50 Fun Facts About Sahaba

Which companion did Muhammad choose as the first caller to prayer?

Bilal ibn Rabah climbed onto the Kaaba itself to give the call on the day Mecca fell to the Muslims.

What does Islamic tradition call 619, when Muhammad lost both his wife Khadijah and his protector Abu Talib?

The Year of Sorrow took away Muhammad's closest supporter and his clan's protection at once, and the Quraysh treated him far more harshly once Abu Talib was gone.

Which tactic did Salman the Persian propose to defend Medina against 10,000 confederates in 627?

Digging a trench was a Persian idea new to Arabian warfare; the ditch took six days to dig, and the besiegers broke up in wind and rain.

Caliph Umar was stabbed with a double-bladed dagger in 644 while doing what in the mosque of Medina?

Leading the congregational prayer left Umar exposed to Abu Lu'lu'a, a Persian captive; before he died the caliph appointed a six-man council to choose his successor.

How did Ali ibn Abi Talib help Muhammad slip out of Mecca past the assassins?

Ali slept in the Prophet's bed so the watchers saw a sleeping figure all night; the plotters had picked one warrior from every Meccan clan so that no single clan could be blamed.

Why was Caliph Uthman ibn Affan called Dhu al-Nurayn, 'possessor of two lights'?

He married two of Muhammad's daughters in turn, and when the first, Ruqayya, lay dying, he stayed behind from Badr to nurse her and was still granted a share of the spoils.

Which uncle of Muhammad, a hunter who converted after striking Abu Jahl with his bow, was killed at Uhud?

Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib was brought down by a javelin thrown by Wahshi, an enslaved Abyssinian promised his freedom for the deed, and is honoured as Sayyid al-Shuhada, chief of the martyrs.

Which companion is credited with narrating the most hadiths despite spending only about three years with Muhammad?

Abu Hurayra means 'father of the kitten', a name he got for the stray cat he carried in his sleeve; he is credited with at least 5,374 hadiths, having converted only in 629.

Which wife of Muhammad narrated over 2,000 hadiths and directed one side at the 656 Battle of the Camel?

Aisha bint Abi Bakr's side lost, yet Ali pardoned her and sent her back under her brother's escort.

Which Meccan cavalry commander at Uhud later converted and led the Muslim armies that took Damascus?

Khalid ibn al-Walid was named Sayf Allah, 'the Sword of God', by Muhammad for saving the army at Mu'tah in 629, and went on to win Yarmouk, the battle that decided Syria in 636.

Which honorific did Muhammad give Abu Bakr for believing the Night Journey account at once, when others doubted?

Al-Siddiq means 'the truthful', and Abu Bakr kept the title for the rest of his life, through his election as first caliph in 632 and the Ridda wars that filled most of his short reign.

The Quran's 'the second of the two' refers to Abu Bakr hiding with Muhammad where?

A cave on Mount Thawr, south of Mecca, hid the pair for three days while the Quraysh searched, until the road north was clear.

Caliph Umar established the Islamic calendar around 638; from which event does it count its years?

The Hijra from Mecca to Yathrib in 622 became year one; Umar acted after a complaint from his governor Abu Musa al-Ash'ari.

Which scribe of Muhammad, turned away from Badr, led the committee behind Uthman's standard Quran?

Zayd ibn Thabit had already gathered the Quran once for Abu Bakr, from palm stalks and men's memories, and Muhammad had him learn Hebrew so he could read foreign letters.

Ali ibn Abi Talib was cut down by a poisoned sword in 661 in the mosque of which city, his capital?

Kufa had become Ali's seat, and there the Kharijite Ibn Muljam struck him during the dawn prayer; Ali died of the head wound about two days later.

Which companion, remembered as the first Muslim archer, led the army that broke the Sasanians at al-Qadisiyyah?

Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas outlived every other companion whom Muhammad had promised Paradise, dying around 674, and Chinese Muslim tradition even credits him with bringing Islam to Guangzhou.

Which companion lost two front teeth at Uhud while pulling links of Muhammad's armour from his cheek?

Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, whom Muhammad called 'the trustworthy one of this nation', went on to command the conquest of Syria and died in the plague of Amwas in 639.

Which companion spoke for the Muslim exiles before the Christian king of Abyssinia, quoting Surah Maryam?

Ja'far ibn Abi Talib chose the chapter on Mary and Jesus to show the king what Muslims believed; he died at Mu'tah in 629 after both his arms were cut off holding the standard.

Which once-wealthy young Meccan became Islam's first envoy to Yathrib and later died carrying the banner at Uhud?

Mus'ab ibn Umayr's preaching won over much of Medina before Muhammad arrived; at his burial the one cloth he owned could cover either his head or his feet, not both.

Which woman tore her belt in two to tie the provisions for Muhammad's flight from Mecca in 622?

Asma bint Abi Bakr was given the title Dhat al-Nitaqayn, 'She of the Two Belts', by Muhammad himself, and lived to about a hundred, dying in 692 days after her son Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr was killed.

Which freed slave, adopted by Muhammad as a son, was appointed first commander of the 3,000 men sent to Mu'tah in 629?

Zayd ibn Harithah had chosen to stay with Muhammad when his own father and uncle came to ransom him, and Muhammad never sent him out with an army without putting him in command of it.

Which mother of Ammar ibn Yasir, speared by Abu Jahl in Mecca, is honoured as the first martyr of Islam?

Sumayya bint Khayyat was tortured beside her husband Yasir for refusing to renounce her faith; tradition records Muhammad passing the family and telling them to be patient, for their meeting place was Paradise.

Which woman of Medina is remembered for defending Muhammad in person at Uhud?

Nusaybah bint Ka'b, known as Umm Umarah, had come to the field to carry water and tend the wounded, and she later fought at Hunayn and in the wars after Muhammad's death, where she lost a hand.

Which ascetic companion, a critic of hoarded riches, died alone at al-Rabadha in 652 as Muhammad had foretold?

Abu Dharr al-Ghifari came from a tribe that lived by raiding caravans, preached that surplus riches should be given away, and sent back the money that the governor of Syria offered him.

Which companion made the final choice of Uthman as third caliph in 644?

Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf reached Medina with nothing and built a fortune trading; at his death he owned a hundred horses and a thousand camels.

Which Medinan chief, dying of an arrow wound from the 627 siege, did Muhammad mourn with the words 'the Throne shook'?

Sa'd ibn Mu'adh had brought his whole clan into Islam on the day he converted.

What did Suhayb 'the Roman', raised in Byzantine captivity, surrender to the Quraysh to be allowed to leave for Medina?

All his wealth was the price, and when he reached Muhammad he was greeted with the words 'your transaction has been fruitful'; Quran 2:207, on the man who sells himself for God's pleasure, is held to honour the bargain.

Muhammad foretold that Ammar ibn Yasir would be killed by 'a wicked band'; at which battle of 657 did he die?

Siffin, fought on the upper Euphrates between Ali and Mu'awiya, cost Ammar his life at about ninety, and both sides read the prophecy as marking which of them was in the right.

Talha ibn Ubayd Allah blocked an arrow aimed at Muhammad's face at Uhud; what did it cost him?

The use of his hand was lost when the arrow struck it, and the defence earned Talha the byname 'the living martyr'; he died in 656 at the Battle of the Camel.

Umar burst in on which companion, his own brother-in-law, reading the Quran at home, and left a convert?

Sa'id ibn Zayd later counted himself among the companions Muhammad promised Paradise, naming nine and hinting that the tenth was himself; he missed Badr only because Muhammad had sent him to scout the caravan.

Muhammad sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal, whom he praised as most learned in the lawful and unlawful, to govern where?

Yemen was Mu'adh's post for collecting zakat and teaching, and when he came back to Medina, Muhammad had died, just as Muhammad had hinted at their farewell.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, keeper of Muhammad's sandals, was beaten by the Quraysh for doing what at the Kaaba?

Reciting the Quran aloud, he chose the chapter known as 'The Merciful', and the Quraysh hit him in the face but he kept reciting.

What did Abu Dujana wear at Uhud, after accepting Muhammad's sword, to show he meant to fight to the death?

A red headband was his known signal, worn with a strut before the enemy lines, and he then took several arrows in his back shielding Muhammad; he died fighting Musaylima's rebels.

Which servant of Muhammad from age ten died in Basra among the last companions alive?

Anas ibn Malik was stamped with a seal by al-Hajjaj, but after Anas wrote to caliph Abd al-Malik, the caliph made al-Hajjaj apologise.

Which poet of Medina, said to have lived sixty years before Islam and sixty after, wrote verse defending Muhammad?

Hassan ibn Thabit had recited at al-Hira and Damascus in his youth, and his poems answering the Quraysh satirists double as a record of the period's events.

Salman the Persian was raised in which religion before he left home in search of a truer faith?

Zoroastrianism lost him to a group of Christians, and he followed their teachers from Damascus to Amorium until one foretold a prophet in Arabia; sold into slavery, he met Muhammad in Medina.

Heavy losses among Quran memorisers at which 632 battle against Musaylima led Abu Bakr to order the Quran collected?

Yamama killed many Quran memorisers, and Umar pressed a reluctant Abu Bakr to have the scattered verses gathered, a task the young scribe assigned to it said felt heavier than moving a mountain.

Which state treasury did Umar found to pay stipends and support the poor, an institution later caliphates kept?

Bayt al-mal, the treasury Umar set up in Medina, paid pensions to the poor, the old, orphans and the disabled, and became the foundation of the early state's welfare system.

The Ansar, the Medinan 'helpers' who sheltered the Meccan Muslims, came from which two tribes?

Aws and Khazraj had fought each other for generations before Islam, and it was their pledges to Muhammad at Aqaba that opened Yathrib to him in 622.

After Badr in 624, literate Meccan prisoners could earn their release by doing what?

Teaching ten Muslims to read and write counted as a literate captive's ransom, after Muhammad took Abu Bakr's advice to ransom the Badr prisoners rather than Umar's to kill them.

Roughly how many Muslims fought at Badr in 624 against a much larger Meccan army?

About 313 Muslims beat a Meccan army of up to about 1,000, and the Quran calls the day Yawm al-Furqan, 'the day of the criterion'.

At Uhud, Muhammad ordered fifty archers never to leave their hill; what did most of them do?

Most of them ran down to loot the camp the moment the Meccans broke, and the Meccan cavalry swept around the open hill to take the Muslims from behind.

After the first revelation, Khadijah took Muhammad to which Christian cousin of hers, who confirmed he was a prophet?

Waraqa ibn Nawfal, an old man who had studied the scriptures, said the greatest law that had come to Moses had now come to Muhammad, and called him the prophet of his people.

Salman the Persian became governor of which city, taken from the Sasanians in 637?

Ctesiphon, on the Tigris near modern Baghdad, had been the seat of the Sasanian kings, and Salman, Persian by birth, governed it after its fall.

Which companion did Muhammad trust with the hypocrites' names, and send alone by night to spy on the 627 besiegers?

Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman crept into the confederate lines in the storm and brought back word that the Quraysh were packing up to leave; he died in Iraq in 656, forty days after Uthman.

Uthman gave the largest share toward equipping which 630 expedition to the north?

Tabuk was the 'army of hardship': 30,000 men marched north in summer heat toward Byzantine territory without a battle being fought.

Which daughter of Muhammad, the only one to outlive him, died within six months of her father?

Fatima, mother of Hasan and Husayn, was buried in Medina, but the exact site of her grave remains uncertain, with contradictory reports.

Uthman ibn Affan, one of the richest merchants of Mecca, belonged to which clan of the Quraysh?

Banu Umayya was part of the larger Abd Shams clan and a long-standing rival of Muhammad's own Banu Hashim; Uthman's kinsman Mu'awiya founded the Umayyad caliphate in 661.

Which Quran chapter was being recited at his sister's home when Umar, arriving in anger, was won over to Islam?

Ta-Ha, the twentieth chapter, was being taught there by Khabbab ibn al-Aratt; Umar had set out that day as an enemy of the Muslims and became one of their fiercest defenders.

When Meccan and Medinan Muslims each claimed Salman the Persian as theirs, Muhammad said he belonged to whom?

The People of the House meant Muhammad's own family, and Muhammad had earlier helped free Salman from slavery, having 300 date palms planted to pay his master.