Had I been in Egypt on the second day of Eid, I would have went with the brothers from my Tariqa, and our shaykh, to visit all the Ahlul Bayt and the awliya that are burried in Cairo. But Since I was here, I thought I’d do the same. I asked my friend to take me to visit the Prophet’s great companion Abu Ubaydah Amir ibn al-Jarrah, for whom I have always felt a special love, and to see who else we can find. I tooka book called The Holy Sites of Jordan to tell us who they were and where to find them; and Men Around the Messenger and the first volume of Hilyat al-Awliya to read more about them on the way. They all died from the Great Plague in the 18th year after the Hijra.

We reached first the companion Dirar ibn al-Azwar. He was one of the early Companions and it is recorded that he once gave the Prophet (pbuh) a she-camel. This poet was best remembered as a fierce warrior who loved combat. He would throw off his armor and shirt when fighting an enemy to show his desire for martyrdom. Dirar was popular among the Muslim fighters and used to boost their morale, as he did in the Battle of Ajnadayn when he challenged Byzantine champions to duels before the battle. He yelled out: “I am the death of the pale faces (cowards), I am the killer of Romans; I am the scourge sent upon you, I am Dirar Ibn al Azwar!”. He is said to have slain several Byzantine champions who accepted his duels, including the governers of Tiberias and Amman. His very name was enough to strike terror into the hearts of the enemy.

Dirar became an army commander during the campaigns of Khalid ibn al-Walid, in the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with them all. I had mentioned in my first Blog how he was captured by the Byzantines, and how his sister was found fighting alone against several Byzantine soldiers, attempting to save her brother, and that she joined Khalid ibn al-Walid in the battle in which the Byzantines were defeated and Dirar was rescued. The Pakistani army has named a new tank after him (Al-Zarrar, which is how they pronounce his name).

The most important part of that visit was the scent that was emanating from Dirar’s tomb, ridwan Allah 3alayh. There was a little hole in the stone sarcophagus over his tomb, from which the most beautiful scent came out. I have discussed this scent with a friend of mine who has also been to these places, and he says that when he visited, the sarcophagus was covered with green cloth. He removed it and discovered that hole and the beautiful scent. So he asked the caretaker of the tomb complex, but it turned out that that caretaker was new, and had no idea about the existence of the hole, and assured my friend that since he was there they never used incense… Maybe it was after my friend’s discovery that the new caretaker decided to remove the cloth so that all visitors can smell the scent.

After the visit we signed the guest book, in which I noticed that many groups of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, Egyptians, and Jordanians had visited earlier that day, and I would see their names in all the tomb guestbooks that we would visit next.

Two minutes away was the great complex built around the tomb of Abu Ubaydah Amir ibn al-Jarrah. It was a complex of incredible beauty and serenity- it was large but very simple, the white stone and the greenery everywhere, with a blue fountain path, giving it such a calming atmosphere. At his tomb, we found some six men sitting and chanting Sufi songs- there was one about wishing to visit their beloved, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), and one about spiritual arriving (al-Wisal). The main singer had a voice from heaven, and I sat next to them and quietly sang a long. It was beautiful.

Abu Ubaydah was one of the first to enter Islam, and was a very close companion, among the compilers of the Holy Quran. He is also among the “Blessed Ten”, or the ten Companions that the Prophet once confirmed will definitly go to Heaven. The Prophet (pbuh) was known in Mecca before his prophethood as Al-Ameen, the Trusted One; he gave this title to Abu Ubaydah when he said, “For every nation there is an Ameen, and the Ameen of this Ummah is Abu Ubaydah.” When the delegation of Najran came from the Yemen to declare their Islam to the Prophet, they asked him to send with them someone to teach them the Quran and the Faith. He told them, “I will send with you someone who is most trustworthy. He is truly ameen, he is truly ameen, he is truly ameen.” Every Companion wished to be that person when they heard this, and Umar said “I had never sought a position of leadership until I heard those words”, and he started to try to attract the Prophet’s attention to himself, but it was Abu Ubaydah who was chosen.

During the Battle of Uhud, Abu Ubaydah realized that the main aim of the enemy was to kill the Prophet, so he made sure he was constantly guarding him- and if ever the fight took him far away from the Prophet, his eye was always on him (pbuh), and he would always come back to him. Once when he was fighting far away, his eyes constantly on the Prophet, he saw an arrow hit the Prophet’s helmet, at which point he swept away all the enemy fighters around him with an angry blow and ran toward the Prophet. Abu Bakr was racing toward him as well but Abu Ubaydah got there first, and when he saw that two rings from the helmet had dug into the Prophet’s cheek and caused him to bleed he turned to Abu Bakr and begged him to be the one to remove the rings from the Prophet’s face. He then bit the first ring and removed it, losing his tooth. Then bit and removed the second ring, losing another tooth. After that, every Companion envied him because the Prophet’s blood mixed with his blood.

When Umar became Caliph, he removed Khalid ibn al-Walid as general of the Muslim armies and placed Abu Ubaydah instead, because Abu Ubayda’s style of warfare was “gentle”. When Syria was opened to Islam, Umar went there and said, “Where is my brother?”, they said, “who is your brother?”, he said, “Abu Ubaydah!” They led him to Abu Ubaydah who took him to his house, where there was only a sword, a shield, and a travel bag with some travel provisions upon which he rested his head when he slept. Umar asked him why he would not share in the great wealth that the Muslims had acquired from Syria and the Sassanian Empire but Abu Ubaydah replied that it was all that he needed for his journey in this world.

Umar loved him so much that on his deathbed he said he would have made Abu Ubaydah succeed him to the Caliphate had he not died from the plague. In fact when the Prophet (pbuh) died Abu Bakr had nominated either Umar or Abu Ubaydah to be the first Caliph, but they refused to have anyone but Abu Bakr, may God be pleased with them all.

One time Umar was sitting with some companions and said, “make a wish!”. One of them said, “I wish this house was full of gold that I may spend it in charity and in the cause of Allah.” But Umar said, “make a wish”, and another man said “I wish this house was full of all kinds of precious stones, pearls, and jewels to spend in charity and in the cause of Allah”, but Umar said, “make a wish!” So they said, “we do not know what to wish for, what do you wish?” So Umar said, “I wish this house was full of men like Abu Ubaydah.”

When the plague spread in Syria, Umar was worried about him and sent him a letter saying, “I am in urgent need of you. If my letter reaches you at night I strongly urge you to leave before dawn. If this letter reaches you during the day, I strongly urge you to leave before evening and hasten to me.”

But Abu Ubaydah knew that Umar wrote the letter because he wanted him to escape the plague, and said, “”I know why Umar needs me. He wants to secure the survival of someone who, however, is not eternal.”

This was his reply: “I know that you need me. But I am in an army of Muslims and I have no desire to save myself from what is afflicting them. This is the army which didn’t separate from me in the battlefield and didn’t betray me. How can I now betray them? I do not want to separate from them until God wills. So, when this letter reaches you, release me from your command and permit me to stay on.”

Abu Ubaydah was soon infected by the plague, and before he died he gave a farewell speech and appointed Muadh ibn Jabal as his successor. Muadh led the funeral prayer and said to the people,

“O people, you are stricken by the death of a man. By God, I don’t know whether I have seen a man who had a more righteous heart, who was further from all evil and who was more sincere to people than he. Ask God to shower His mercy on him and God will be merciful to you”.

We then went on to find the tomb of Shurhabil. He was an early convert to Islam, and Abu Bakr put him in charge of the army that was sent to open Jordan- which was part of Greater Syria to- Islam. Umar later made him governor of three-quarters of the land of Greater Syria (Bilad al-Sham). He was best remembered as a man of deep faith, intelligence and justice; a great commander who was loved by all he commanded, and a ruler who was loved by all of those that he ruled over. He died of the plague on the same day as Abu Ubaydah.

We then went to see the ruins of Pella, an ancient city that was opened by Shurahbil, having fought a major battle with the Byzantines on its western plains. Muslims and Christians then lived together in it for over a hundred years before a great earthquake destroyed it and left it abandoned. We saw the ruins of Umayyad-era houses as well as a mosque that was built during Ottoman times when some people settled in it.

After Pella we continued up north to find the tomb of Aamir bin Abi Waqqas. He is the brother of the infamous general Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas who defeated the Sassanians and opened Iraq and Iran to Islam. They were maternal cousins of the Prophet (pbuh). Some sources say that he was the 11th man to convert to Islam, at which point his mother swore to stay out in the sun until he renounced his new faith, but he persisted.

Then finally, we reached Mu’adh ibn Jabal. He was from from the people of Medina, converted at the age of 18, and was present at the Pact of Aqaba when an envoy of Medinans came to invite the Prophet to Medina and gave him their allegiance. He was one of the four Ansar who compiled the Qur’an, and the Prophet (pbuh) said, “Read the Qur’an from four…” and one of them was Muadh. He also said, “The most knowledgeable in my Ummah on what is allowed and what is prohibited is Muadh ibn Jabal”, and “Muadh will be at the forefront of all the scholars on the Day of Judgment.” When Mecca was opened to Islam, the Prophet put him in charge of it, to teach the Meccans Islam, while he lead the campaign of Hunain. Before he died, he sent Muadh to rule Yemen and judge all their affairs.

When he came to Syria, the Companions there used to have such respect for him that they would always turn to him to solve any problem, and they would all look at him with awe, even when he was the youngest of the Companions present. He always sat quietly and silently, but stood out with his radiant face. When a disagreement arose they would go ask him, and hover around him, and they said that when he spoke it was as if light and pearls were coming out of his mouth. People said that a love for him would fall on their hearts upon seeing him. The companions likened him to the Prophet Abraham (pbuh).

Umar once sent a pouch full of money (400 dinars) with a servant to Abu Ubaydah, and instructed him to sit there and watch what he does with it. Abu Ubaydah called his maid and said, “go give seven to so-and-so and five to so-and-so” until there was nothing left in it. Umar’s servant went back and reported this, at which point Umar gave him a similar pouch to give to Muadh ibn Jabal, with the same instructions. Muadh did the same thing, except at the end his wife came and said, “leave some for us for we have nothing!”, at which point he kept for her the last two dinars. Umar’s servant went back and reported this. Umar was very pleased and said, “they are brothers, one and the same.”

During Umar’s reign both Abu Ubaydah and Muadh wrote a letter together and sent it to him, reminding him of his grave responsibilities as Caliph. He sent a letter back thanking them and telling them to keep writing him, for “I cannot do without the both of you.”

Muadh’s greatest honor is when the Prophet held his hand one day and said, “by Allah, oh Muadh, I love you.” Muadh replied, “Oh Messenger of Allah; I too, by Allah, love you!”

When the plague hit Syria, the people started comparing it to the Flood of Noah, except without water. Upon hearing this he stood up to preach to the people and said, “I have heard that which you speak. But this is a mercy from your Lord (swt), the supplication of your Prophet (pbuh), and the way that righteous men before you were taken. Instead of fearing this, fear what is much worse: that a man from among you could leave his house not knowing whether he is a believer or a hypocrite, and fear the rule of young boys… Oh Allah, give the family of Muadh the greater portion of this mercy!”

When he went back home, he found that his first born son Abd al-Rahman, the most beloved person to him, had been infected. He asked him, “Oh Abd al-Rahman, how are you?” And his son replied, “Oh father, this is the Haqq from your Lord, so do not be of those who waver (Qur’an 3:60)”. Muadh replied, “And me too, insha’Allah, you will find me among the patient.” And then Muadh stayed with him the night until he died and burried him the next morning, after which he was infected himself. At night, on his death bed, he kept asking, “is it morning yet?” and they would say no, not yet. Until one time he asked and they said, “yes, it is morning”. So he said, “I seek refuge in Allah from a night whose morning is in the Hellfire.” He suffered during this illness such a suffering that no one else had suffered, and everytime he would regain consciousness he would try to open his eyes and say, “Oh Allah take me, for you know that my heart loves you.”

He son was burried in the same chamber. I cannot begin to express to you the feeling of awe that came over me at the tomb of Muadh (r.a). I thought about moving out to the north of Jordan to live near him and visit him all the time.

From there we set out to pass by the ruins of Umm Qays, and on the way, high in the mountains of northern Jordan, looking out at the horizon, and Lake Tiberias, the sun about to set, and olive trees everywhere, I thought how blessed the land of Jordan was. Perhaps this is how Allah answered the Prophet’s supplication, “Oh Allah, bless us in our Yemen, and bless us in our Syria”.

May Allah allow me to visit the rest of the Sahaba that are burried in Jordan, and to visit their companion, their leader, and their beloved, sayyidna wa mawlana Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa ala aalihi wa sahbihi ajma’een.