4 of 4 · After 11 AH · the caliphates and the strife · Madinah, al-Mizzah near Damascus
Usamah ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه
A Quiet Legacy
'Umar ibn al-Khattab, when he set the stipends, gave Usamah more than he gave his own son 'Abd Allah. When his son asked why, 'Umar replied that Usamah had been dearer to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ than 'Abd Allah, and his father dearer than 'Umar himself.
When the Muslims divided in the first civil strife, Usamah kept out of the fighting. He said he would not fight any man who said La ilaha illa Allah. He lived a quiet life, moving between Madinah and the village of al-Mizzah near Damascus.
He died around 54 AH, in the time of Mu'awiyah, having been a trusted companion in four phases of Muslim history. Scholars remember him for the gentleness of his temperament and the weight of his father's example.
Dearness to the Prophet ﷺ was a trust that Usamah carried humbly, by caution about blood and by sincerity to the end.
When are you wiser to hold back than to take a side?
- Jami' al-Tirmidhi 3813Graded by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir: Daif · Al-Albani: Daif · Bashar Awad Maarouf: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: HasanDa'if
- Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-KubraHistorical report
- al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'Historical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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