Scholars and Martyrs of the Platform

Ahl al-Ṣuffah were not people taking advantage of all of the freebies, free lodging and free food, doing nothing. These were very active people in worship. These were true ascetics. These were students of knowledge, these were scholars, these were fighters in the way of Allah. Many of them became martyrs. Among the scholars who graduated from the ranks of Ahl al-Ṣuffah is Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), the most prolific narrator of the hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Another member of Ahl al-Ṣuffah was Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān, the authority on the hadith of tribulation — most of the hadith about the end of times came through Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān (may Allah be pleased with him).

Among the martyrs of Ahl al-Ṣuffah were Ṣafwān ibn al-Bayḍāʾ, Khuraym ibn al-Fatḥ al-Azdī, Ḥabīb ibn Isāf, Salām ibn ʿĀmir and al-Ḥārith ibn al-Nuʿmān. Jarhad ibn Khuwaylid and Abū Surayḥah al-Ghifārī became a martyr on Ḥudaybiyah;^* Thaqīf ibn ʿAmr became a martyr on Khaybar; ʿAbdullāh Dhū al-Bajādayn, a martyr on Tabūk; and Sālim, the freed slave of Abū Ḥudhayfah, together with Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, were martyrs in al-Yamāmah. They used to try to make a living where they could: as al-Zamakhsharī says, they would gather date pits, crush them, and sell the result as animal feed. So they would try to make a living, but the conditions were difficult — the conditions in Madīnah in general were difficult, and they were forced into poverty. What was the number of Ahl al-Ṣuffah? The number went up and down depending on conditions, but averaged about seventy — a huge group of people, living full time at the back of Masjid al-Nabawī. They were very active in study because they were close to the centre of learning at Masjid al-Nabawī, the university of Islam, and that is why they have narrated so much hadith.