The Fighter of the Fire and the Bedouin Who Wanted an Arrow

Some spotlights from the Battle of Khaybar — examples of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), and other examples too; examples of good and bad. There was a man who was doing a very good job of fighting the enemies of Allah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) pointed towards him and said: he is one of the people of the Fire. This was rather shocking to the Companions, because of the strength of this man and the good work he was doing. It says in one narration that some of them almost began to doubt, because on one hand the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says that he is of the people of the Fire, and on the other hand they see a mujāhid who is fighting — at least, that is what they see, because they do not know what is in the heart of this man. They see that he is a very strong fighter, and these Companions understood the faḍl, the virtues, of fighting; so they saw it as something very striking, and strange.

So one of them said: I am going to follow this man and see what happens. If he sped up, he would speed after him; if he slowed down, he would slow down after him. He was tailing him, following him wherever he went. And then the man was injured. It was painful, and the man did not have ṣabr, he did not have patience: he took an arrow from his quiver and slit his throat. The Companion who saw that went rushing to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, what you said has come true. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: stand, so-and-so, and announce that none will enter Jannah except a believer, and that Allah may support this religion by means of a wicked man (al-Bukhārī 4203).

This was a corrupt person whose deeds gave support to Islam, because he was a good fighter. So what he did was definitely supportive of Islam, even though he was a corrupt person. So not everyone who is supporting the religion is a believer. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is saying: announce it to the people and let them know that only the believer will enter Jannah. So not everybody whom you see as good is a person who will go to Jannah. This does not mean that we should start doubting the intentions of people — no, that is not what is meant by this — but we cannot judge for certain that such-and-such a person is in Jannah; that is something we do not know; that is something only Allah (swt) knows. We cannot pass a definite judgement that a particular person is entering Jannah, except where the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) has given us that testimony — such as the testimony he gave for the ten, and the testimony he gave for Bilāl, and the testimony he gave for ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām, and the testimony he gave for some other Companions.

The next example: there was a Bedouin, an aʿrābī. He became Muslim, and then he went out with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in the Battle of Khaybar. The Muslims won the Battle of Khaybar, and it was a great booty. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) divided the booty among the Companions, and after a long period of poverty they now had something to live on; one of the best ghanāʾim they ever had was the ghanīmah of Khaybar. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told some Companions to take this and give it to the Bedouin: this is his share of the ghanīmah. So his share was brought to him, and he said: what is this? They said: this is your share of the booty. He went back to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said: what is this? He was told: this is the ghanīmah; this is your share. He said: this is not why I became Muslim and followed you. This is not why I followed you. I followed you so that I would be struck here — and he pointed to his neck — with an arrow, and then I would be killed, and I would enter Paradise. Subḥān Allāh. Look at the purity of his fiṭrah.

Ghanīmah was ḥalāl for him; in fact, it is the best of rizq, because Allah (swt) made ghanīmah the rizq of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was a shepherd before prophethood, and a businessman before prophethood, but after nubuwwah his rizq came from the spoils of war. He stopped working; he discontinued his former professions and gave his time, full time, to spreading the daʿwah of Allah. So how did he survive? He survived through his share of the ghanīmah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says in the hadith: I have been sent with the sword before the Hour, and my sustenance has been placed under the shade of my spear. So if Allah (swt) made it the rizq of the Messenger of Allah, it is the best form of sustenance, according to the opinion of scholars such as Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī when he commented on this hadith. So it is the best form of rizq, and this Bedouin said: I do not want it — something all of the Companions were accepting, and he voluntarily said, I do not want this. So this is a man who is not looking at the bottom line. This is a man whose heart has absorbed Islam, and he has reached the level where he is only thinking about Jannah, only thinking about meeting Allah. And he was a Bedouin, a simple man without a lot of knowledge, but his fiṭrah was clean. He told the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): I did not follow you for this; I followed you so that I would be struck by an arrow right here and enter Jannah.

Let us go back and see what the Messenger of Allah said when he made that statement. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him: if you are true to Allah, Allah will be true to you — meaning, Allah will give you what you desire. Subḥān Allāh, this is found all over the Qurʾān and hadith: wa alladhīna ihtadaw zādahum hudā (47:17) — those who seek guidance, Allah increases them in it; wa alladhīna jāhadū fīnā la-nahdiyannahum subulanā (29:69) — those who strive in Our path, We will guide them to Our paths; whoever draws near to Me by a handspan, I draw near to him by a cubit, and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running: if you walk towards Allah, Allah will run towards you. So it depends on your effort. If you are truthful with Allah, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, Allah will be true to you. And in this man's statement one can see truth; one can see honesty; one can see the willingness to sacrifice.

In another battle, he was struck by an arrow in the exact place he had pointed his finger to. He was brought to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: is it him? They said: yes, it is him. What did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) do? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) put his own garment over him, to be buried with him in his grave. Subḥān Allāh — the garment that had touched the skin of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)! It was told how the Companions would fight over the hair of the Messenger of Allah, and over the drops of wuḍūʾ that fell from his body, so that they could rub them over themselves; they would compete to get that blessing from the Messenger of Allah. And this Bedouin was getting it without any effort: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wrapped him in his own garment, the garment that had touched the skin of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) put him in his grave, and made a duʿāʾ for him, a long duʿāʾ. The narrator of this hadith — and this hadith is authentic; it is in al-Bayhaqī — said that the part of the duʿāʾ of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that he remembered, or heard, was: Allāhumma hādhā ʿabduka, kharaja mujāhidan fī sabīlik, fa-qutila shahīdan, wa anā ʿalā dhālika shahīd — O Allah, this is Your servant; he came out struggling in Your path, and he was killed as a shahīd, and I am a witness to that. Allāhu akbar. Subḥān Allāh: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was saying, I am a witness that this man is a mujāhid and a shahīd. What better witness, what a great badge of honour, given to a simple Bedouin with little knowledge — but because of his ṣidq, his truthfulness, he was given this great reward.