The people of the bench (ahl al-suffa)

On al-Baqara 273, Sha'rawi holds that the poor confined for God's cause are the people of the bench and their like, and that those with means must spend on them ².

He distinguishes confinement that comes from inability in the person from prevention that comes from others. He holds that here the confinement may come from the disbelievers' hindrance or from the believers' choice to hold themselves to jihad ².

He narrates that the Ansar hung dates in the mosque, and that a hungry member of the bench would strike a cluster and eat. Some brought poor dates, and the verse on giving the good came down ².

He holds that God described them as restrained and recognisable by their mark, and that a believer should be perceptive enough to see his brother's need before he is asked ^{3 4}.

The account of the Ansar's dates is Sha'rawi's narration and has not been checked against the hadith collections. The academic view and any non-Sunni view have not been checked.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), by W. Montgomery Watt, describes the ahl al-suffa as a group of Muhammad's Companions, mentioned mainly in ascetic and mystical writings, where they typify poverty and piety. The suffa was a covered portico of the mosque at Medina. According to the legend these men had no other home, spent their time in study and worship, and went out with the Prophet ﷺ to fight. Some accounts put their number at 400; al-Sayyid Murtada's list has 92 or 93 names; al-Hudjwiri names 34 persons, among them Abu Lubaba, a wealthy man. ⁵

The factual basis is slight. Later lists include men who were poor or pious but not necessarily both. Ibn Sa'd's early report stresses that they had no dwelling in Medina, which suggests that those who slept in the suffa were men from the less influential tribes round Medina, some of them prominent in their tribes. The legend was growing before al-Waqidi (d. 207/822). The claim that Qur'an 2:273 refers to them goes back to Muhammad b. Ka'b al-Qurazi, and the orthodox commentators hesitate about it. The similarity of sound between suffa and suf (wool) encouraged the legend, and a Sufi was said to resemble the ahl al-suffa in character. Ibn Taymiyya described the piety of the Companions with the men of the suffa in a prominent place, while al-Ghazali used an anecdote that contrasts them with "those whose hearts are reconciled". ⁵