At a glance
- Roles
- Companion · Scholar
- Counted among
- Sunni
- Era
- The Prophetic Era · The Rashidun Caliphate
- Region
- Arabia · Levant & Iraq
- Identifiers
- Wikidata
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
Life in time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Da'wa and Christian missionDevelopment of law, theology and institutionsIslam and Judaism
Place in the story
- Convert to Islam · 621 CETradition
- Companion · 621 CETradition
- MissionarytowardYemen · 631 CE · 10 AH† – 632 CE · 11 AH†Tradition
- Scholar · c. 630 CE · c. 9 AH†Tradition
Sunni (transmitted)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Mu'adh ibn Jabal was a young man of the Ansar who accepted Islam early and loved the Qur'an until he became among the most learned Companions. The Prophet sent him as a teacher to Yemen, and he served in the conquests in Syria until he died young of the plague.
Mu'adh ibn Jabal ibn Amr al-Awsi al-Khazraji of the Ansar accepted Islam young at the second pledge of Aqaba and witnessed Badr, Uhud and every event. He was famed for his knowledge of the Qur'an and the lawful and unlawful — the Prophet ﷺ said he was the most learned of his community in halal and haram — and he was among the scribes of revelation. The Prophet sent him to Yemen as teacher and judge; in the conquests he was among the leaders and scholars of the Syrian armies, and he died in the plague of Amwas in 18 AH, a young man of about thirty-eight, and was buried in Jordan.
Storytellers (10–12) read the Explorers text, then cross to the Scholars text.
Mu'adh ibn Jabal ibn Amr al-Awsi al-Khazraji is among the most learned of the Ansar: he accepted Islam young at the second pledge of Aqaba, among its youngest witnesses, and witnessed Badr, Uhud and every event; he was among the scribes of revelation and those who collected the Qur'an in the Prophet ﷺ's era. His standing in knowledge is famous — the Prophet called him the most learned of his community in the lawful and unlawful — and the Prophet sent him to Sanaa and its neighbours to teach. He was sent to Yemen as teacher, judge and collector, and he taught, judged and collected in his charge; the sira books preserve the famous account of his dispatch and his reports on the night prayer. In the conquests he was among the senior scholars and leaders of Syria; he died in the plague of Amwas in 18 AH, about thirty-eight, and was buried in a Jordan valley — the biographical works give his life, reports and virtues in detail.
Brief
Mu'adh ibn Jabal was a young man of Medina who pledged allegiance to the Prophet at Aqaba, and became the man whom tradition counts the most knowledgeable of the community in what is lawful and unlawful.
Life
A youth of the Khazraj, Mu'adh embraced Islam at the second Pledge of Aqaba in 621 CE, at about eighteen years of age 1. He witnessed Badr and the other battles of the Medinan years.
Near the end of the Prophet's life, the Prophet sent him to Yemen to teach Islam, collect the alms and judge between people 2. The account preserves their farewell exchange. The Prophet asked him by what he would judge. He answered: "By the Book of God; if I do not find it there, by the Sunna of His Messenger; and if I do not find it there, I will exert my own reasoning." It is a formula that the schools of law still recite 1.
He was brought back to Medina, then went out with the armies to Syria, and died there in 639 CE in the plague of Amwas 1.
Legacy
His answer to the Prophet, which set out the Book, then the Sunna, then independent reasoning, became the skeleton of Islamic jurisprudence. It is the ancestor of the chapter on the sources of rulings that appears in every textbook.
For young visitors
The Prophet sent Mu'adh, while he was still young, to teach a whole country. His answer about how to judge became a rule Muslims still study.
In Ibn Hisham's Sira
The Prophet's letter to the kings of Himyar names him as the commander of its envoys to them: "Their commander is Mu'adh ibn Jabal, and he shall not return except content" 3. Ibn Ishaq relates, on the authority of Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr (may God be pleased with him), the Prophet's instruction to him when he sent him: make things easy and do not make them hard; give good news and do not drive people away; and the answer to give the People of the Book when they ask about the key to Paradise. See Mu'adh's mission to Yemen 4.
From Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lecture series Al Dinu Al Qayem
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy recounts that the Prophet described Mu'adh as filled with faith to the marrow of his heart 5.
He recounts that Mu'adh, on returning from Persia, bowed before the Prophet, and Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy holds, as his own opinion, that only God is to be bowed to, which is the dignity of the believer 6.
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Connections
- Born in
- Medina
- Died in
- Amwas (Emmaus)
- Member of
- Banu Khazraj· The Ansar
- Participated in
- The Pledges of Aqaba· The Battle of Badr· The sending of Mu'adh ibn Jabal to Yemen and the Prophet's charge to him· the Plague of 'Amwas (18 AH)· Ka'b ibn Malik puts off his preparations for Tabuk· The letter of the kings of Himyar· The Plague of Amwas· The Prophet's Appointments in Yemen· Mu'adh's Counsel on the Land of Syria at al-Jabiya
- Traveled to
- Yemen
- Child of
- Umm Muni' (Asma bint Amr)
- Mentioned in
- Ka'b ibn Malik's account of staying behind at Tabuk· The Prophet's letter to the kings of Himyar· Arba'un 18 — fear God wherever you are· Arba'un 29 — tell me of a deed that admits me to Paradise· Arba'un 50 — keep your tongue moist with remembrance of God· Muwatta 383· Muwatta 564· Muwatta 580· Muwatta 698· Muwatta 2626· Muwatta 2744· Muwatta 862· Muwatta 1340
People and things also explored
Muhammad· Medina· Umar ibn al-Khattab· Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah· The letter of the kings of Himyar· The Pledges of Aqaba· The Ansar· Umm Muni' (Asma bint Amr)
Sources
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
- Ibn Ishaq / Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (1955)
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham, al-Saqqa edition (1355/1936) , 4/236
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham, al-Saqqa edition (1355/1936) , 4/237
- Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 2, at 00:07:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
- Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 6, at 01:08:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
- Sahih al-Bukhari
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Mu'adh ibn Jabal”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/muadh-ibn-jabal/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.