Abdullah bin Amr bin As (r.a.)

Hz. Abdullah, son of Amr bin As, was among the notables of Companions though he was very young. He would follow the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) like a shadow. He knew that all of his statements were right and true; so, he believed they had to be recorded. For this reason, he first tried to write hadiths. He requested permission from the Messenger of Allah. The Prophet had not allowed something like that before because it was possible for the hadiths to be mistaken for the verses of the Quran. Therefore, the Prophet wanted all Companions to make efforts to maintain, memorize and collect the verses of the Quran. However, after the Quran was completed, this possibility ended. Thus, the Prophet accepted Abdullah’s request. He allowed Abdullah to collect and record hadiths.

Abdullah bin Amr was definitely the most suitable person to gather the hadiths. This young Companion, who had a dynamic and powerful intelligence, was also a very pious person. He started to collect the hadiths he heard from the Messenger of Allah.

There were some occasional moments when the Prophet became angry as a human being. Hz. Abdullah, asked the Messenger of Allah,

“O Messenger of Allah! Shall I record everything you say when you are angry or happy?” The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) answered as follows:

“Yes, I do not tell anything but the truth.”

Upon this statement of the Messenger of Allah, Hz. Abdullah did his best to record all of what the Prophet said. He felt relieved. For, Allah Almighty stated in the Quran that the Messenger told nothing but the truth.

Hz. Abdullah collected the hadiths he heard from the Messenger of Allah in his work called “Sadiqa”. When people asked him about this work, he would give them the following answer:

“The work I gave the name ‘Sadiqa’ includes what I heard directly from the Messenger of Allah (pbuh).”

Hz. Abdullah said for this, “I will not change it for the whole world.” This work called “Sadiqa” became a resource for all hadith scholars.

Hz. Abdullah’s virtue and his service to the hadith book was appreciated. Abu Hurayra, who was a hadith sea, expresses this superiority of Abdullah as follows:

“There is nobody except Abdullah bin Amr bin As who has memorized and narrated more hadiths than me. However, Abdullah memorized more than me because he wrote the hadiths but I did not. ”

Hz. Abdullah, who heard and recorded thousands issues from the Messenger of Allah, was a real hadith teacher.

Hz. Abdullah was also distinguished with his worshipping.  Most of the time, he spent the nights worshipping and the days fasting. His father, Amr bin As, had to complain to the Prophet about him:

“O Messenger of Allah! Abdullah fasts during the day and prays at night all the time.” The Prophet gave Abdullah the following advice:

“Fast on some days and eat on some days. Worship in some part of the night and sleep in some part. And obey your father.”

Abdullah also read the Quran a lot. Once, he went to our Prophet and asked,

“O Messenger of Allah! How often shall I read the whole Quran?” The Prophet said,

“Once a month.” Abdullah said,

“O Messenger of Allah! I can read the whole Quran in a shorter time than this!” The Prophet said,

“In 20 days.” Abdullah said,

“O Messenger of Allah! I can read the whole Quran in a shorter time than this!” Thereupon, the Prophet advised him to read the whole Quran in 10 days.

Although Abdullah said that he could read it in a shorter time, the Messenger of Allah did not allow him to do so.

The Prophet was worried that this heroic Companion would fall into a decline and that it would hinder his services in the future. He advised him to act moderately. Hz. Abdullah saw the wisdom and correctness of this recommendation of the Prophet toward the end of his life. He confessed as follows:

“I wish I had accepted the recommendation of the Messenger of Allah. It was better than herds of red sheep for me. ”

One of the things that Abdullah did every day was that he did not sleep after the morning prayer. He also awakened those who slept. Once, he saw somebody sleeping after the morning prayer; he awakened him immediately and said,

“Do you not know that this is the time of divine manifestations? Allah will reward some of His creatures with Paradise at this time. ”

With his words, Abdullah emphasized the importance of being awake during the early hours of the morning and the fertility and efficiency of the works done at that time.

Hz. Abdullah bin Amr bin As was one of the few Companions who could speak foreign languages. He could speak Syriac. He could easily read and understand the Torah, which was in Hebrew.

Hz. Abdullah was a real student of the Messenger of Allah. He would ask the Messenger of Allah the questions that came to his mind without hesitating. He received the answers to all his questions directly from the Messenger of Allah. Once, he asked the Messenger of Allah the following question:

“What are three good things and bad things?” The Messenger of Allah replied:

“Three good things are a tongue that tells the truth, a heart that is afraid of Allah and a religious woman … Three bad things are a tongue that lies, a heart that is not afraid of Allah and a bad woman.”

Abdullah bin Amr could not join the Battle of Badr and the Battle of Uhud because he was too young. However, he joined all of the wars after them with the Prophet.

Abdullah bin Amr continued to spread the light of knowledge and wisdom around until his death. People came from distant places to learn hadiths from him. His students loved him very much. When they listened to the lesson from him, they did not want anyone to disturb them. This great Companion narrated more than 700 hadiths. Some of them are as follows:

“It is one of the greatest sins for a man to curse his parents.” The Companions asked, “O Messenger of Allah! How does a man curse his own parents?” The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “’The man curses the father of another man and the latter curses the father of the former and curses his mother.”

“The best friend in the eye of Allah is the one who does favors to his friends, and the best neighbor is the one who does favors to his neighbors.”

“Eat and drink as long as it does not involve wasting and conceitedness; give sadaqah a lot.”

“Verily, Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the people but He takes away knowledge by taking away the scholars so that when He leaves no learned person, people turn to the ignorant as their leaders; then, they are asked to deliver religious verdicts and they deliver them without knowledge, they go astray, and lead others astray.”

Hz. Abdullah once said, “If you knew what I knew, you would not get up from prostration until your back became twisted.” One of Abdullah’s wise words is as follows:

“If a woman smiles at her husband when he is rich and turns her face away from him when he is poor, she is a woman of Hell.”

Abdullah died in Damascus in 65 H.

May Allah be pleased with him!