Sa'd ibn Mua'dh
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Sa’d ibn Mu'adh was a chief of the Banu Aus tribe in Yathrib and later converted to Islam.
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[edit] Biography
Sa'd adopted Islam in 622 (1 AH), when Muhammad arrived in Medina, then known as Yathrib. He was among the leading figures among the Ansar, as Muhammad had dubbed the Medinan converts to Islam.
Sa'd was an intimate friend with Umayah ibn Khalaf [1]. When Sa'd was in Mecca, he used to stay with Umayah, and when Umayah was in Medina, he used to stay with Sa'd. [1]
Prior to the Battle of Badr, Sa’d had visited Mecca once to perform his Umra with his non-Muslim friend Umayah ibn Khalaf, when they came across Abu Jahl. They had an argument, and as it became heated, Sa'd threatened Abu Jahl with stopping the Meccan trade route to Syria and informed Umayah that his life was threatened by Muhammad [1].
After the Battle of the Trench in 627 (5 AH), when Medina was unsuccessfully besieged by a Meccan army, the Muslims accused the Jewish Banu Qurayza of treacherous dealings with the enemy. They laid siege to their stronghold and the Banu Qurayza surrendered unconditionally after several weeks of siege.[2].
Several members of the Banu Aus pleaded for their old Jewish old allies and agreed to Muhammad's proposal that one of their chiefs should judge the matter.Muhammad appointed Sa'd, the Banu Qurayza agreed to his appointment.[3][4][5] Sa'd had been wounded in the earlier battles, and was on the verge of death. He declared that all adult male members of the tribe should be executed and all women and children enslaved. Daniel C. Peterson and Martin Lings state that this judgment was in accordance with the law of Moses as stated in Deut. 20:10-14.[6][7]
Sa'd died shortly after giving this verdict.
[edit] Legacy
[edit] William Muir's view
William Muir, a 19th century Scottish Islamic scholar, writes:
| “ | After delivering himself of the bloody decree, he was conducted back upon his ass to Rufeida's tent. But the excitement was fatal to him; the wound burst forth anew. Mahomet hastened to the side of his bed: embracing him, he placed the dying man's head upon his knee and prayed thus : — "O Lord! Verily Sad hath laboured in thy service. He hath believed in thy Prophet, and hath fulfilled his covenant. Wherefore do Thou, O Lord, receive his Spirit with the best reception wherewith Thou receivest a departing soul!" Sad heard the words, and in faltering accents whispered, - "Peace be on thee, O Apostle of God! - Verily I testify that thou art the Prophet of the Lord." When he had breathed his last, they carried home the corpse.[8] After the forenoon prayer, Mahomet proceeded to join the burial; he reached the house as they were washing the body. The mother of Sad, weeping loudly, gave vent to her grief in appropriate Arab verse. They chided her for reciting poetry on such an occasion; but Mahomet met interposed, saying: "Leave her alone; all other poets lie but she?" The bier was then carried forth, Mahomet helping to bear it for the first thirty or forty yards. Notwithstanding that Sad was so large and corpulent a man, the bier was reported to be marvellously light. The Disaffected said: "We have never heard of a corpse lighter in the bier than that of Sad: know ye why this is? It is because of his judgment against the Bani Coreitza."[9] Mahomet hearing the rash remark, turned aside its point by a mysterious explanation, which was eagerly caught up by his followers:- "The angels are carrying the bier, therefore it is light in your hands. Verily the Throne on high doth vibrate on account of Sad, and the portals of heaven are opened, and he is attended by seventy thousand angels that never trod the earth before." The long procession, with Mahomet at the head, wended its way slowly to Backi al Gharcad, the burial-ground of the Mussulmans. When they readied the spot, four men descended into the grave, and lowered the body into its place. At this moment the colour of Mahomet changed, and his countenance betrayed strong emotion. But he immediately recovered himself, and gave praise to God. Then he three times uttered the Takbir, "Great is the Lord!" and the whole concourse, which filled the burial-ground to overflowing, took up the words, until the place re-echoed with the shout. Some of the people asked him concerning his change of colour, and he explained it to them thus: "At that moment the grave had become strait for your comrade, and the sides thereof closed in upon him. Verily, if any one could have escaped the straitening of the tomb it had been Sad. Then the Lord gave him expansion therein." The mother of Sad drew near, desiring to look into the grave, and they forbade her. But Mahomet said, "Suffer her to look." So she looked in, before the body was covered over: As she gazed on the remains of her son, she said, "I commit thee unto the Lord;" and Mahomet comforted her. Then he went aside and sat down near the grave, while they built it over with bricks, and filled in the earth. [2] | ” |
[edit] Muslim view
He dutifully served as a member of the Muslim community and even commandeered military campaigns for the Prophet during his lifetime. Saad is said to have been a stern and passionate man, willing to impulsively fight for what he believed in. In Muslim history, he is well-regarded as a noble companion who enjoyed a close relationship with the Prophet.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Sahih Bukhari 5:59:286
- ^ a b A Life of Mahomet and History of Islam to the Era of the Hegira, volume 3, page.
- ^ Mohammed Abu-Nimer (2000-2001). "A Framework for Nonviolence and Peacebuilding in Islam". Journal of Law and Religion 15 (1-2): 247.
- ^ Hashmi, Sohail H.; Buchanan, Allen E; Moore, Margaret (2003). States, Nations, and Borders: The Ethics of Making Boundaries. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Khadduri, Majid (1955). War And Peace in the Law of Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
- ^ Peterson, Muhammad: the prophet of God, p. 127.
- ^ Lings, p. 232
- ^ William Muir adds: Accounts greatly vary, as usual. Some make Sad to have been taken by his tribe from the tent to his home, where he became very ill, and died. Others say that the wound broke out in the tent, into which Mahomet hurried, and clasping the dying man was covered with his blood. Others again hold that Gabriel appeared at midnight, and announced the death of Sad to Mahomet, who hastened to his bedside and round that he had just died. The tale of Sad is surrounded with supernatural associations. For instance, when Mahomet went to be present at the washing of the body, he walked so rapidly that the people could scarcely keep up with him : - "You would have thought the thongs of their sandals would have broken, and their mantles fallen from their shoulders, they hurried so fast." when they asked the reason, he replied: "Verily, I fear lest the Angels should reach his house before us, as they got before us unto Hantzala; " - alluding to the burial of the latter, and the supposed washing of his corpse by the angels. Then there are numerous legends about the angels crowding into the room where the corpse was laid out, and one of them spreading out his wing for Mahomet to sit upon. K. Wackidi, 204. See Inrod. vol. i. p. lxv. I believe all these traditions to hang upon the reply of Mahomet as given below to the Disaffected, viz. that the bier was light, because supported by a crowd of Angels.
- ^ William Muir adds: This is the passage to which I have alluded in a previous note, p.282. The death of Sad followed so immediately on his sanguinary judgment, that the Disaffected could hardly avoid coupling the two together. To avert this inference, it is pretended in tradition that Sad prayed thus, - "O Lord! If thou hast in store any further fighting with the Coreish, then preserve me to take part in it: but if thou hast put an end to their warning against thy Prophet, then take me unto Thyself!" - which when he prayed, be was to all appearance well, the wound presenting only a slight cicatrised ring. But shortly after he was carried to the tent, and died. Although, in fact, it may be said with truth that there was hardly any more fighting with the Coreish after this date, yet the prayer is evidently an after-thought. So far as the author of the Coran is concerned (and the Moslems refer the authorship to the Deity) it was at the time quite uncertain whether Medina might not again be besieged by the Coreish, in proof of which see Sura xxxiii. 20.
