Abū Dhar al-Ghifari al-Kinani, also Jundub ibn Junādah ibn
Sufian, was the fourth or fifth person converting to Islam. He
belonged to the Banu Ghifar, the Kinanah tribe. No date of birth is
known.
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AbuZar Ghifari RA is very famous among
the Sahabah for his piety and knowledge. Saidina Ali RA used to
say: "AbuZar RA possesses such knowledge that other people are
incapable of acquiring." When he first got news of Nabi's SAW
mission, he appointed his brother to go to Makkah and make
investigations regarding 'the person' who claimed to be the recipient
of Divine revelation. His brother returned after the necessary
enquiries and informed him that he found Muhammad SAW to be a man of
good habits and excellent conduct and that his wonderful revelations
were neither poetry nor magic.
This report did not satisfy him, he
therefore decided to set out for Makkah and find out the facts for
himself. On reaching Makkah, he went straight to the Haram. As he did
not know Nabi SAW, he did not consider it advisable at that time,
under the circumstances prevailing, to enquire about him from
anybody. When it became dark, Saidina Ali RA noticed him and could
not ignore him as he was a stranger. Hospitality and care for the
travelers, the poor and the strangers was the Sahabah’s second
nature, he therefore took him to his place. Neither did he ask him
about the purpose of his visit to Makkah, nor did Abuzar RA himself
disclose it.
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Next day, he again went to the Haram
and stayed there till nightfall without being able to learn who Nabi
SAW was. In fact everybody knew that Nabi SAW and his companions were
being persecuted in Makkah and AbuZar RA might have had doubts about
the result of his quest for Nabi SAW. Saidina Ali RA again took him
home for the night and once again did not have any talk with him
about the purpose of his visit to the city. However, on the third
night, after Saidina Ali RA had entertained him as on the two
previous nights, he asked him:
"Brother, what brings you to
this town?" Before replying, AbuZar RA took an undertaking
from Saidina Ali RA that he would speak the truth. He thereafter
inquired from him about Muhammad SAW.
Saidina Ali RA replied:
"He is verily the
Nabi of Allah. You accompany me tomorrow and I shall take you to him,
but you have to be very careful, in case the people come to know of
your association with me, and you get into trouble. When on our way I
sense some trouble, I shall get aside pretending some necessity or
adjusting my shoes, and you may proceed ahead without stopping so
that the people may not connect us."
The next day, he followed Saidina Ali
RA , who took him before Nabi SAW. In the very first meeting, he
embraced Islam. Fearing that the Quraish might harm him, Nabi SAW
enjoined upon him not to make an open declaration of his Islam and
asked him to go back to his clan and return when the Muslims had
gained the upper hand.
AbuZar replied:
"O, Nabi of Allah! By Him who
is the master of my soul, I must go and recite the Kalimah in the
midst of these unbelievers."
True to his word, he went straight to
the Haram and right in the midst of the crowd, at the pitch of his
voice, recited
Shahadah :
“I bear witness that
there is no god save Allah, and I bear witness
that Muhammad SAW is
the Nabi of Allah."
People
attacked him from all sides and would have beaten him to death if
Abbas (Nabi's SAW uncle, who had not till then embraced Islam) had
not shielded him and saved him from death.
Abbas
said to the mob: "Do you know who he is? He belongs to the
Ghifar clan, who live on the way of our caravans to Syria. If he is
killed, they will waylay us and we shall not be able to trade with
that country."
This
appealed to their common sense and they left him alone. AbuZar
repeated the Shahadat the next day and would have surely been beaten
to death by the crowd had not Abbas once again intervened and saved
him for the second time.
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The
action of AbuZar RA was due to his extraordinary enthusiasm for
proclaiming Kalimah among the disbelievers, and the prohibition by
Nabi SAW was due to the soft corner in his heart for AbuZar RA,
lest he be put to hardships that might prove too much for him. There
is not the least shadow of disobedience in this episode. Since Nabi
SAW himself was undergoing all sorts of hardships in spreading the
message of Islam, AbuZar RA also thought it fit to follow his example
rather than to avail of his permission to avoid danger.
It was
this spirit of Sahabah that took them to the heights of material and
spiritual progress. When a person once recited the Kalimah and
entered the fold of Islam, no power on earth could turn him back and
no oppression or tyranny could stop him from Tabligh.
Bio of Abu Zar Al Ghifari RA
Abū Dhar al-Ghifari al-Kinani ( أبو ذر الغفاري الكناني), also Jundub ibn Junādah ibn Sufian (جُندب بن جَنادة), was the fourth or fifth person converting to Islam. He belonged to the Banu Ghifar, the Kinanah tribe. No date of birth is known. He died in 652 CE, at al-Rabadha, in the desert east of Medina.
Abu Dhar is remembered for his strict piety and also his opposition to Muawiyah I during the caliph Uthman ibn Affan era.
Shia venerated Abu Zar RA as the companion of the early sahabah and followers of Saidina Ali. The facts are this is a total fabrication by the shias, There is no shia sect at that early time of sahabah even Saidina Ali have nothing to do with the shia. Complete lies and make up story by the heretic shia sect.
Little is known of his life before his conversion to Islam. Abu Dhar is said to have been a serious young man, an ascetic and a monotheist even before he converted. He was born to the Ghifar clan, found to the western south of Medina. Abu Dhar was apparently typical of the early converts to Islam, described by Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri as "young men and weak people". They were a branch of the Banu Kinanah tribe. Quraysh clan of Muhammad was also a branch of the Banu Kinanah tribe.
Popular accounts of Abu Dhar say that his tribe lived by pillaging caravans, but that he preferred to live a poor but honest life as a shepherd. Having heard the supposition that a new prophet had arisen in Mecca, Abu Dhar and his brother travelled to Mecca to find the prophet. The young seeker converted instantly and rushed out to declare his new faith in front of the Kaaba, which at that time was a pagan temple. He was beaten for his religious belief. He did this three days in a row, after which the Prophet Muhammed told him to return to his clan, where he taught his people about Islam. He and his tribe then joined Muhammad after the Hijra, or migration to Medina in 622 CE.
This seems to be a simplified account of stories reported in these hadiths, .
According to the early Islamic historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Abu Dhar claimed to have been the fourth or fifth convert to Islam. However, Saad bin Abe Waqqas made the same claim. While the exact order of conversion may never be established, no one doubts that he was a very early convert.
He participated in the Battle of Badr. Muhammad's forces included Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Hamza, Mus`ab ibn `Umair, Az-Zubair bin Al-'Awwam, Ammar ibn Yasir, and Abu Dharr al-Ghifari. The Muslims also brought seventy camels and two horses, meaning that they either had to walk or fit three to four men per camel. However, many early Muslim sources indicate that no serious fighting was expected,and the future Caliph Uthman stayed behind to care for his sick wife Ruqayyah, the daughter of Muhammad. Salman Al Farisi also could not join the battle, as he was still not a free man.
During the Expedition of Ka’b ibn 'Umair al-Ghifari his son Umair al-Ghifari was killed. In this expedition Muhammad ordered an attackon the Banu Quda‘a tribe because Muhammad received intelligence that they had gathered a large number of men to attack the Muslim positions
In response Muhammad ordered the Third Expedition of Dhu Qarad to take revenge for the killing of the son of Abu Dhar Ghifari at al-Ghaba
His life after the demised of Rasulullah SAW.
Abu Dhar had begun his agitation in Medina after Saidina Uthman RA had given 500,000 dirhams to Marwan I, 300,000 to al-Harith b. al-Hakam, and 100,000 to the Medinan Zayd ibn Thabit from the khums of the booty seized in Ifriqiya in 27/647. He then quoted relevant Qur'anic passages threatening the horders of riches with hell-fire. Marwan complained to Saidina Uthman RA, who sent his servant Natil to warn Abu Dhar RA, but to no avail. Saidina Uthman RA displayed patience for some time until, in the presence of the caliph, Abu Dhar RA launched an angry verbal attack on Ka'ab al-Ahbar, who had backed Saidina Uthman's free use of public money.
Many hadith, oral traditions, are traced to AbuZar RA. He is respected as an early and observant Muslim, and a man who was honest and direct to a fault. He was, according to the Sunni tradition, a rough, unlettered Beduin who held no high office, but who served the Muslim community, the Ummah, with everything he had to give.
During the caliphate of Uthman, he stayed in Damascus and witnessed Muslims deviating from Islam, going after worldly pleasures and desires.
He was saddened and repelled by this. So Saidina Uthman RA invited him to come to Madinah. where he was also hurt by people's pursuit of worldly goods and pleasures.
Al-Rabathah
Abu Zar then asked Saidina Uthman RA to go to al-Rabathah, a small village eastern Madinah. Saidina Uthman RA approved his request. Abu Zar stayed there away from people, holding on to the traditions (sunnah) of Muhammad SAW and his companions.
A man visited him once and when he found his house almost bare, he asked Abu Zar: "Where are your possessions?"
Abu Zar said: "We have a house yonder (meaning the Hereafter), to which we send the best of our possessions."
The man understood what Abu Dhar RA meant and said: "But you must have some possessions so long as you are in this abode."
"The owner of this abode will not leave us in it," replied Abu Dharr RA.
Also, when the Prince (Amir) of Syria sent Abu Zar three hundred dinars to meet his needs, he returned the money saying, "Does not the Amir find a servant more deserving of it than I?"
Abu Zar continued in his simple life, and dedicated himself to Allah only until he died, in 652 CE.
Abu Zar during his last years of life at
Al-Rabathah
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Al-Rabathah is a desert between Makkah and Madina. It is a barren land. No one inhabits it. But in the year 30 A.H., there was only one tent. In the tent there were an old man, an old woman, and their daughter. Why did the old man inhabit that distant area in the middle of the desert? He did not inhabit it of his on accord - the Caliph banished him to die there. The old man was ill. And his wife was always in tears. So, he said to her: Dhar's mother; why do you weep? The old woman said: Why shouldn't I weep and you're dying in this desert? The old man said: One day, my friends and I were sitting with Allah's Apostle [s]. And he said to us: "One of you will die in the desert. And a group of believers will attend his death." All my friends passed away in their houses. And no one has remained but I. A person will come to your aid. The old woman said: The time of Hajj (Pilgrimage) is over. And no one has passed through this desert. The old man said: Don't worry! Go up the hill and look at the road of caravans. The old woman went up the hill and looked. A long time passed, in the distance, the old woman saw a caravan coming towards her. The old woman waved a piece of cloth. The riders wondered and asked each other about that lonely old woman in the desert. They approached and asked about her condition. She said: My husband is dying. And no one is beside him. And who's your husband? While the old woman was weeping, she said: Abu Dhar, the companion of Allah's Apostle! The owners of the caravan were surprised. So, they said: Abu Dhar! The Prophet's companion! Come on! Let's see him! The men went to the tent. When they came into it, they saw Abu Dhar sleeping in his bed. They said: Assalamu Alaik, companion of Allah's Apostle! Wa Alaikum al-Salam, who are you? One of them said: Malik bin al-Haarth al-Ashtar. And there are some men with me from Iraq. We're going to Madina to tell the Caliph about the persecution we suffer from the Umayyad Dynasty. Abu Dhar said:
My brothers, be cheerfull! Allah's Apostle [s] has told
me that I'll die in the desert and that some believers will attend
my death.
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There is a tradition that Muhammad predicted this sad end, saying:
"May Allah have mercy upon Abu Dharr! Lonely will he live, lonely will he die and lonely will he be resurrected"
