Muʿādh ibn Jabal
معاذ بن جبل
Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
- Dates
- 603–639 CE / 20 BH–18 AH
- Relation to the Prophet ﷺ
- Young companion from the Anṣār; the Prophet's ﷺ envoy to Yemen
The Prophet ﷺ said: "The most knowledgeable of my community in ḥalāl and ḥarām is Muʿādh ibn Jabal."
Life
Muʿādh was a young man from the Anṣār — a native of Madinah — when he accepted Islam at seventeen. Tall, handsome, bright, with a voice that carried, he became a favourite of the Prophet ﷺ. When the Prophet ﷺ sent him to govern Yemen as a qāḍī and teacher, he asked Muʿādh how he would judge. Muʿādh said: by the Book of Allah. And if you don't find it there? By the sunnah. And if you don't find it there? "I will exercise my own judgement." The Prophet ﷺ struck his chest in pleasure and said: all praise is to Allah, who has guided the messenger of His messenger to what pleases His messenger.
Muʿādh survived the Prophet ﷺ by only seven years. He died of the plague at thirty-six, in al-Shām. The methodology attributed to him in that Yemen dialogue is the classical foundation of uṣūl al-fiqh.
Passages that mention Muʿādh
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"In the middle of Dhu al-Qidah, Emir Saif al-Din Yalamlaq, a man of virtue, arrived accompanied by a group from my hometown, Tangier, may God preserve it, including the Jurist Abu Abdullah Muhammad, the son of the Judge Abu al-Abbas ibn al-Qadi al-Khatib, Abu al-Qasim al-Jarawi, the Jurist Abu Abdullah Allah, the Jurist Abu Abdullah al-Hadhari, the Jurist Abu Abdullah al-Mursi, Abu al-Abbas ibn al-Faqi, Abu Ali al-Balansi, Abu Muhammad ibn al-Kabila, Abu al-Hassan al-Biyari, Abu al-Abbas ibn Tafut, Abu al-Sabr Ayub al-Fakhar, and Ahmed ibn Hakama. From Qasr al-Majaz, the Jurist Abu Zayd Abd al-Rahman, the son of the Judge"
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"Nakaura, who found comfort in their strongholds. Ibn Hisham said that this is what Sati meant by his statement, followed by Iram of Diyazan, who will emerge upon them from Aden, leaving no one among them in Yemen. And what Shikh meant by his statement, a boy who is neither a man nor a youth, will emerge from the house of Diyazan. Ibn Ishaq said that Waraz and the Persians remained in Yemen, and from the remnants of that army of the Persians are the sons who are in Yemen today. The king of the Abyssinians in Yemen was there until the Persians killed Masruq ibn Abraha. The Abyssinians ruled for 72 years, passing"
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"from Wahb ibn Munabi, that Solomon did not marry her but instead married her to the king of Hamdan and allowed her to remain in the kingdom of Yemen. He commanded the king of the jinn of Yemen to build for her the three palaces mentioned in Yemen, and the first is the most famous and well known. Allah knows best. The blessings of Allah upon Ali. Now let's turn to another account. One of the blessings Allah bestowed upon Ali was his care under the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, before Islam's advent. Ibn Ishaq narrates from Mujahid that during a severe crisis faced by Quraysh, Abu Talib had many dependents. The prophet, peace be upon him, suggested to his"
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"days in good company. Then we departed, and he sent one of the devotees with us as a guide. We headed to the city of Taiz, the seat of the king of Yemen, one of the most beautiful and grand cities of Yemen. Its people are characterized by pride and arrogance, as is common in the lands inhabited by kings. The city comprises three neighborhoods, one for the sultan, his menial staff, and his officials, which bears a name I cannot recall, another for the princes and soldiers called Adina, and the third for the general populace, housing the grand market known as al-Mahalib. News of the sultan of Yemen. He is Sultan al-Mujahid Nur al-Din Ali ibn Sultan al-Mu'ayyad,"
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"Persians killed Masruq ibn Abraha. The Abyssinians ruled for 72 years, passing that down to four. Ariyat, then Abraha, then Yaksum ibn Abraha, then Masruq ibn Abraha. The account of what happened to the Persians in Yemen. Ibn Hisham said that Waraz died, and Khosrow appointed his son, the Marzuban ibn Waraz, over Yemen. After the Marzuban died, Khosrow appointed his son, the Tanjan. Then he died, and Khosrow appointed the son of Tanjan, but he was later removed from Yemen, and Badhan was appointed over it. During his time, the messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, was sent. Ibn Hisham reported that al-Zuhri said, Khosrow"
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"extracted. It's used for illumination and applied to hair, highly beneficial. News of the Sultan of Dhofar. He is Sultan al-Mughith, son of King al-Faiz, cousin to the king of Yemen. His father was the Emir of Dhofar, appointed by the ruler of Yemen, to whom he would send a gift every year. However, King al-Mughith claimed the throne for himself and ceased sending the gift. The king of Yemen intended to wage war on him by appointing his cousin, and the incident of the wall collapsing occurred as we previously mentioned. The Sultan has a palace within the city called the Fortress, which is vast and grand, and the"