Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab

Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab al-Qurashi al-Adawi; his mother was Zaynab bint Maz'un al-Jumahi ¹. He was born in the third year of the mission, as al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar affirmed. Al-Zubayr said he emigrated at the age of ten; Ibn Manda said he was eleven and a half; and Ibn Hajar notes that it is established from him that he was thirteen on the day of Badr ¹.

He embraced Islam with his father and emigrated. He was presented to the Prophet at Badr and was judged too young; the same happened at Uhud. At the Trench he was permitted, at fifteen years old, as the Sahih establishes ¹. Ibn Hajar also cites al-Baghawi's report, from Anas and Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, that Ibn Umar witnessed Badr. The opposing report, from al-Bara', runs: "I and Ibn Umar were presented at Badr, and he sent us back" ¹.

He is among the most prolific narrators from the Prophet ¹. He also narrated from Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Abu Dharr, Mu'adh and Aisha. Among the Companions who narrated from him were Jabir and Ibn Abbas. His sons included Salim, Abdullah, Hamza, Bilal and Zayd. Among the senior Successors were Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, Alqama ibn Waqqas, Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Nahdi, Masruq and Jubayr ibn Nufayr; and among their freedmen, Nafi' and Abdullah ibn Dinar ².

In the Sahih, Salim reports that Ibn Umar had a dream which Hafsa related to the Prophet. The Prophet said: "What a fine man Abdullah is — if only he prayed at night." After that he slept only a little at night ². In Ahmad's Kitab al-Zuhd, Ibn Mas'ud is reported as saying: "The young man of Quraysh most self-controlled in worldly matters is Abdullah ibn Umar" ². Jabir said, as reported by Ibn al-A'rabi with a sound chain: "None of us who lived to see this world was not tilted by it and did not tilt it — except Abdullah ibn Umar" ². On the authority of Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, with a good chain in al-Baghawi: "Had I to bear witness for any one of the people of Paradise, I would bear witness for Ibn Umar" ².

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar said: Ibn Umar would memorise what he heard from the Prophet, and when he was absent he would ask those present about the Prophet's words and deeds. He would follow the Prophet's traces in every mosque where the Prophet had prayed; he would take the road on which he had seen the Prophet turn his she-camel; and when he stood at Arafat, he stood at the spot where the Prophet had stood ³. From Malik: Ibn Umar remained sixty years after the Prophet, with delegations of people coming to him; he was "one of the imams of religion"; and Zayd ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him) was the imam of the people after Umar, and then Ibn Umar was their imam after Zayd ³.

Ibn al-Mubarak, in al-Zuhd, reports that Ibn Umar was asked about something and said, "I do not know." Then he said: "Do you want to make our backs bridges over Hell?" ³.

Al-Bukhari, in al-Tarikh, reports from Malik that he reached eighty-seven years; others besides Malik said he lived eighty-four, and Ibn Hajar judges the first figure the more reliable ⁴. Damra ibn Rabi'a said he died in the year seventy-two or seventy-three, and once firmly affirmed seventy-three; so did Abu Nu'aym, Yahya ibn Bukayr and the majority, and some added that it was in Dhu al-Hijja. Al-Fallas once said it was "the year four" (the source gives only the final digit), and Khalifa, Sa'id ibn Jubayr and Ibn Zabr affirmed that date ⁴.

Ibn Ishaq reports from Ata' ibn Abi Rabah that a man from Basra asked Ibn Umar about letting the end of a turban hang down behind the wearer. Ibn Umar answered with an account of a gathering of the Prophet in the mosque, where he was the tenth of ten. In it, a young Ansari asked about the best and most discerning believers; the Prophet related the hadith of the five afflictions; and the Prophet turbanned Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (may God be pleased with him) with his own hand and let four fingers' length hang behind him. See the expedition. ⁵