Quick Facts
Biography
Mu‘adh ibn Jabal (Arabic: مُـعـاذ ابـن جـبـل) was a Sahabi of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was called by Muhammad "the one who will lead the scholars into Paradise."
Biography
Era of Muhammad
He accepted Islam before the Second pledge at al-Aqabah. Nevertheless, he was one of those who took the pledge.
When Muhammad sent Mu‘adh to Yemen to teach its people about Islam, he personally bade farewell to him, walking for some distance alongside him, as he set out to leave the city. It is said that Muhammad informed him that on his return to Medina, he would perhaps see only his Masjid and grave. Upon hearing this, Mu‘adh began to cry.
After Muhammad
When Mu‘adh returned to Medina, the Khalifah (head of state) was Abu Bakr. He eventually accompanied Usamah ibn Zayd on the Shami expedition, dying there in 18 Anno Hegirae, due to a plague.
Legacy
The college for the study of Shariah law, at Mosul University in Iraq, is named after him.
Sayings
Al-Bayhaqi narrated in Shu`ab al-Iman (1:392 #512-513), and so did al-Tabarani, that Mu`adh ibn Jabal narrated that Muhammad said: "The People of Paradise will not regret except one thing alone: the hour that passed them by and in which they made no remembrance of Allah." Ali ibn Abu Bakr al-Haythami in Majma al-Zawa'id (10:74) said that its narrators are all trustworthy (thiqat), while Suyuti declared it hasan in his Jami` al-Saghir (#7701).
Ibn al-Jawzi recorded in Siffatu Safwah that Mu‘adh advised his son, "My son! Pray the prayer of he who is just about to leave and imagine that you might not be able to pray ever again. Know that the believer dies between two good deeds; one that he performed and one that he intended to perform later on."