| 08 October 2010
Starting from Medina they began travelling North- West. Taking Tayma on their right they were marching towards Tabuk. It was the late part of evening , the time when shadows begin to elongate.. the breeze from Red Sea touched their bodies making their clothes flutter , their camels moved their nostrils in response to the brackishness that the breeze carried. the time of sunset prayers was due. As they dismounted their camels and prepared for prayer the sun began setting in the Gulf of Aqaba.
“ O Ubadah , shall you be the one who will get own at Homs and stay there ?” , spoke Abu Darda. “ yaa Uyamar ( nobody called Abu Darda by that name anymore) it seems alright I will get down at Homs you two can move towards yours destinations then , you can dismount at Damascus and Ma’z can continue his journey towards Palestine”. The route they had taken was an inefficient one as any person who knew the desert would tell. They had to travel all the way upto Homs , one of them would get down there while the remaining two would retrace their their steps , they would travel together for a couple of days to Damascus where Maz would turn right towards Palestine narrowly missing Amman.
The route was not efficient but the orders from Omar the caliph were clear. “All of you should travel to Homs and leave one of you there”
Omar had acted von the request of Mawiyyah ibn Abu Sufyan , the governer of Damascus.” The population of Syria has increased we need people who can teach them the Book of God”
Omar summoned the best five men at his disposal , the surviving lot of the six .who had acted the the Prophet’s scribes .
They were Maz bin Jabl , Ubadah ibn Thamit , Abu Ayyub Ansari , Ubay ibn Kaab and Abu Darda.
“ Your brothers in Syria need your help to learn the Book of God, help me with three among you, you can draw lots it you wish”
“ The lots wont be needed o Omar , Abu Ayyub is old and feeble , Ubai ibn Kab is ill that leaves the three of us “
This type of journey was painfully familiar to Maz bin Jabal . sitting on his camel and moving towards Homs Maz recalled the beginning of one such journey. It was shortly after Makkah had been taken by Muslims. The people of Yemen had requested the prophet for a person to teach them and the prophet had chosen Maz. As Maz was leaving for Yemen sitting on his camel, the Prophet walked by his side to see him off. When they were alone , the two of them , the prophet spoke breaking the heavy air of silence around them ,”O Maz you wont be able to see me again , when you return you will meet my resting place”
His heart had lost its rhythm, his eyes had welled up and his consciousness had surrendered to the inevitable.
Maz had become used to such journeys . His job for life had been defined by one sentence :
“Aalamu ummati bi halali wa haram Maz ibn Jabl”
Among my Ummah the most proficient with the knowledge of halal and haram is Maz ibn Jabl.
Maz’s presence would strike awe in the most learned of men . When talking about matters of knowledge in the presence of Maz people’s eyes would involuntarily rise toward him, searching for a nod of appreciation or a sentence of correction.
Abu Muslim Khawlani would recall how men of his fathers age used to sit around a young person in the mosque of Damascus and learn from him . The young man with kohl coloured eyes , shoulder length curly hair , pearl like teeth and amicable disposition was Maz.
Maz’s knowledge had taken him into many errands some testing , some tiring some humourous.
Moving towards Homs Maz recalled the time when Omar sent him to the tribe of Bani Kallab as the distributor of grants and collector of taxes. He took a horse and two yards of coarse cloth to be used as saddle. When he returned home wearing the saddle cloth his wife shot a questioning glance at him and asked ,” where are te gifts that the envoys of the caliph are bestowed with ?”.
“ Omar put me under the observance vigilant of eyes “
His wife wasted no time to pass a remark to Umar’s wives in the curse of normal girlie talk ,” why ? the Prophet and Abu Bakr trusted my husband and Omar keeps him under vigil “
Omar had called Maz seeking an explanation ,” no you didn’t send anybody after me , o Omar but I could think of no other way to shake my wifes expectations off “
Omar smiled generously. then went into his room .and came out with something in his hands . Maz he said give this to your wife as a gift maybe this will please her.
The other two companions of Maz rode behind him. Homs was far yet the journey didn’t seem tedious. Ubadah bin Thabit looked at Abu Darda and instantly seemed to remember Abdullah ibn rawwaha. This train of thought was not odd . for anybody who knew Abu Darda knew of his relation with Ibn Rawwaha. The two had been friends since the times of jahilliya. Indeed their relation went much deeper then being friends , the people of medina used to call them brothers. They were as close as two souls could ever get.
Ubadah recalled Abu Darda’s daily routine before he became a Muslim. Uyamar bin Malik was his name ,. In Medina he was known as Uyamar bin Malik Khazraji . Khazrij being the name name of his tribe. Every morning he would wake up and get ready to leave for his shop. Just before leaving he would visit his room and there on the highest shelf of the room remained his idol which he would dress in a new silk cloth each day and rub with incense brought from Yemen.
As he thought about it , Ubadha’s eyes began to moisten . Abu Darda , he thought ,was the last man to accept Islam from among his tribe. But immediately after accepting Islam he had realized the loss this delay had caused him. He had begun to compensate and ended up overcompensating---- in the eyes of many. He left his shop , his daily routine and began to spend most of his time in prayer and in the company of the prophet.
When asked Abu Darda would say ,”I have changed , by God now I wont like to have a shop even if it were near the gate of Masjid al Nabwi , even if I missed no prayer due to it , and even if it gave me a profit of 300 Dirhams per day “
It had taken Ibn Rawwaha’s drastic effort to a person of such resolute faith . it was the day when muslims returned to medina after the victory of Badr . Ibn Rawwaha had fought bravely in the battle . After return he went straight to Abu Darda’s house. Seeing his wife he asked ,” O Ummi Darda where is my brother ?”
“ God bless you o brother of my husband , he is surely at his shop”
“But come in he may return soon “
As Ibn Rawwaha stepped into Abu Darda’s room his eyes met the idol placed on the topmost shelf . he caught hold of it and smashed it into a thousand pieces with these words :
“Ala kuli ma yadaa ma allahi batil”
“Whatever is worshipped besided Allah is futile”
After this he left without a word.
Not much time passed before abu darda came back. Seeing the wreck his ‘god’ was in he cried ,” o mother of Darda , who did this to my idol ?”
“ your brother Rawwaha had come , surely it must be him “
Abu Darda’s first reaction was of rage , but soon reason took over. And he said to the idol ,” by Allah if you would have saved yourself if you were any good .”
The next part of the day saw Abu Darda and Ibn Rawwaha in the presence of the Prophet . and Abu Darda became a Muslim.
Many days passed like this . The three men travelled in the mornings and evenings and rested during the day. This was the way of travelling in the desert. The nature of the desert needs to respected , it was the same way Abraham must have travelled to the valley of Hejaz through the same desert to leave his wife Hajra nad his son Ismail in the valley . It was the same desert that had played a mothers role for Ismail and for the new race of monotheists that was to come up from its womb.
God’s plan of putting Ismail in seclusion comes into grasp only after one sees a desert .Abraham was commanded to put the rarest commodity on earth--- Ismail-- a born monotheist in the deserts bosom . This was God’s way of replanting the human civilization at a place far away from the decadent places of idolatry.
Philosophies are born in cities and religions in the solitude of deserts.
Their camels had become lean , the colour of their coats had changed to the colour of the desert. This is the way the desert gets even with you. It makes you lose all inertia — both physical and ideological and then creeps into you as you move in it , until it becomes difficult to distinguish who has travelled in whom.
They reached Homs and and Ubadah got down.
The journey to Damascus was not very long. Abu Darda got down at Damascus while Maz continued towards Palestine through Der’a.
Abu Darda’s first impression of Damascus was of contempt. For so austere a soul the indulgence of the people of Damascus was inexplicable. The people of Damascus took the physical side their existence too seriously --- their food , their clothes, their possessions , and their city.
The first thing Abu Darda did after his arrival was to summon the people of Damascus into the mosque. he began addressing them :
“O people of Damascus what stops you from accepting sincere advice even if I don’t ask for anything in return. I see the people of knowledge are being lifted from among you and the surviving inhabitants are not inclined towards knowledge”
“O people of Damascus , I see that you have turned all your potential in seeking things whose deliverance Allah has promised , but you have stopped striving for thing that Allah has commanded “
“ O people of Damascus the people before you collected heaps of wealth and constructed splendid palaces but of no avail “
“ O people of Damascus , here lie the people of Aad who filled the earth up with their wealth and progeny. I am ready to sell the place they lie in for a couple of Dirhams , who among you wants to buy it ?”
Everybody in Damascus cried that day.
Abu Darda had shunned the world with fierce resolution . even the exuberance of Damascus could not keep pace with his austerity.
When Abu Darda’s wife and daughter , Darda , arrived in Damascus . The governor of Damascus Mawiyyah bin Abu Sufyan lost no time in asking him for his daughters hand in marriage for his son Yazid . Abu Darda refused in an instant.
When questioned on the reason behind this decision he said , “ what do you think would be the state of my daughters faith when she lives in palace and is surrounded by maids and servants ?”
But Abu Darda’s austerity and contempt for the wordly life remained veiled until Omar came to Damascus on a state visit . It was lat night when Omar reached Abu Darda’s room.
"Who is it ?"
“Its me Omar ibn al Khattab “
“Come in on commander of the faithful”
As Omar stepped in he could see by the light of the lamp. Abu Darda was sitting on a floor of coarse soil , he had no pillow , the only cloth that covered him wasn’t thick enough to stop the Damascus cold from touching his body.
“Yaa Abu Darda may God have mercy on you , whatever happens to the money I send you as pay ?”
“O Omar don’t you remember the words of the Prophet”
“Which words”
“ Didn’t the Prophet tell us to take from the world as much as a traveler does for provisions ?”
“And what did we do after him?”, said Abu Darda
“And what did we do after him?”, replied Omar
And both began to cry , and they cried till dawn .
Such was the state Abu Darda passed his life in .
Only days had passed after his death when Auf bin Malik Ashaji saw Abdur Rahman Ibn Auf in his dream. There in the midst of the most beautiful valley , sat Abdur Rahman within his skin tent surrounded by the most beautiful goats .
“Auf don’t be stunned to see this , spoke Abdur Rahman , this is nothing as compared to what lies behind this valley over yonder. If you could only see what lies there you would forget all this”
“ And for whom is that?”
“ God has given that to Abu Darda for he spent his life in pushing the world away with his body and limbs”
Not long after this journey. People were seen assembling around a sick person In the town of Ammwas in Palestine . He had been overtaken by the epidemic that had swept through the countryside. People would have run away from it had their Prophet, long ago, not commanded them to stay where they are , in case an epidemic breaks out.
The people around the sick person could hear him murmuring something ,as they moved their ears toward his lips they could hear him say :
“ Marhaba bil mauti marhaba , zairun jaa’aa baidi giyabun wa habeebun wa fada ala shauqin "
“I welcome death , I welcome death . It has come to meet me after such a long absence. The lover has finally come to meet after such yearnings”
And then he moved his eyes upwards and gave up his soul. Even the epidemic had not succeeded in fading his beauty away. He was the same man with dark hair and eyes , pearl like teeth and spiritual disposition. Maz was only 38 when he bade farewell to this world.
As maz was being buried people heard someone reciting the following verses :
“Their reward with their Lord are gardens beneath which rivers flow. And they will remain therein for ever. Allah is pleased with them and they are with Him. This is for him who fears his Lord “
CONCLUDED.. SHUKR
MY FRIENDS WILL APPRECIATE THE DIFFICULTY OF FINDING AND MORE IMPORTANTLY STICHING THE HISTORICAL EVENTS UP.
ALTHOUGH MY PEN EGGED ME TO GO ON I TERMINATED THIS NARRATIVE DUE TO THE LACK OF MORE AUTHENTIC RECORDS.
ANY DISCREPANCIES THAT MIGHT HAVE CREPT IN ARE ENTIRELY MY OWN. CORRECTIONS ARE WELCOME.
AS IT IS THE TRADITION OF LOVE TO PRAY FOR THE PROPHET AND HIS COMPANIONS WHEN THEIR NAMES COME UP.
ALLAHUMA SALI ALA MUHAMMAD WA AALI MUHAMMAD WA ASHABI MUHAMMAD.