Sa'd ibn Mu'adh
c. 591 CE–c. 627 CE · Mecca
Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was a chief of the Aws, one of the two principal Arab tribes of Yathrib (later Medina), and a leading member of the Ansar — the "Helpers," the Medinan supporters of the early Muslim community. Sira (prophetic-biography) tradition reports that he embraced Islam through Mus'ab ibn Umayr, the teacher sent to Yathrib before the Prophet Muhammad's emigration, and that his own clan, the Banu Abd al-Ashhal, followed him into the new faith. His birth is usually placed around 590-591 CE, but this is an estimate; the year is not securely attested.
A well-known report preserved in Sahih al-Bukhari describes Sa'd's friendship with the Meccan Umayya ibn Khalaf — a friend from before Islam, with whom he exchanged hospitality. In that report Sa'd, after the Prophet's emigration to Medina, traveled to Mecca to perform the umra (the lesser pilgrimage) and lodged with Umayya, an episode that includes a confrontation with Abu Jahl near the Ka'ba. He is also remembered for pledging the Ansar's loyalty before the Battle of Badr.
At the Battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq, 5 AH / 627 CE), Sa'd was struck by an arrow; tradition names the archer as Hibban ibn al-Ariqa (also given in some retellings as Hibban ibn al-Walid). The wound proved fatal. Before he died, both the besieged Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza and his own Aws kinsmen accepted him as arbitrator; tradition reports that he ruled that the tribe's fighting men be executed and the women and children enslaved. A widely transmitted hadith reports the Prophet saying that "the Throne shook" at Sa'd's death. The execution episode is historically contested — modern scholars debate its scale, its historicity, and the reliability of the chains that transmit it.
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Mecca
What they did here
A report in Sahih al-Bukhari describes Sa'd, after the Prophet had reached Medina, traveling to Mecca to perform the umra and lodging with Umayya ibn Khalaf — a friend from before Islam with whom he exchanged hospitality — including a confrontation with Abu Jahl near the Ka'ba. (The draft's 'pre-Islamic' label was incorrect: the hadith dates the visit to after the Hijra, when Sa'd was already a Muslim.) This is the one place outside Medina associated with him; the visit is undated and rests on a single narration tradition.
About Mecca
Mecca (Makka), in the Hejaz of western Saudi Arabia, is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the site of the Ka'ba; it is Islam's holiest city and the destination of the annual hajj pilgrimage, toward which Muslims pray. As a centre of learning that drew scholars from across the Muslim world, it hosted many of the figures connected here during periods of study, teaching, or pilgrimage.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Sa'd ibn Mu'adh’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Graeco-Roman world
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Works
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