Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah

A commander among the Companions and one of the ten promised Paradise; the man the Prophet called "the trustee of this community", who led the conquest of Syria as commander-in-chief. His full name is Abu Ubayda Amir ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Jarrah al-Fihri al-Qurashi; he is known by the epithet Amin al-Umma.

He was born in Mecca forty years before the Hijra (583). He belonged to the Banu al-Harith ibn Fihr of Quraysh; his lineage meets that of the Messenger of God in Fihr, the Prophet's tenth ancestor. In the Jahiliyya he was one of the few people in Mecca who could read and write, and the Quraysh held him in esteem for it.

He embraced Islam through Abu Bakr in the days when the Prophet had begun his call and had not yet entered the house of al-Arqam. His efforts to spread Islam exposed him to heavy pressure from the Quraysh; when the persecution became unbearable he joined the second emigration to Abyssinia in 616, returned to Mecca after a while, and later emigrated to Medina. The Prophet established brotherhood (mu'akhat) between him and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh.

In the Medinan period he took on important tasks in preaching and administration and took part with the Prophet in all his campaigns. It is reported that at Badr he was forced to kill his father, who was in the enemy ranks, when his father attacked him, and that the verse declaring that believers cannot befriend unbelievers even if they are their fathers, sons, brothers or kin (al-Mujadila 58/22) was revealed on this account. At Uhud he showed valour: he was among the fourteen who did not leave the Messenger of God when the Muslim army scattered, and he lost his two front teeth while pulling out with his teeth the pieces of helmet lodged in the Prophet's face. He was appointed commander of the expeditions of the second Dhu al-Qassa (6/627) and Sif al-Bahr (al-Khabat) (8/629), and he led the reinforcements sent after the Dhat al-Salasil expedition (8/629). In the same year he entered Mecca ahead of the Prophet at its conquest. He served in the treasury, his name was written as witness on several documents, above all the Treaty of Hudaybiya, and he was charged with teaching Islam to the Yemenis who came to Medina. When the people of Najran, who remained Christian and agreed to pay the jizya, asked for a trustworthy man to be sent with them to collect it, the Messenger of God said "Every community has a trustee, and the trustee of this community is Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah", and sent him to Najran, where he also taught the people Islam. He was also given the task of collecting the dues of the Muzayna, Hudhayl and Kinana tribes.

When the Prophet died, some Companions, among them Abu Bakr and Umar, wished to pledge allegiance to him as caliph; he declined, saying that Abu Bakr was worthy of the office. In Abu Bakr's time he first ran the finances of the state and was then appointed commander of one of the armies sent to Syria. Umar placed him in supreme command of the armies of that region in place of Khalid ibn al-Walid. In this period many cities of Syria were conquered, above all Damascus, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Aleppo, Antioch and Jerusalem; the detachments he sent advanced as far as Urfa and Maraş. He governed the conquered lands as Umar's governor until the end of his life.

He was rather tall, lean and thin-bearded. The Prophet loved Abu Ubayda, who was humble, ascetic and modest, and esteemed his character and person; according to a report of Aisha, after Abu Bakr and Umar he was the person the Prophet loved most. He was also known for digging graves in the manner of the Meccans. Umar too loved and esteemed him: on hearing that plague had broken out at Amwas he said that if Abu Ubayda survived it and outlived him he wished to designate him head of state; and when he was stabbed he told those who asked him to name a successor that, had Abu Ubayda been alive, he would have named him.

He caught the plague known as the plague of Amwas — after Amwas near Jerusalem, where it broke out — which caused the death of many Companions, and he died in the village of Amta, attached to Baysan (18/639), and was buried there. He had two sons, Yazid and Umayr, by his wife Hind bint Jabir, but his line did not continue.

His Circle of Influence — He was one of the Companions who knew the Qur'an by heart. Because his life was spent on campaign he transmitted only fifteen hadiths from the Prophet, twelve of which are in Ahmad ibn Hanbal's al-Musnad. Companions such as al-Irbad ibn Sariya, Jabir ibn Abd Allah, Abu Umama al-Bahili and Samura ibn Jundab transmitted from him.

His Tomb and Complex — According to the source his grave is today in the village of Abu Ubayda in the Ghor al-Balawna district of the Jordan Valley. It is known that earlier Baybars I had a dome built over the grave in 675 (1277). In 1366 (1946-47) King Abdullah built a mosque beside the grave and brought the tomb inside it; in 1374 (1954-55), under King Hussein, the mosque was enlarged and rebuilt.