He accepted Islam a day after Sayyiduna Abu Bakr and was the Ten Companions who were guaranteed Paradise by Rasūlallāh ﷺ in the famous hadith. The Prophet ﷺ spoke about him and said, “Every nation has a trustworthy one and the trustworthy of my nation is Abu Ubaydah.” In Uhud, he was from those who protected the Beloved ﷺ. When the Prophet was struck and metal became stuck in his cheek, Sayyiduna Abu Ubaydah took them out with his teeth intending to make it as pain-free as possible for the Prophet ﷺ and broke his own teeth.
He remained loyal to Rasūlallāh ﷺ from the beginning of the persecution in Makkah to the very end. He experienced starvation, stones to the stomach and sleepless nights but his Iman only increase. Do you know what happened in Badr? His own father stood against and made attempt and attempt to kill him. Imagine being at war and your father is the one wants to kill you! Can there be a harder tribulation? Sayyiduna Abu Ubaydah eventually had no choice but to defend the religion and himself so he killed his father. We claim to love the Prophet ﷺ but when he instructs us to pray, to give zakat, to fast, and to fulfill our obligations, we can’t do it. We claim to live in difficulty so we abandon rulings and find invalid opinions to make our deen easier as though we are doing this religion a favour.
We claim we would’ve loved to be in the Prophet’s ﷺ time but as Sayyiduna Abu Ayyub said to his students. Why do you want to be in a time when we went to war against our own brothers? When we knew that our families who rejected were going to Hell? Why do you ask to be in a time where we knew that if we disobeyed – we’d be destroyed. When you fall short, times get hard, you and become lazy — remember the sacrifices of these Companions who were expelled from their homes, went to war, faced injury, tasted starvation, and went through every hardship for La ilaha ila Allah Muhammad ﷺ. We need to move away from being claimants of love because we may celebrate the mawlid, decorate our homes or participate in a few gatherings a year. None of us can ever imagine what the Sahaba went through. May Allah continue to honour them and raise them. Aameen
By Anonymous
