Saints

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.

Deir AllaDied 18 AHView

Al-Shunah al-ShamaliyahDied 18 AHView

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.

Dirar ibn al-Azwar

A poet and warrior Companion of the Prophet, of the Banu Asad. His full name is Abu'l-Azwar Dirar b. Malik b. Aws al-Asadi ; he is also known by the kunya Abu Bilal . Because his father was known by the epithet Azwar , "the crooked-necked", he became famous as Dirar b. al-Azwar. Some sources give his name as Abd b. al-Azwar, but Abd appears to have been his brother. He was among the wealthy men of the Banu Asad, owning 1000 camels and several herdsmen to tend them. In 9 (630) he went to Medina with a delegation of his tribe and, with the Prophet's permission, recited in his presence his ode, the Lamiyya . In it he said that he had left wine, gambling and amusement — even his family and all his wealth — to come and fight at the Prophet's side against the polytheists, and hoped not to lose by this bargain. Having listened to the ode, the Prophet told him he had made a profitable bargain. The Prophet sent him as envoy to the Banu Sayda, a branch of the Banu Asad, and to part of the Banu Du'il (Banu Dil). When Tulayha b. Khuwaylid of the Banu Asad came forward claiming prophethood, the Prophet charged Dirar with closely watching the leaders of the Banu Asad. Dirar gathered the Muslims of the tribe to move against Tulayha; but when news of the Prophet's death arrived, Tulayha's following grew rapidly, and Dirar returned to the caliph Abu Bakr together with the Muslim officials posted among the Banu Asad. In the ridda wars and in the conquest of various regions he served in the army under Khalid b. al-Walid, commanding one of the units Khalid sent against the Banu Tamim. This unit captured Malik b. Nuwayra — the zakat collector of the Banu Tamim who, after the Prophet's death, had opposed the collection of zakat — together with his men and handed them over to Khalid b. al-Walid; according to the source, Malik was killed by Dirar on the commander's order. At the Battle of Yamama (12/633) he again showed great valour under Khalid b. al-Walid. The source holds that, after taking part in various battles, he fell as a martyr at the Battle of Ajnadayn (13/634) . A poem of his describing the agony of a grave wound received in the fierce battle at Baniqya, on the bank of the Euphrates where present-day Najaf stands, also indicates that he died in the year 13. The other reports about his death appear in the Multiple Views section. His Circle of Influence — He narrated two hadiths from the Prophet: one, that when he recited his ode the Prophet told him he had made a good bargain; the other, that while milking, at the Prophet's order, the milch camel he had given him as a gift, the Prophet warned him: "Do not drain the udder completely!" His Poetry and Sufi Line — It is narrated that from the Jahiliyya onward he showed great valour in many battles on the back of his famous horse Muhabbar , composing a poem for every battle he fought; works devoted to his life preserve samples of his verse. His sister Khawla bint al-Azwar , brave and a poet like him, also took part in the conquest of lands such as Syria and Egypt and composed poems on those battles. His Tomb and Complex — According to the source, his grave lies within a small mosque in the village of Dirar, in the Ghawr al-Balawna district of the Jordan Valley (Wadi al-Urdun).

Deir AllaDied 18 AHView

Wadi al-YabisDied 18 AHView

Shurahbil ibn Hasana

A Companion who was one of the Prophet's scribes of revelation and one of the four commanders sent to conquer Syria. His full name was Shurahbil ibn Hasana bint Muta' al-Kindi ; his kunya is given as Abu Abd Allah, and he is also called Abu Abd al-Rahman and Abu Wa'ila. He was born in Mecca in 573 or 574. He was of Kinda origin. His father Abd Allah, who lived in Mecca as a confederate of the Banu Zuhra, died when Shurahbil was very young, and so he was named after his mother Hasana. After his father's death he grew up in the household of Sufyan ibn Ma'mar al-Jumahi of Quraysh, who married his mother. He spent his youth in Mecca and was esteemed because he could read and write. He became Muslim with his family at about the age of thirty-five. With the earliest believers he suffered persecution from the polytheists, and emigrated to Abyssinia with the second group. He came to Medina at the time of the Khaybar expedition in the year 7 (628) and settled among the Banu Zurayq, relatives of his stepfather. Thereafter he took part in many raids and campaigns; he served as a scribe of revelation for the Messenger of God and wrote the texts of various treaties. One of these was the text sent to the people of Ayla and their leader Yuhanna ibn Ru'ba, with whom a treaty on the jizya was made during the Tabuk expedition. Shortly before his death the Prophet sent him as envoy to Egypt; Shurahbil could return to Medina only after the Prophet's death. His name came to be heard often under Abu Bakr. The caliph sent him at the head of a new unit to aid Ikrima ibn Abi Jahl, who had been dispatched against Musaylima the Liar in Yamama; but lacking sufficient forces he achieved no success. After Khalid ibn al-Walid had disposed of Musaylima, Shurahbil was the fourth commander, alongside Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan and Amr ibn al-As, at the head of the armies sent to Syria. With the 3000 men under his command he reached Jordan by way of Tabuk; when reinforcements brought the number to 7500 he besieged Bosra with the other commanders, and the city was taken under the command of Khalid ibn al-Walid. At the battle of Ajnadayn (13/634) Khalid ibn al-Walid placed him, together with Amr ibn al-As, in command of the right wing; he played an important part in the victory and pursued the Byzantine army that withdrew to Baysan. He also served as a commander at the battle of Fihl. At the siege of Damascus he held the Faradis Gate and entered the city with his troops through that gate at the conquest. He had a large share in the victory at Yarmuk (15/636), after which the commander-in-chief Abu Ubayda sent him to Jordan. He entered Jerusalem with Umar when the city was surrendered. In the Syria-Palestine region he took places such as Acre, Tyre and Tiberias. He died in the year 18 (639) in the plague that broke out at Amwas. According to the source his grave is in Jordan, in the village of Wadi al-Yabis in the Northern Aghwar district , in a special compartment in the late-comers' portico of a mosque. Only one or two reports are transmitted from him; among his narrators are his two sons Rabi'a and Abd al-Rahman and Abu Abd Allah al-Ash'ari.

Prophet Shu'ayb (Jethro)

A prophet named in the Qur'an, sent to the people of Midian and of al-Ayka; because of the gentle style and eloquence with which he conveyed God's commands to his people, some sources call him khatib al-anbiya , "the orator of the prophets". Differing reports are transmitted about his lineage, his name, his relation to Moses, the people to whom he was sent and his end; these appear one by one in the Multiple Views section. Ibn Sa'd and Ibn Habib, stating that he descended from Abraham, give his name as Shu'ayb b. Yawbab b. Ayfa b. Madyan b. Ibrahim ; Ibn Sa'd reports that he was sent after Salih and before Moses and Aaron. Ibn Qutayba relates a report that he received this name because he prayed, "O God, bless me among my people (sha'bi)." His name does not occur in the Bible. The name Shu'ayb occurs eleven times in the Qur'an (al-A'raf 7/85, 88, 90, 92; Hud 11/84, 87, 91, 94; al-Shu'ara 26/177; al-Ankabut 29/36); the people to whom he was sent are named Midian and al-Ayka (al-Shu'ara 26/176). Islamic sources hold that the region of his mission, like the homeland of the prophets Hud and Salih, was north-western Arabia and the eastern shores of the Gulf of Aqaba. According to the Old Testament, the nomadic Midianites had spread westward from Aqaba to Sinai, northward to Moab and as far as east of the Jordan valley. Muslim scholars state that Midian was a people descended from Madyan b. Ibrahim and that the place where they lived was given this name; al-Mas'udi says they spoke Arabic. The Qur'an relates that Shu'ayb called his people to believe that there is no god but God, to accept his prophethood and worship God alone, to give full measure and weight, to uphold justice among people, not to wrong others and not to spread corruption on earth; that he warned them that if they ignored his warnings, what had befallen the peoples of Noah, Hud, Salih and Lot might befall them too, reminding them in particular that the people of Lot were not far from them (Hud 11/89). According to the Qur'an, because the people of Midian ignored the warnings they were destroyed by a violent earthquake (al-A'raf 7/91; al-Ankabut 29/37), a mighty blast (Hud 11/94) and the punishment of "the day of the shadow" (al-Shu'ara 26/189); only those who believed in Shu'ayb were saved from it. Reports differ on what became of Shu'ayb and his followers afterwards.

SaltView

Prophet Harun (Aaron)

The elder brother of Moses and a prophet whose name occurs in twenty places in the Qur'an. The origin of the word Harun is unknown; the word recorded in the Hebrew Torah as Aharon is thought to have passed into Arabic from Palestinian Syriac, and it is suggested that it may mean “shining” . Although his name is often mentioned in the Qur'an, little is said of his life and activity; he is generally mentioned together with Moses. Neither does he figure largely in the Torah, where he remains in the second rank beside Moses. According to the Torah he was the son of Amram and Jochebed of the family of Levi; he was three years older than Moses and younger than their sister Miriam. He was born in the time of the Pharaoh who oppressed the Children of Israel in Egypt, and before the order to kill the male children. He married Elisheba and had four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. During Moses' stay in Midian, Aaron remained in Egypt. When Moses, on his return from Midian, received the first revelation on Mount Horeb and was charged with bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt, he expressed his anxiety by saying that he was “slow of speech and of tongue” ; his brother Aaron was thereupon given to him as his spokesman . Together they returned to Egypt and gathered the elders of the Children of Israel, and Aaron proclaimed to them the words of the Lord. When they went before Pharaoh, Aaron was eighty-three years old. When Pharaoh demanded a miracle, Aaron cast his staff to the ground and it became a serpent that swallowed the serpents of the magicians. In the Torah the staff that occasions the various miracles is ascribed sometimes to Moses and sometimes to Aaron; in some places Aaron uses the staff of Moses. After they had crossed the Red Sea and reached the desert of Sinai, hunger set in and Moses and Aaron gave the people the good news of quails and bread. In the battle against the Amalekites, Aaron and Hur helped Moses to keep his hands raised and so sustained the miracle. When Moses went up the mountain to speak with God he left Aaron and Hur in his place. To prove the legitimacy of the priestly office, Aaron's staff budded and blossomed. At Kadesh, when the people rebelled for thirst, the Lord told Moses and Aaron to strike the rock with the staff, and water gushed out. The Qur'an states that revelation came to Aaron and that he was guided (al-Nisa 4/163; al-An'am 6/84), that favour was shown to him (al-Saffat 37/114), that he spoke well (al-Qasas 28/34), and that the criterion was given to him along with Moses (al-Anbiya 21/48). When Moses was charged to go to Pharaoh he asked God that his brother be given him as a helper and made a partner in his task; his request was granted and Aaron was given prophethood (Ta Ha 20/29-36; al-Furqan 25/35; Maryam 19/53). The two were sent together to Pharaoh with signs and a clear proof (Yunus 10/75; al-Mu'minun 23/45); when the magicians were defeated they declared their faith in the Lord of Moses and Aaron (al-A'raf 7/121-122). Setting out for Sinai for a period of forty days, Moses left Aaron as his deputy, saying “Take my place among my people, act well, and follow not the way of the corrupters” (al-A'raf 7/142). Another verse declares that Moses and Aaron will always be remembered with good (al-Saffat 37/120). While Moses was on the mount and his people, seduced by the Samiri, made a calf and began to worship it, Aaron warned them: “O my people, you have only been tried by this; your Lord is the Most Merciful, so follow me and obey my order” (Ta Ha 20/90) — but they would not listen. On his return, seeing his people worshipping the calf, Moses rebuked Aaron, who explained himself saying “O son of my mother, do not seize me by my beard or my head! I feared that you would say: you have caused division among the Children of Israel and did not observe my word” (Ta Ha 20/92-94). His part in this episode is told quite differently in the Torah; the three accounts are set side by side under “Differing Views” . When the people set out from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor, the Lord informed Moses that Aaron's term had come; Moses stripped him of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, and Aaron died on the summit of Mount Hor (Numbers 20/7-29; 33/38; Deuteronomy 32/50). He is said to have been 123 years old at his death (Numbers 33/39). His Circle of Influence — In the Jewish scriptures Aaron is presented not only as the brother of Moses and a leader of the Children of Israel but also as the ancestor of the priestly class and the high priest . The whole of the book of Leviticus, and much of Exodus and Numbers, is devoted to Aaron the priest and his duties. The offering of sacrifice, the duties connected with the tent of meeting and the ark of the covenant, the blessing of the people, the judgement concerning lepers, the distinguishing of the holy from the common, and the teaching of God's laws to the people all fall to him. His priesthood and that of his progeny are of permanent status; the principal line is that of his son Eleazar, and the lineage of Ezra the priest goes back to Aaron . In Christianity Aaron is held to be a type of the Messiah : he is likened to him in that he offers sacrifice, mediates between God and men, and performs a religious office in the Holy of Holies; Aaron is the high priest of the Old Covenant and Jesus of the New (Hebrews 5/2-5; 7/11-12; 8). His Tomb and Complex — According to the widespread tradition, the Mount Hor on which Aaron died is the mountain called Jabal Harun, 1400 metres high, to the west of Petra ; this atlas entry is attached to that place. On the highest peak of the mountain stands a structure believed to be his tomb. Nevertheless the source records plainly that where the tomb of Aaron lies is not known with certainty ; the other places that have been proposed are listed under “Differing Views” .

PetraView

Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham)

The great prophet recognised in common by Judaism, Christianity and Islam; one of the prophets of firm resolve (ulu al-azm) spoken of most often in the Qur'an. The Qur'an presents him as the friend of God (al-Nisa' 4/125) and the father of the believers (al-Hajj 22/78); in literary works he is also called Khalil, Khalil Allah, Khalil al-Rahman . His name occurs sixty-nine times in the Qur'an. The Qur'an does not speak of him in chronological sequence but as occasion arises in various suras: it presents his place in the history of faith, his teaching, his methods of preaching and his character, and gives episodes from his life insofar as they bear on these themes. In the Islamic sources his genealogy is traced through Tarikh (Terah) ibn Nahur to Sam ibn Nuh. In the Qur'an his father's name is given as Azar , and he is stated to have been an idolater (al-An'am 6/74). As the verse "We gave Abraham his right guidance before, and We knew him well" (al-Anbiya' 21/51) indicates, he was on the right path even before his prophethood. In the reasoning recounted in the Qur'an, on seeing a star, the moon and the sun he said of each "This is my Lord", and when they set he said "I love not those that set" and declared "I have turned my face, as a man of pure faith, to Him who created the heavens and the earth" (al-An'am 6/75-79). The source states that one should not conclude from this that he ever truly took the heavenly bodies for gods, even for a moment; it was a method of argument he used to show the emptiness of his people's religious notions. His asking God how He gives life to the dead is likewise explained in the Qur'an, though he believed, by the wish "that my heart may be at rest" (al-Baqara 2/260). When he was sent as a prophet to his people he first called his father to the true religion; his father threatened to drive him away (Maryam 19/42-46). He asked God's forgiveness for his father, but this request was not accepted (al-Tawba 9/114). He invited his people too, but without success. To show the helplessness of the idols they worshipped, on a feast day when the people had gone out of the town he entered the idol house and broke all the idols except the largest; when questioned he said "Perhaps it was this big one of theirs that did it; ask it" . The idolatrous rulers set out to punish him by casting him into the fire; at God's command "O fire, be coolness and safety for Abraham!" the fire did not burn him (al-Anbiya' 21/57-70). Most works of history and exegesis hold that the man who, in the sura al-Baqara (2/258), disputed with him, claimed divinity and was defeated by his proofs was Nimrod , leader of the people who cast him into the fire. According to the Islamic sources he left Nimrod's land with his wife Sara , his nephew Lot and his other companions, stayed for a time first in Harran and then in Jordan, went from there to Egypt, and later returned to the land of Palestine. After they reached the blessed land that had been promised, Lot was charged with going to the people of Lot and parted from him (al-Ankabut 29/28). Being well advanced in years and childless, he asked God for a righteous child, and was given the glad tidings of a forbearing (halim) son (al-Saffat 37/99-101). According to the Qur'an, God's messengers came to him as guests; he offered them a roasted calf, and when they did not eat and he grew uneasy they told him they had come for the people of Lot and gave him the glad tidings of a son; his wife laughed at the news, marvelling that two old people should have a child (Hud 11/69-76). According to the Islamic sources God asked him to take Hagar and Ismail to the place where Mecca stands; in the Qur'an's words he settled some of his offspring by the Sacred House (Ibrahim 14/37). As far as can be understood from the Qur'an, Ismail was his first child and was very small when he was left there. Abraham, who lived in Palestine, was tested by being asked to sacrifice his first child when the boy reached the age of running about; he passed the test, and as a reward his name was made lasting among later generations (al-Saffat 37/101-112). After God showed him the site of the House (al-Hajj 22/26) he raised the foundations of the Ka'ba together with his son Ismail (al-Baqara 2/127), and was charged with proclaiming the pilgrimage among mankind. He prayed that Mecca be a secure city, declared the area sacred, and asked God to send them a prophet from his own offspring (al-Baqara 2/126-129); the source states that this prophet is Muhammad, who descended from them, and regards the hadith "I am the prayer of my father Abraham, the glad tidings of my brother Jesus and the dream of my mother" as pointing to this. In gratitude for this prayer Muslims are enjoined to recite the "Salli" and "Barik" prayers in their ritual prayers. The Qur'an presents him as being of the faith of Noah (al-Saffat 37/83), made a leader (imam) of mankind after God tested him with certain words and he fulfilled them (al-Baqara 2/124), and neither a Jew nor a Christian but an upright Muslim ( hanif ) who knew God as One (Al Imran 3/67). Scrolls were given to him (al-Najm 53/36-37; al-A'la 87/19); Muslim historians report that these were ten scrolls consisting of parables. He was a grave, gentle-natured prophet who had devoted himself to God, very hospitable and wholly truthful; he is called "abu al-adyaf" (father of guests). The hadiths relate that he was of middle height and cheerful countenance, the person who most resembled Muhammad in form and features; that he will be the first prophet to be clothed on the Day of Resurrection; and that during the Mi'raj Muhammad saw him in the seventh (in some reports the sixth) heaven, leaning against the Frequented House (al-Bayt al-Ma'mur). The Qur'an does not state where or how he died. According to the Islamic sources, when the angel of death came to him in the form of a very old man, he offered him hospitality; seeing that the man was too frail to eat, he asked his age, and on learning that he was only two years older than himself he asked that his own soul be taken so as not to fall into that state. His body was buried in Hebron beside Sara; the place is today called al-Khalil. His Circle of Influence — Among the prophets of the past the Qur'an gives lasting value especially to his teaching: the Prophet of Islam and his community are commanded to follow "the religion of Abraham, the hanif" (Al Imran 3/95; al-Nahl 16/123), the Maqam Ibrahim in the sanctuary of the Ka'ba is made a place of prayer (al-Baqara 2/125), and it is stated that it was he who long ago named the true believers Muslims (al-Hajj 22/78). He has also been treated in various genres of Turkish literature. The first known work written about him is the masnavi Halilname which Abdülvasi Çelebi presented to Sultan Mehmed I in 817 (1414). In the work of Rabghuzi, author of the first stories of the prophets composed in Turkish, he is one of the three prophets, after Muhammad, about whom the most is said. At the end of some copies of Süleyman Çelebi's Mawlid there is a verse tale entitled Dasitan-ı İbrahim aleyhi's-selam ; Rumi returns often to his story in the Masnavi , and Fuzuli devotes a chapter to him in Hadiqat al-su'ada . His struggle for divine unity, his submission, his table ( Halil İbrahim sofrası ), his bounty ( Halil İbrahim bereketi ) and his hospitality found wide place in religious, moral, Sufi and literary works; in divan poetry the lover is likened to him for burning in the fire of love and not shrinking from sacrificing his life for the beloved. His Tomb and Complex — Al-Khalil (Hebron) lies in the West Bank, 32 km south-west of Jerusalem; the town's present name is a shortening of Khalil al-Rahman, "the friend of God". Because the graves of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and some of their wives are here, the town is held sacred in the three revealed religions; among Muslims it is the most esteemed city after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. The cave in which the graves lie (Machpelah) and its surroundings were enclosed with walls and made a shrine in the time of the Jewish king Herod, and in the course of time the place took its present form, the Haram al-Khalil (al-Haram al-Ibrahimi, Mosque of Abraham). The Umayyads gave the shrine and the graves in the cave an Islamic form, and the Abbasids turned it into a mosque. When the Crusaders took the town (1099) they built a church in place of the mosque; Saladin, who recovered the town in 1187, converted the church into a mosque and had the wooden minbar from Ascalon brought here. The Mamluk sultan Baybars I built a masjid in front of the graves in 1267; Sultan Qalawun had the interior redecorated in 1286 and covered the graves with domes, turning each into a mausoleum. In 1517 the town came under Ottoman rule; Selim I visited the prophets' graves and had some repairs made, and the sanctuary was thoroughly restored by Ahmed I in 1612 and by Abdülhamid II in 1896. The holy precinct within the walls has two parts: the old shrine containing the mausoleums of Abraham, Jacob and their wives, and the church, converted into a mosque by Saladin, which houses the mausoleums of Isaac and his wife. Of the mausoleums in the courtyard the one on the right belongs to Abraham and the one on the left to Sara; the prophets' mausoleums are octagonal, those of their wives hexagonal. In front of the qibla and north walls of the mosque are two shafts with steps leading down to the cave where the actual graves lie. Visitors were regarded as guests of God and were served bread and soup called al-simat al-Khalili at the "table of Abraham the Friend"; Evliya Çelebi speaks of this "soup of al-Khalil" and relates the tradition that the fire in the kitchen had never gone out since Abraham's time. From 1967 the town came under Israeli occupation; in 1980 the administration of the Haram al-Khalil was taken from the Muslims and placed under the Kiryat Arba administration, and on 25 February 1994 sixty-seven people died when fire was opened on the congregation at the dawn prayer and in the events that followed. After the 1997 agreement the sector containing the Haram al-Khalil remained under Israeli control.

HebronView

Prophet Musa (Moses)

An arch-prophet sent to the Children of Israel, called 'Kalimullah' for having spoken with God. The Mamluk maqam (built by Sultan Baybars, 668 AH) about 11 km south of Jericho is an important ziyaret site and host of the famous Nabi Musa mawsim (pilgrimage festival). His burial place is disputed: Islam holds his true grave unknown, and the biblical tradition places Moses' tomb at Mount Nebo in Jordan. (Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabi_Musa; islamicart.museumwnf.org 'Maqam of Nabi Musa')

JerichoView

Prophet Samuel (Samwil)

A prophet recognized in Islamic and Israelite tradition, reported to have anointed Talut (Saul) as king. His shrine is in the village of Nabi Samwil about 4 km north of Jerusalem; the present structure is a 14th-century Mamluk mosque with the tomb in an underground chamber. It is a venerated ziyaret site for three faiths. (Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Samuel; madainproject.com/tomb_of_samuel)

Nabi SamwilView

Prophet's Family

Sayyida Khawla bint al-Husayn

A member of the Prophet's family held in Shia popular tradition to be a daughter of Husayn, said to have died at Baalbek as the Karbala captives' caravan passed through. Her blue-tiled, gold-minareted shrine at the southern entrance of Baalbek is an important ziyaret site. Her historicity is disputed: both WikiShia and Arabic Wikipedia note she is not mentioned in classical historical sources; as no corroborated numeric coordinate could be confirmed by two sources, the location is left null. (Sources: en.wikishia.net/view/Tomb_of_Khawla; ar.wikipedia.org)

BaalbekDied 61 AHView

Prophet Shayth (Seth)

In Islamic tradition the son and successor of Adam, regarded as a prophet to whom scriptures were revealed. His maqam is within the mosque in the village of al-Nabi Shayth in the Beqaa Valley and has a long-established ziyaret tradition. Rival tombs exist (the Nabi Shith Mosque in Mosul, Iraq, and Bashshit in Palestine); the attribution is traditional. The coordinate given is corroborated at the village level. (Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nabi_Shayth; wikidata.org/wiki/Q626462)

Al-Nabi ShaythView

Prophet Ayyub (Job)

A prophet praised in the Qur'an for his patience, who maintained gratitude to God despite severe affliction. The white-domed maqam on Jabal al-Qara about 40 km northwest of Salalah (Dhofar) is a long-established ziyaret site. It must be stated clearly that this is a traditional maqam, not a verified grave: the TDV 'Eyyûb' article places his life in the Levant (Hauran / land of Uz) and makes no mention of a burial in Oman. (Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Job; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi 'Eyyûb')

SalalahView

Umm Haram bint Milhan (Hala Sultan)

Umm Haram bint Milhan was a female Companion (sahabiyya) of the Medinan Ansar, of the Najjar clan of Banu Khazraj, regarded as a foster-aunt/relative of the Prophet and married to the Companion Ubada ibn al-Samit. She nursed wounded soldiers and transmitted the famous hadith — recorded in both Bukhari and Muslim — in which the Prophet foretold a Muslim naval expedition. She joined that first sea campaign against Cyprus under Caliph Uthman (28-29 AH / 648-649 CE), fell from her mount on disembarking, died, and was buried on the island. The Hala Sultan Tekke near Larnaca's Salt Lake is venerated as her tomb, though the specific grave identification is a traditional/devotional attribution dating only to the 18th century — the historical record confirms only her participation in the expedition and her death on Cyprus. (Sources: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi 'Ümmü Harâm'; UNESCO Tentative List)

LarnacaDied 29 AHView

İttik Dede

There are no official records of İttik Dede; per the prevailing tradition he was an Ottoman soldier who fell during street fighting in Nicosia in the 1570 Ottoman campaign for Cyprus and was buried where he died. Some accounts say he was born in the Morea (Peloponnese) and fought alongside Moravizade Ahmet Efendi, the first imam of the Selimiye Mosque. The Cypriot-Turkish name 'ittik' (Anatolian 'yitik', meaning 'lost') reflects that his identity and circumstances were unknown, so the identification of the occupant is traditional rather than documented. He rests in a single-room türbe with a wooden sarcophagus in the Selimiye quarter of North Nicosia. (Sources: Turkish Wikipedia 'İttik Dede Türbesi'; Cyprus EVKAF)

LefkoşaDied 978 AHView

GazimağusaDied 1102 AHView

Atpazari Osman Fazli Efendi (Kutub Osman)

Atpazarî Osman Fazlı was one of the leading Sufis of the 17th-century Ottoman world, a shaykh of the Celvetiyye order (a branch of the Bayramiyye); he is called 'Atpazarî' after the Atpazarı district of Fatih, Istanbul, where he lived. He served as imam and teacher and was politically influential under Mehmed IV and Süleyman II, but after severing ties with state officials following 1689 he was exiled to Famagusta by Grand Vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Mustafa Pasha. He trained some 150 deputies across the empire, the most famous being İsmail Hakkı Bursevî, founder of the Hakkıyye branch of the Celvetiyye. He died in Famagusta in 1691 and was buried outside the city walls; the Kutub Osman Tekke — türbe, mosque and lodge — was built around his tomb and rebuilt in 1824. (Sources: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi 'Atpazarî Osman Fazlı'; Osmanlı Araştırmaları journal, Eyyamoğlu & Kara Pilehvarian)

Scholar

Habib Saleh bin Alawi Jamal al-Layl (Habib Swaleh)

Habib Swaleh was a Hadrami sayyid of the Ba 'Alawi lineage (descendants of the Prophet via the Jamal al-Layl clan), born in the Comoros and settled in Lamu in the 1880s. Between 1885 and 1892 he founded the Riyadha Mosque and college, which became the foremost center of Islamic learning on the East African coast. In the late 19th century he introduced the Maulidi al-Habshy celebration to Lamu, originating the annual Lamu Maulidi festival that today draws pilgrims from across the Gulf and the Indian Ocean diaspora. His major social reform was opening Islamic education to the descendants of slaves and the marginalized; he died on 2 Muharram 1354 / 6 April 1935 and was buried in the cemetery beside the Riyadha Mosque. (Sources: Anne K. Bang, 'Sufis and Scholars of the Sea', Routledge 2003; Oxford COMPAS, 'Lamu Maulid'; English Wikipedia 'Habib Salih')

LamuDied 1354 AHView

Mwana Hadie Famau

Mwana Hadie Famau is a revered woman saint of Lamu Town, traditionally dated to around the 16th century; her tomb is held to be 300-400 years old, with no precise death date documented. She is remembered as a champion of the education and rights of women and children, teaching in both Arabic and Kiswahili and preaching that true Islam does not marginalize women. Her tomb in the Waungwana wa Yumbe (Moit) quarter of Lamu remains an active shrine where devotees make vows (kuweka nadhiri). She is a named historical/devotional figure, but her dates are undocumented and the identification is traditional/devotional. (Sources: National Museums of Kenya / Google Arts & Culture, 'Mwana Hadie Famau'; Eastleigh Voice, 'Lamu's 400-year-old tombs')

LamuView

Scholar

Sayyid Ahmad bin Abi Bakr bin Sumayt

Ahmad bin Sumayt was a Hadrami sayyid of the Ba 'Alawi lineage (Alawiyya tariqa) and the most important Shafi'i scholar of the western Indian Ocean of his generation — the subject of Anne K. Bang's standard study 'Sufis and Scholars of the Sea'. Educated by his father and then in Hadramawt, Istanbul (under Abdülhamid II) and al-Azhar in Cairo, he was appointed qadi of Zanzibar by Sultan Barghash in 1883 and served as Grand Qadi (chief Shafi'i judge) of Zanzibar from 1907 until his death. He authored at least nine treatises printed in Cairo, Beirut and Mecca, including a commentary on al-Haddad's Lamiyya. He died on 13 Shawwal 1343 / 7 May 1925 in Zanzibar City. NOTE: he is distinct from his son Habib Umar bin Sumayt (d. 1976), who is buried in Moroni, Comoros. (Sources: Anne K. Bang, 'Sufis and Scholars of the Sea', Routledge 2003; German Wikipedia 'Ahmad ibn Sumait', citing Bang 2003)

ZanzibarDied 1343 AHView

Sheikh Abdul Rahman (Dargah of Sofala)

The dargah on the Sofala coast near Beira is the tomb of a pious man named Abdul Rahman, venerated chiefly by Indo-Mozambican Muslims practicing a Sufi-inspired religiosity. His death date is undocumented and only conflicting traditions exist: some describe him as a 17th-century Arab merchant contemporary with the Portuguese, others as a Turkish pilgrim who passed through Sofala long before the Europeans; the academic literature (Soares) explicitly calls him 'an unknown saint'. Once a year Muslims from across Mozambique, neighbouring countries and the diaspora travel to the beach to mark his urs and seek his intercession and barakah. After Cyclone Idai (2019) the dargah and its access road were repaired. (Sources: P. P. Soares, 'Menace and perseverance at the dargah of Sofala', Religion journal; Soares, EASA2020 / UNL repository)

Nova SofalaView

Ahmad Shah Durrani (Ahmad Shah Baba)

Founder of the state of Afghanistan (1747-1773); the ruler who, relying on the Afghan tribes, established the first national Afghan state. He proclaimed his rule at Kandahar, founded a new city there bearing his own name, and was buried there. He was born in 1722. He was the son of Muhammad Zaman Khan, chief of the Abdali tribe, which had settled near Herat towards the end of the XVII century and came under the rule of the Iranian shah Nadir in 1731; the entry AFGANİSTAN names his father as chief of the Sadozai branch of the Abdalis. Nadir Shah, who captured Kandahar in 1737, freed Ahmad Khan, then a captive of the Ghilzais, and took him under his protection. Through his courage, intelligence and ability he soon joined Nadir Shah's favourite commanders; he took part in most of his campaigns, gained great experience and became governor of Mazandaran. After Nadir Shah was murdered in 1747, he took advantage of the turmoil into which Iran fell and proclaimed his rule at Kandahar. The tribal chiefs under his authority gave him the title durr-i durran , meaning "pearl of pearls". After annexing Kabul and its surroundings he brought the Ghilzais, Uzbeks and Tajiks under his rule in turn, becoming the absolute master of Afghanistan. He then turned to extending his frontiers, westward towards Iran and southward towards the Mughals. In the Indian campaigns that began in 1748 he took Lahore and Multan; in Iran he took Herat and Mashhad, left them to Nadir Shah's grandson Shahrukh and returned to Kandahar (1750). In 1756 he inflicted a heavy defeat on the Mughal army, and in the campaign he undertook in 1760 he routed the Marathas and returned to Kandahar with great booty. When the Marathas and the Sikhs grew stronger, he made new campaigns to India between 1762-1767. Sensing in the west of his country the threat of — in the source's words — "a powerful Shi'i Iran", he turned to the Ottoman state; his approach met with no favourable response (1763). When the Emirate of Bukhara, taking advantage of his preoccupation with India, occupied most of the region known as Afghan Turkestan, he marched on Bukhara in 1770. The two armies faced each other near the city of Karshi but, in the phrase the source reports, did not fight "out of Islamic solidarity" ; peace was made with the Amu Darya as the border. Having spent his whole life hurrying from war to war, Ahmad Shah fell exhausted and ill; he handed the affairs of government and state to his son Timur, withdrew to rest, and died some time later (1187/1773). His son Timur Shah , who succeeded him, reigned 1773-1793. The source presents him as a great commander and statesman, a modest and just ruler loved and respected by all the tribes of Afghanistan: during his reign he did not burden the people with taxes and, above all, revived their fortunes with the booty he brought back from his Indian campaigns. His Poetry and Sufi Line — The entry AFGANİSTAN counts him, together with his son Timur Shah and Shah Shuja, among the great men of letters and poets Afghanistan has produced; each of these rulers has a Persian divan . His Tomb and Complex — After capturing Kandahar, Nadir Shah had the city destroyed and rebuilt south-east of its old site under the name Naderabad, a name forgotten after his death. Ahmad Shah Durrani, who ruled Kandahar after him, founded east of the old city a walled city he named Ahmadshahi . The entry KANDEHAR states that the best known architectural monument in the city is the tomb of Ahmad Shah Durrani .

KandaharDied 1186 AHView