Jabir ibn Abdullah

Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari was a Companion (sahabi) of the Prophet Muhammad from the Ansar — the "Helpers," the Muslims native to Medina (then Yathrib). He belonged to the Khazraj tribe and is traditionally said to have been born about fifteen years before the Hijra (around 607 CE), which would make him a youth when Islam reached his city. Tradition holds that he took part, while still young, in the Pledge of al-Aqaba, the early oath sworn by Medinans to the Prophet. His father, Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn Haram, is reported to have been killed at the Battle of Uhud.

Jabir is remembered above all as one of the most prolific transmitters of hadith — reports of the Prophet's words and deeds — with well over a thousand traditions attributed to him in Sunni collections, and he was regarded as a leading authority on religious law (fiqh) in Medina in his later years. A famous biographical anecdote, told in the hadith literature, describes him riding a month to Syria to hear a single tradition from another Companion.

He lived to great age and is said to have lost his sight late in life. He is counted among the last Companions to die in Medina, generally placed around 78 AH (697–98 CE), though sources differ. Shia tradition holds him in special honour as a loyal devotee of the Prophet's family (Ahl al-Bayt) and as the first to make the Arba'in visitation to the grave of al-Husayn at Karbala.