Abū ʿĀmir al-Ashʿarī

Abū ʿĀmir, the leader of the sariyyah, was shot in his knee. So Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, his nephew, came to him and said: O my uncle, who shot you? So Abū ʿĀmir pointed to the man who had shot him, and Abū Mūsā went running after him — and this narration is in al-Bukhārī (4323) and Muslim. Abū Mūsā followed the man, and when the man saw Abū Mūsā pursuing him, he fled. So Abū Mūsā was running behind this man and saying to him: are you not ashamed of yourself? Are you not going to stand and fight? Are you not an Arab? So when this man heard these challenging words from Abū Mūsā, he turned around and came to fight Abū Mūsā. They exchanged a few blows, and he was killed: Abū Mūsā killed this man. So then Abū Mūsā went back to his uncle and told him: O uncle, I have killed the man who killed you.

And then Abū ʿĀmir told Abū Mūsā to pull the arrow out of his knee. The arrow had to be pulled out, but the thing is that the arrow had two barbed edges, so pulling it out could cause additional tearing. Anyway, when the arrow was pulled out, the bleeding increased, and Abū ʿĀmir knew that he was dying. So he told Abū Mūsā: give my salām to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and ask him to ask Allah to forgive me. And after these words he passed away.

Abū Mūsā went to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and told him the story. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was sleeping on a bed made of rope — these ropes were made from the dried leaves of date palms — and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was sleeping on that bed, and there was no mattress on it; and when he woke up, Abū Mūsā could see clearly the marks of the ropes on the side and the back of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asked for some water, and made wuḍūʾ, and then he raised his hands — Abū Mūsā says: until I could see his armpits, meaning that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was deeply absorbed in his duʿāʾ — and he said: O Allah, forgive Your servant Abū ʿĀmir, wa-jʿalhu yawma al-qiyāmati fawqa kathīrin min khalqika aw min al-nās — O Allah, forgive the sins of Your servant Abū ʿĀmir, and place him above many of Your creation on the Day of Judgement.

This was a great duʿāʾ that was made by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) for the mujāhid and shahīd Abū ʿĀmir al-Ashʿarī: to make him above many of the creation on the Day of Judgement. What a great honour, to be in that high rank on the Day of Judgement. And that is all that counts: your position on the Day of Judgement. People are fighting for position in the dunyā, forgetting that what matters most is what will happen on the Day of Judgement. And that is why it is said of the Bedouin who made the duʿāʾ — O Allah, make the best of my life the end of it, and make the best of my deeds the last of them, and make the best of my days the day I meet You — that this is a very wise duʿāʾ: because the most important day of all days is the Day of Judgement, since it is equivalent to all of our days combined. The Day of Judgement is fifty thousand years long; so if Allah (ʿazza wa jall) makes that day the best day, that is what you want.

So when Abū Mūsā saw the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) making this lovely duʿāʾ for his uncle Abū ʿĀmir, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī wanted to take advantage of this great opportunity that had opened up for him, so he said: O Messenger of Allah, make duʿāʾ for me. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: O Allah, forgive ʿAbdullāh ibn Qays — ʿAbdullāh ibn Qays is the name of Abū Mūsā; Abū Mūsā is his kunyah — O Allah, forgive the sins of ʿAbdullāh ibn Qays, and give him a noble entrance on the Day of Judgement; meaning, entry into Paradise. So the narrator of this hadith, Abū Burdah, says: one duʿāʾ was for Abū ʿĀmir, and the other duʿāʾ was for Abū Mūsā. This is the story of Awṭās.