Abd-Allah ibn Amr

Abd-Allah ibn Amr ( _ar. عبدالله بن عمرو) was the son of the famous Sahaba and military leader Amr ibn al-A'as and also a transmitter of Hadith [see Sunan Abu Dawud [http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=17&translator=3 2877] ]

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Abdullah Ibn Amr was the son of the Mohammad's companion Amr Ibn Al Aass. He was also a companion. He comes from the family of Luay Ibn Ghaleb of the tribe of Quraish. As a matter of fact, Abdullah Ibn Amr was a great spiritual leader and a leading scholar. He was nicknamed Abu Muhammad. His mother was Raittah bint Al Hajjaj, and his father was only eleven years his senior. Abdullah Ibn Amr embraced Islam before his father. It is said that his name before Islam was Al Aass, which in Arabic means the disobedient, so Mohammad changed it into Abdullah.

Abdullah Ibn Amr had numerous virtues. He enjoyed a great deal of knowledge and thus it is reported that he transmitted about 700 traditions. He was also famous for his righteous deeds. Mohammad allowed him to write down traditions after he hated that his Companions should write anything else from him except the Qur'an. Mohammad, however, allowed Abdullah Ibn Amr to write. Then the Companions agreed on the value of recording traditions lest they should be lost or forgotten. It seems that Mohammad forbade writing his traditions was only in the beginning so that people would concentrate on Qur'an, and lest it should mix with Mohammad's sayings. Once the Qur'an was immune from any mixture, he then allowed recording his traditions.

Abdullah Ibn Amr actually reported traditions from a number of senior companions like Abu Bakr, Umer, Muath Ibn Jabal, Suraqa Ibn Malek, Abder Rahman Ibn Awf and others. He also reported stories from the People of the Book - the Jews and the Christians and spent lots of time studying their books and quoting them to others. Tens of scholars transmitted traditions from Abdullah Ibn Amr. The Scholars of traditions so much cared about the accuracy of the personalities of Mohammad's companions and their various qualities that they even described how they looked like. Hammad Ibn Salama says: Abdullah Ibn Amr was a very tall, fat man with a huge belly and red skin.

Talha Ibn Ubaidullah said: Blessed be the family of Abdullah, Abu Abdullah and Umm Abdullah. This is what the Messenger of God said. I gathered the Quran and recited it all in one night. The Messenger of God said: Recite it in one month. I said: O Messenger of God: Let me use my strength and youth. He said: Read it in twenty days. I said: Let me enjoy. He said: Then read it in seven nights. I repeated the same request, but he said: No. It is transmitted, however, that Mohammad allowed him to read the Qur'an in three nights and not less than that. This was in what had until then been revealed of it. Then the rest of it was inspired so it is not good to recite the Qur'an in less than three nights. For in that case a person will not be able to understand or contemplate what he reads. If he would recite the Qur'an regularly on a weekly basis, that would be much better indeed. For Islam is the religion of facility, and a Muslim has many worships to do, so that if he should read the Quran in a few days he would not be able to establish those other duties; he would not understand its meanings either.

When Abdullah Ibn Amr became an old man, he used to say: O I wish I had accepted the permission given to me by the Messenger of God who also allowed him the same easy permission in fasting despite his insistence to fast more until Mohammad said: Fast a day and break your fast the next day like the fasting of my brother David which is the best fasting in the sight of God. Mohammad forbade perpetual fasting. He also ordered us to sleep part of the night and said: I pray at night and sleep, fast and breadfast, marry women, and eat meat. Whoever does not like my way of life is not of me. It has been proved in several cases that a person will repent if he does not commit himself to the mode of Mohammad's worship.

In the Musnad of Ahmad we read the following tradition where Abdullah Ibn Amr said: I saw in one dream that in one of my fingers I had ghee and in the other honey, and that I was licking them both. When I told the Prophet about it next morning he said: You read the two Holy Books: the Torah and the Quran. So Abdullah Ibn Amr used to read both of them. But the scholar who mentioned this tradition said that it is a weak one and that the story is false, because it is not allowed for anyone to recite the Torah after the revelation of the Quran or to memorise it simply because it is changed and abrogated, where truth is mixed with falsehood. So avoid this, he says. As for studying the Torah to contemplate and answer what the Jews claim, this is permitted for scholars although to avoid it is better.

As for the claim that the Mohammad allowed Abdullah Ibn Amr to recite the Qur'an one night and the Torah the next night, this is absolutely false. Again Abdullah Ibn Amr said: I learnt from the Messenger of God one thousand parables. He also said: We used to write what the Messenger of God would say. Once a Companion asked the Prophet: Can I write down what I hear from you? The Prophet said: Yes. The Companion asked: In the state of satisfaction and that of anger? The Prophet said: Yes indeed, for I say nothing but the truth.

Mujahid says: I entered upon Abdullah Ibn Amr and tried to take a sheet of paper from under his head, he however, refused. When I said: Do you refuse to show me a sheet of your books, he said: This true sheet contains what I heard from the Messenger of God without the presence of anyone else. If I have the Book of God, this sheet and my garden I don't care if I lose everything else in life.

For Abdullah Ibn Amr to love a garden of his does not mean, however, that he cared much about the pleasures of this world. He is reported to have said: If I were the tenth of the needy people on the Day of Judgement, it would be more beloved for me than to be one of ten wealthy people, because those who have plenty of means here will be the fewest of the few and poorest on the Day of Judgement in terms of reward from God except those who spend much in his way.

Here is an interesting story about Abdullah Ibn Amr who said: My father made me marry a woman from the tribe of Quraish; when she entered my room, I did not approach her due to my engagement in worship and prayer. Then my father came to his daughter in law and asked her: How is your husband? She said the best man of the best people. He never approached her bed. She said. Then my father came to me and bit me with his tongue and said: I made you marry a woman from a respectable family, but you neglected her and did this and that. He then went and complained to the Prophet against me. The Prophet asked me to come and when I arrived he said: Do you fast during the day and pray all night? I said: Yes. He said: But I fast and break my fast, pray and sleep at night and marry women. Whoever avoids my way and hates it is not of me.

Writers of Abdullah Ibn Amr's biography mention that he inherited from his father a large amount of Egyptian gold. Thus he became one of Mohammad's richest companions, this despite the fact that he used to spend too much in the way of God. This story reminds me how Abdullah Ibn Amr Ibn Al Aass, despite all this gold he had used to put out his lamp by night and cry until his eyes became dry.

Abdullah Ibn Amr says: Once the Messenger of God entered my house and said: Is it true that you pray all night and fast your days? I said: Indeed I do this. He said: Suffice it that you fast three days every month, for they will be tenfold in reward, thus as if you fast all your life. I said: But I can fast more and I like that you increase my share. He said: Then five days. I continued to ask him more until he made it one half of my days. The Prophet then said: Your family have a right upon you, your servant, and so do your guests. When Abdullah Ibn Amr became old he used to say: Would that I have listened to the advice of the Messenger of God.

As a matter of fact, Abdullah Ibn Amr embraced Islam in the seventh year after Hijrah and he attended some battles with Mohammad. In the battle of Siffeen between Ali and Muawiyah he was leading part of Muawiyah's army. Hanzalah Al Anbari says: As I was with Muawiyah one day, two men came to him and disputed concerning the head of Ammar Ibn Yasser. One of them said: I killed him. Abdullah Ibn Amr then said: Let one of you surrender this to the other, for I heard the Messenger of God peace be upon him say: You will be killed by the vicious faction and the mischievous one. Muawiyah then said: O Amr! Why don't you stop your mad son? Abdullah Ibn Amr says: Once my father complained to the Prophet against me. The Prophet said: Obey your father as long as you live. So I am with you, but I am not going to fight. This shows the attitude of Abdullah Ibn Amr on the battle of Siffeen.

He is reported to have said on that unfortunate day of Siffeen: What do I do with Siffeen? Why should I fight against Muslims? I would that I had died twenty years before it. By God I did not use a sword nor threw any arrow on this baneful battle. This despite the fact that he had the flag of the army in his hands.

Whenever Abdullah Ibn Amr used to perform Hajj he used to have 300 camels. Other people would ask in surprise: Why should a companion of the Prophet keep all these camels? The answer was, however, that he put them under the disposal of his friends and poor Muslims, for he was a rich companion.

Abdullah Ibn Amr died in Ta'if in the year 63 after Hijrah.