ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah Stays for the Jumuʿah

There is a hadith in al-Tirmidhī (527); however, this hadith is munqaṭiʿ, and munqaṭiʿ is one of the types of weak hadith. But there is another, strong hadith that strengthens it: even though they are not the same in wording, they speak in principle about the same issue. This hadith in al-Tirmidhī states that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent out an army, and among those designated to go out with this army was ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah, and this army was to leave on a Friday. And Ibn Kathīr mentions this hadith as evidence that the Muslims left Madīnah for Ghazwat Muʾtah on a Friday.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah thought about it. He said: well, I am one single person — because this army was supposed to leave at Fajr — so if I stay and pray Jumuʿah with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), I will be able to catch up with the army, because I am just one person. The army as a whole is slow, but one individual can speed up and catch up with the rest. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) spotted him at the ṣalāh. He saw him and said: how is it that you stayed behind? ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah responded: O Messenger of Allah, I wanted to pray Jumuʿah with you. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him: law anfaqta mā fī al-arḍi jamīʿan mā adrakta ghadwatahum — if you spent everything on earth, you would not catch up with them. For these few hours that ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah stayed behind, between Fajr and Jumuʿah, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is telling him: if you spent all the money in the world, you would not catch up with them in terms of reward. This is not about his staying behind completely; it is about his catching up with them. Those few hours that he missed, he would never be able to make up, even if he spent all the money in the world.

The authentic hadith that witnesses for this hadith is the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): la-ghadwatun aw rawḥatun fī sabīl Allāh khayrun min al-dunyā wa mā fīhā — setting out in the morning, or in the evening, in the path of Allah is better than the world and everything in it (al-Bukhārī 2792). Now think about this for a moment. Why did ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah stay behind? He did not stay behind out of fear; he did not want to leave jihād for the sake of Allah; that was not the case. He had the right intentions for staying behind: he wanted to seek knowledge. And seek knowledge from whom? Not from a shaykh, a great scholar — he wanted to seek knowledge from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself. He wanted to stay behind to receive the reward of Jumuʿah — and Jumuʿah with whom? With Muḥammad (peace be upon him). Nevertheless, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is telling him that what he did was wrong: those few hours that you missed, nothing can make them up for you.

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was teaching the Companions a lesson: that they were not excused for staying behind. Fighting for the sake of Allah can be with oneself, it can be with one's wealth, or it can be with one's tongue, because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: jāhidū al-mushrikīna bi-anfusikum wa amwālikum wa alsinatikum — fight the disbelievers with yourselves, your wealth and your tongues (Abū Dāwūd 2504). However, fighting the mushrikūn with one's tongue alone is not enough; otherwise it would have been sufficient for the great scholars among the Companions to sit behind in Madīnah and not go out with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). But the scholars of the Companions, like Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and Muʿādh ibn Jabal, and the poet of the Companions, Ḥassān ibn Thābit^*, all went out on the ghazawāt, and their knowledge was not an excuse for them to stay behind.

In fact the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself, on whom the ummah depended for learning the revelation, did not stay behind, and he said that he wished he could join every army that set out (al-Bukhārī 2797). ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, who used to finance the armies — this support with their wealth was not sufficient for them; they had to go out themselves. And no one tried to justify it and make sense of it by saying: well, if they go out they will be killed, so it is better for them to stay behind and just support with their wealth. No — they had to go out themselves. And here the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is telling ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah that no matter what he does, he will not catch up with them: even though you prayed Jumuʿah with me, even though you stayed behind with the intention of learning, that is not an excuse; you should have gone out.