intercession of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) called him and did not leave the matter until he had sold his wealth and divided it among his creditors. So Sayyiduna Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up with no wealth left to him. The narrator said: Then, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) performed Hajj, he sent him to Yemen so that his loss would be made good. The narrator said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) was the first person to trade with this wealth. Then he came from Yemen to Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had already passed away.

Muhammad bin Suqah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I came to Nu'aym bin Abi Hind (may Allah have mercy on him), and he brought out a written document for me. In it was written: From Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah and Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with them both) to Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him): Peace be upon you. To proceed: We knew you when only the affair of your own self mattered to you, and now you have become the guardian of the affairs of all the people of this Ummah, the red and the black. The lowly and the noble, the enemy and the friend all sit before you, and each one has his share of justice. So consider, O Umar, where you stand in this matter. We warn you of a Day on which faces will be humbled, hearts will dry up, and all arguments will be cut off except the argument of the King who will have subdued them with His might, while the creation will be humbled before Him, hoping for His mercy and fearing His punishment. We used to speak among ourselves that the affair of this Ummah in its last age will come to this: that they will be brothers outwardly and enemies inwardly. We seek refuge in Allah that this letter of ours should be taken in any sense other than that in which it came down from our hearts; we have written it only out of sincere goodwill for you. And peace be upon you. So Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to the two of them: From Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab to Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah and Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with them both): Peace be upon you both. To proceed: Your letter reached me, in which you remind me that you knew me when only the affair of my own self mattered to me, and that now I have become the guardian of the affairs of all the people of this Ummah, the red and the black; that the noble and the lowly, the enemy and the friend all sit before me, and that each one has his share of justice. You wrote: 'So consider, O Umar, where you stand in this matter' - and indeed, in this matter they have no power and no strength except through Allah. And you warned me of that of which the nations before us have been warned since ancient times. Indeed, the alternation of the night and the day, with the appointed terms of people, brings every distant thing near, brings every new thing, and brings every promised matter, until people reach their abodes in Paradise or Hell. You warned me that the affair of this Ummah in its last age will come to this: that they will be brothers outwardly and enemies inwardly. But you are not those people, nor is this that age. That will be an age in which desire and fear will appear, and people's inclination towards one another will be only for the betterment of their worldly affairs. You wrote that you seek refuge in Allah that I should take your letter in any sense other than that in which it came down from your hearts, and that you wrote it out of sincere goodwill for me. You have spoken the truth, so do not stop writing to me, for I cannot do without you both. And peace be upon you both.

Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) took four hundred dinars and put them in a pouch, then said to his servant: "Take this to Abu Ubaydah bin al-Jarrah (may Allah be pleased with him), then stay a while in the house so that you see what he does." So the servant took it to him and said: "The Commander of the Believers says to you: Use this for some of your needs." He said: "May Allah reward him and have mercy on him." Then he said: "Come, O slave girl! Take these seven dinars to so-and-so, and these five to so-and-so," until he had given them all away. The servant returned and told him, and he found that he (Umar) had prepared the same amount for Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: "Take this to Mu'adh bin Jabal and stay in the house so that you see what he does." So he took it to him and said: "The Commander of the Believers says to you: Use this for some of your needs." He said: "May Allah have mercy on him and reward him. Come, O slave girl! Take so much to the house of so-and-so, and take so much to the house of so-and-so." Meanwhile the wife of Sayyiduna Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) looked in and said: "By Allah, we too are poor, so give to us as well." Only two dinars remained in the pouch, so he gave those to her. The servant returned to Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) and told him, and he was pleased by that and said: "These people are like true brothers to one another."

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) was an ummah (goodness embodied in one person), devoutly obedient to Allah, upright, and he was not one of the polytheists. One of those sitting with him said: "These words came about Ibrahim (peace be upon him)." He said: "I have not forgotten." Then he said: "Do you know what 'ummah' means?" The people said: "No." He said: "One who teaches people goodness." Then he said: "Do you know what 'qanit' means?" The people said: "No." He said: "One who is obedient to Allah."

Thawr bin Yazid (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When Sayyiduna Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) prayed tahajjud at night, he would make this supplication: "O Allah, the eyes have gone to sleep and the stars have set, and You are the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining. O Allah, my seeking of Paradise is slow and my fleeing from Hell is weak. O Allah, appoint for me with You a guidance which You will return to me on the Day of Resurrection; indeed, You do not break the promise."

Muhammad bin Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him) said: A man came to Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him), and his companions were with him, greeting him and bidding him farewell. Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I advise you of two things; if you keep them, you will be protected: You cannot do without your share of this world, but you are in greater need of your share of the Hereafter. So give your share of the Hereafter preference over your share of this world, until you have arranged it for yourself in such a way that it moves with you wherever you go.

Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates: Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) fell unconscious, and his sister began to say: "O Jabal!" or some other words like it. When he regained consciousness he said: "You have kept on hurting me all day today." She said: "It would be very hard on me to hurt you." He said: "A severely rebuking angel stayed with me constantly; every time you said 'O so-and-so!' he would say: 'Are you really like that?' And I would say: 'No.'"

Malik bin Yukhamir (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I saw Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) killing lice and fleas in the mosque.