Mu'adh ibn Jabal

A Companion among the young scholars of the Ansar; the man whom the Prophet named as the one who best knew the lawful and the unlawful, and whom he sent to Yemen as judge and teacher. His full name is Abu Abd al-Rahman Mu'adh b. Jabal b. Amr al-Ansari; he is also known by the nisbas al-Khazraji and al-Jushami.

He was born in Medina eighteen years before the Hijra (603 CE). After the death of his father, of the Banu Udayy branch of the Khazraj, his mother Hind bint Sahl married Jadd (Judd) b. Qays, chief of the Banu Salima. Mu'adh became a Muslim at the age of eighteen and took part in the Second Pledge of Aqaba. With friends of his tribe who had embraced Islam, he would at night break the idols of those of the Banu Salima who had not yet become Muslim, or do things that exposed the helplessness of the idols.

After the Hijra the Prophet established a bond of brotherhood between him and Abdullah b. Mas'ud. He took part in every campaign, beginning with Badr, except Hunayn and Ta'if, serving as his tribe's standard-bearer or representative. After the conquest of Mecca, as the Prophet set out for Hunayn, he appointed Mu'adh first as governor of Mecca and then as teacher of the Qur'an and religious knowledge, so he could not join the Hunayn and Ta'if campaigns.

In Rabi' al-Akhir of year 9 of the Hijra (August 630) the Prophet sent him with Abu Musa al-Ash'ari to Yemen as envoy, zakat officer and judge, placing Mu'adh at the head of the delegation, with Mu'adh serving in Upper Yemen and Abu Musa in Lower Yemen. Their conversation on how he would judge in Yemen is famous: when Mu'adh said he would judge first by the Book of God, then — if he found nothing there — by the Sunna of the Messenger, and failing that by his own reasoning, the Prophet was pleased and praised God. He enjoined them to make things easy for the people and not hard, to bring good tidings and not drive people away. Walking for a while beside Mu'adh as he saw the delegation off, the Prophet said that they might not meet again and that on his return to Medina he would find only his mosque and his grave; Mu'adh wept, and the Prophet consoled him.

In Yemen he married a woman of the Sakun branch, and played an important part in removing, within three months, al-Aswad al-Ansi, who had arisen there claiming prophethood. He completed his mission in 11 (632) and returned to Medina some time after the Prophet's death.

In Abu Bakr's time he asked permission to join the Syrian conquests; although Umar urged that it be refused because his knowledge would be needed, the caliph granted it, saying he had no right to hold back a man who sought martyrdom. Mu'adh was present at the battles of Yarmuk and Ajnadayn and at the conquest of Damascus, commanding the army's right wing at Ajnadayn. Under Umar, when Yazid b. Abi Sufyan, governor of Damascus, asked for teachers, he was sent to Syria as a teacher together with Abu'l-Darda and Ubada b. al-Samit.

When Abu Ubayda b. al-Jarrah, commander of the Syrian army, died in the plague that broke out at Amwas near Jerusalem (ta'un Amwas), Mu'adh took command of the army (18/639). He too caught the plague, together with two of his sons and two of his wives, and died the same year. The sources record that his line came to an end when his family perished in the plague of Amwas. He was tall and imposing; one of his feet was lame.

His Circle of Influence — In the Prophet's time he was one of the few who knew the whole Qur'an by heart, one of the four Companions from whom the Prophet advised the Qur'an be learned, and one of the six Companions who gave fatwas in that era. The Prophet named him as the one who best knew the lawful and the unlawful, praised him — "What a fine man Mu'adh is!" — and said that on the Day of Resurrection he would walk ahead of the scholars; at times he let him ride behind him on his donkey Ufayr. As caliph, Umar advised that Mu'adh be consulted on questions of law. He narrated 157 hadiths from the Prophet, collected together in Ahmad b. Hanbal's al-Musnad. From him Companions such as Abdullah b. Umar, Abdullah b. Abbas, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and Anas b. Malik, and Successors such as Abd al-Rahman b. Ghanm, who went with him to Yemen, and Amr b. Maymun, Abu Muslim al-Khawlani and Masruq b. al-Ajda', who knew him in Yemen, learned hadith, law and Qur'anic recitation.

His Tomb and Complex — According to the source, a small mosque and tomb have been built over his grave, which lies in the village bearing his name in the Northern Ghor (al-Aghwar al-Shamaliyya) district of today's Irbid governorate.