Two Stallions Before the Messenger of Allah

The assassination of Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf was told in the previous volume. Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf was a Jewish leader, a very rich man, who held an important position among the people of the Ḥijāz. And he was a very eloquent poet, and he used this poetry. The importance of poetry in the days of Jāhiliyyah has been discussed: it was the media of the day. Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf would use his poetry to defame the Muslims and to talk against the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). If one reads the history of the Jāhiliyyah in Arabia, one sees that a particular line of poetry would bring ruin to a tribe. It would ruin their reputation, just as a documentary or a particular article in a big newspaper would do today — in fact, the effect of poetry was probably even greater.

One of the things Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf was doing was even talking about the Muslim women. And the Muslims then — and this should be the case with Muslims all the time — should stand up for the rights of the Muslim women and defend them. We know of many stories in our history of that occurring. For example, the battle against the Jewish tribe of Banū Qaynuqāʿ in Madīnah was because of their attack on a Muslim woman, when they uncovered her. And we know what happened with al-Muʿtaṣim, the Muslim caliph of the ʿAbbāsid state: when a woman called to him, when the Romans attacked, he mobilised an entire army to go and defend her.

So Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf was speaking against Muslim women; he had spoken about Umm al-Faḍl, the wife of al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the uncle of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Anyway, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: who will rid us of Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf, fa-innahu qad ādhā Allāha wa rasūlah — for he has harmed Allah and His Messenger? Muḥammad ibn Maslamah (may Allah be pleased with him) volunteered for this special operation, along with some other members of his tribe. What tribe was this? This tribe was al-Aws. So it was al-Aws who killed Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf.

Now, as one of the Anṣār — or one of the descendants of the Anṣār — said, in a narration mentioned by Ibn Kathīr, al-Aws and al-Khazraj were like two stallions competing in front of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Whenever one clan would do something in the service of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the other clan would not want them to take that advantage alone, and would try to do something similar. Subḥān Allāh, they had competition; they had the spirit of competition. But it was not in the dunyā. It was not about who would be more successful in the dunyā, who would make more money, who would hold a higher position — as competition is seen now in the material world, in the materialistic, capitalistic world and way of life that the West is promoting. The success philosophy in the West today, and the competition for success that the West is presenting to the world today, is a materialistic one, and it holds no value in the Islamic view of things. Success in the West is defined in purely materialistic terms, but success in Islam is how close to Allah (swt) one is. So a person could be totally unknown in the dunyā; he could be very poor; nevertheless he is very successful, because he is close to Allah (swt).

A classical example of that is Uways al-Qaranī. Uways al-Qaranī was an obscure person; people did not know him. When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb asked the delegation that came from the tribe of Uways al-Qaranī — the name of his tribe is Murād; it is a tribe in Yemen — when ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb asked about him, the way they talked about him was as if they were surprised why the Amīr al-Muʾminīn, why the caliph, was asking about such a simple person. Who is he? Who is Uways al-Qaranī? Nobody knew him except his relatives and the people who lived with him, and they saw him as a simple, normal human being. He was not the leader of a Muslim army. He was not the amīr of a jamāʿah. He was not a famous scholar or man. He was just a simple human being. But there was something in his heart that made him special — so special.

In fact, he was so special that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told the Companions that when a delegation comes from Yemen, from the tribe of Murād, there will be a man with them whose name is Uways al-Qaranī: if you see him, then ask him to ask Allah to forgive you. This man is so special that you should ask him for duʿāʾ. He was one of the ṣāliḥīn, one of the awliyāʾ of Allah. And to whom is the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saying this? He is saying it to the Companions, the greatest generation that ever lived. And Uways al-Qaranī is not a Companion; he is a tābiʿī, because he never saw the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). He wanted to make hijrah to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), but because his mother was alone and ill he stayed behind with her, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away, so he never had the chance to meet him. But the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) knew him and talked about him. When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb met Uways al-Qaranī, he told him: ask Allah to forgive me (Muslim 2542).

Back to this competition: al-Aws and al-Khazraj would compete with each other. What was their competition about? It was about the Ākhirah: who would serve the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) better. And in this case, because al-Aws had had the honour of assassinating Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf, who would defame the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), al-Khazraj did not want to be left out of this. They wanted to do something similar. So they had a meeting and discussed the issue among themselves, and they came up with the name of Abū Rāfiʿ as a good candidate for such an operation. They presented the idea to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and the Messenger of Allah approved it.