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The Firsts (Sahaba Stories) | The Forerunners of Islam
Ubaydullah ibn Abbas (ra): The Rich Little Brother | The Firsts
While Abdullah ibn Abbas (ra) became one of the greatest scholars of Islam, his younger brother Ubaydullah (ra) chose a different path: business, generosity, and support.
In this episode, discover how Ubaydullah turned his wealth into a means of sustaining knowledge, feeding the ummah, and earning reward alongside the scholars, all without taking center stage. His story is a powerful reminder that there’s more than one way to serve this religion.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
The second one that we'll cover is the next brother of Abdullah ibn Abbas whose name is Ubaydullah ibn Abbas.
Alright, do we have any Ubaydullahs here by the way? No Ubaydullahs here? Alright. Just making sure none of the sisters raised their hands, alright. So you had Ubaydullah, Abdullah, Ubaydullah. Ubaydullah is one year younger than Abdullah.
One year younger than Abdullah. And Ubaydullah literally means the younger, it's the tasgheer, the younger Abdullah, the little Abdullah.
So you have Abdullah and you have Ubaydullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله تعالى عنه) who Ibn Sa'ad says,
One year younger than Abdullah ibn Abbas which would have placed him one year after the boycott of the Prophet (ﷺ). Because again, Abdullah ibn Abbas was born in the time of the boycott.
And that's a special part of his connection to the Prophet (ﷺ) is that the Prophet (ﷺ) was with him in his childhood,
with him in his infancy in the boycott and the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) did his tahniq with just his saliva because there were no dates. And he's the only person who has that, (رضي الله تعالى عنه).
And the Prophet (ﷺ) found so much joy in him in the midst of that darkness. So Ubaydullah is the next child after Abdullah. And this man fits a profile in the community.
Ubaydullah, if there was ever like a prototype of the donor in the Muslim community, what the donor in the Muslim community should look like, it's him.
He's going to grow up in the shade of his brother. His brother is going to shine in terms of his ilm, in terms of his knowledge, is going to shine in terms of being a preacher. Ubaydullah is going to be a successful businessman.
He can either look at that and say, my brother took all the khair or I'm going to find my way into this khair. So this is the relationship between Ubaydullah and Abdullah.
There is one beautiful narration, Muslim Imam Ahmed, which gives you a little bit of Ubaydullah ibn Abbas in his childhood. So he's born one year after Abdullah. And it's narrated by Abdullah ibn Harith,
كان رسول الله (ﷺ) يصف عبد الله وعبيد الله وكثيرا بن العباس.
The Prophet (ﷺ) used to arrange in a line Abdullah, Ubaydullah, and another son named Kathir ibn Abbas. So he had a son named Kathir. It's not Kathira as in many. Kathir is actually one of his kids.
So the Prophet (ﷺ) would put all three of them in a row. Then the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would back up from them. You get to see again, subhanAllah, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), the family side of him.
And the Prophet (ﷺ) would say, من سبق إلي فله كذا. Whoever gets to me first, I'm going to give him something. So he would have the three of them race towards him (ﷺ). What a beautiful sight to imagine.
Like how awesome is it to be a relative of the Prophet (ﷺ). So he'd line them all up, Abdullah, Ubaydullah, and Kathir. And then he'd go, (ﷺ), and he'd say, alright, you guys race towards me. Let's see who gets to me first.
فيستبقون إليه فيقعون على ظهره وصدره (ﷺ) So they would all run to him and then they would jump on him (ﷺ), on his chest and on his back.
فيقبلهم ويلزمهم (ﷺ) And so the Prophet (ﷺ) would kiss them and hug them (ﷺ). This is the love of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to his cousins, to his family.
Of course, no two people got more of that love in terms of the inside of the house of the Prophet (ﷺ) than in Hasan and Hussain (رضي الله عنهما).
But you also see that he distributed that love (ﷺ) with all of the kids in his family (ﷺ). So Ubaydullah had that loving relationship with the Prophet (ﷺ).
He was old enough to remember some of those incidents with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).
But Ubaydullah is going to take from his father that brilliant side of the merchant that al-Abbas was. Al-Abbas was extremely wealthy.
He was a good merchant. Al-Abbas used to sell what? Oud. He used to sell sweet scents. And he used to have exquisite spices and things of that sort.
And people would come to Mecca and they would immediately go to al-Abbas to partake in some of his purchase or to purchase from him and to buy from him some of his oud, some of his different scents,
some of the burning wood and things of that sort. So he was a great tajir. And remember that when the Prophet (ﷺ) stood up and he gave his farewell speech
and he abolished riba (ﷺ), he abolished interest and usury. He named al-Abbas specifically that whoever owes al-Abbas interest, it's gone now.
You pay him back what you owe him but you don't have to pay him back any riba. Which indicates to you that al-Abbas had a lot of money. A lot of money, (رضي الله عنه).
Now the back story to that also is that al-Abbas ransomed himself on the day of Badr. Remember he was taken a prisoner on the day of Badr and he told the Prophet (ﷺ),
you know like I'm concealing my Islam but the Prophet (ﷺ) had to deal with him fairly. Like he dealt with all the other prisoners. And Allah (عز وجل) mentioned that if Allah (عز وجل) knows in your heart something good, يُعْتِكُمْ خَيْرًا مِمَّا أُخِذَ مِنْكُمْ
Allah will give you something better than what he took away from you. So al-Abbas ransomed himself with to get out of Badr. Allah (عز وجل) gave him so much more. So he's an extremely wealthy man.
So Ubaydullah clearly is the businessman from the family. Abdullah is not a businessman. Abdullah is an alim. He took the path of ilm and he stuck to it.
Ubaydullah is the tajir of Quraysh. He becomes the merchant of Quraysh. Learns from his father all of the trade, all of the ways to do business
and becomes his father's successor in terms of the business of the family. Ibn Hajar says, كان سخيا جوادا تاجرا
That he was vast in his wealth, vast in his generosity, and an extremely talented merchant. Imam al-Dhahabi says,
كان أميرا شريفا جوادا ممدوحا That he was a leader. He was a noble person. Like you know when you look at someone and you know this person comes from a noble background.
You looked at Ubaydullah and you know that he came from a noble background and extremely generous and very praiseworthy. May Allah be pleased with him. So he fits everything that you would expect of someone that comes from the cream of Bani Hashim.
Right? Without necessarily the ilm path. He takes that path. (رضي الله تعالى عنه) And he becomes known for his generosity. And I want to actually point just some of the incidents of his generosity
so you get just a glimpse of who this man is. Right? Before we talk about how he found his way in the ummah of the Prophet (ﷺ) and how he supported his brother and some of the lessons that he taught. On one of the journeys that he took,
(رضي الله تعالى عنه) They ran out of their food and their drinks. So they ran out of their provisions because they lost their way home. Sometimes obviously you're navigating the desert. You didn't estimate properly. You might run out of some of your provisions.
So they came across a Bedouin man. And here actually the historians will praise the karam, the nobility of the Bedouin.
You know sometimes there were some traits that some of them had that were beautiful traits. The hospitality piece. Right? The hospitality of Umm Ma'bad before she knew who the Prophet (ﷺ) was.
The hospitality piece is something that the Arabs used to take pride in. That some of these Bedouins, they were rough. They were coarse. But at the same time, they would open their house to you and they tell you come on in and they would feed you whatever they had in the cabin. Right?
So they came across a Bedouin man in the middle of the desert. And all that Bedouin man had was one pregnant goat.
And because he saw Ubaydullah and he doesn't know who he is and his companions, he sacrificed the goat and he fed them. And Ubaydullah said, we were like pleading with him like you don't have to do that.
Right? It's your one goat that Allah (عز وجل) provides for you through. You don't have to do that. But he did it because he felt like he had to live up to, right? The hospitality of the Bedouin. So he slaughtered the goat and he fed them.
And when Ubaydullah got back to his wealth, he went back to the man and he gave him 500 dinars.
500 dinars is an insane amount of money. It's a lot of money. Right? Dirhams are a smaller currency than dinars. Right? And no, they're not, I know I said Amman already, we're not talking about Jordanian dinars now.
We're just talking about like golden coins. Right? 500 coins for a goat is a lot. So one of the servants says to him, you could have given him like 5 dinars and that would have been generous.
500 is too much. And subhanAllah, look at what he says. He says, that man is more generous than us. He said, how?
And he said, he gave us all of his dunya and we only gave him some of ours. Like it's about your proportionality too. And this is the hadith of the Prophet (ﷺ),
سَبَقَ دِرْهَمٌ مِئَةَ أَلْفِ دِرْهَمٌ That one dirham can surpass a hundred thousand dirhams. How? Because the one who gives away one dirham only has two.
But the one who gives away a hundred thousand has much more than that. Right? He doesn't even feel the drop. He doesn't even feel the pinch. And by the way, this is a lesson like as well to a person in the community who Allah (ﷻ) blessed with much wealth.
Don't compare yourself to other people when Allah (ﷻ) opens the doors for you and keep giving at the same level. Keep elevating your standards. Because Allah will look at how much he gave you and how much you spent in his sake.
And subhanAllah the idea that this poor person in the Muslim world could give a tomato. Wallahi one of the scenes and it shows you the difference between the leaders of the Arabs and the people of the ummah.
One of the scenes that will always stick with me from the genocide is the man in Egypt who sold the oranges. Do you all remember this scene subhanAllah in the truck? There was a truck going through Rafah and they told him it was going to Gaza
and he goes and he just starts taking his oranges and throwing it onto the truck. Emotional, right? Like this is all I have to give. The people are not the governments. Right? And we have to remember there is khair in this ummah even if the governments don't show that.
Even if the rulers don't show that. There is khair in the ummah. That's generosity. Right? So this one man who gives a tomato or this one person who gives a dollar or a dirham but it strikes them is more generous than a person who gives a thousand
but he doesn't even feel the pinch of that one thousand. And so he's saying that that Bedouin gave us all of his wealth and we only gave him part of our wealth. Like we're not the same and in fact he's better than us.
So he deserves this 500 dinars. So how does he find his way in Medina? What does he become famous for? In relation to his brother Abdullah. He loves Abdullah ibn Abbas. Abdullah ibn Abbas is the pride of the family.
Everyone, if you say ibn Abbas, you're talking about Abdullah. You're not talking about any of the other kids of ibn Abbas. You mean Abdullah ibn Abbas. What would he do? There is a saying that
إذا قدما المدينة If two people came to Medina or when these two people came to Medina أوسعهم عبد الله علما وأوسعهم عبد الله طعاما
The most generous of them in knowledge was Abdullah ibn Abbas and the most generous of them of feeding the people was Abdullah ibn Abbas. And so the people used to say that Abdullah and Ubaydullah took all of the ajr of Medina.
Why? Because Abdullah would sit in his house and he had his university. His university would line people out the door. You had to get there early morning after fajr to attend the lesson of Abdullah ibn Abbas
and the people would line up outside the house and Ubaydullah didn't just sit there and look at him and say my annoying brother and I could do that too and again Yusuf and his brothers. He didn't have the hasad, the envy against his brother.
What did he do? He said you know he's good at that. I'm good at something too. I'm going to sponsor all of the students of my brother. So what would he do? He would fill the house of Abdullah with trays of bread and meat. Bread and meat.
And so when you went to learn from him you got fed as well. By the way there's no food tonight. I'm just letting you know. And I'm not Abdullah ibn Abbas. So you don't get the quality of the ilm or the quality of the food. But imagine the scene.
You go to Medina and you go to study with Abdullah and Ubaydullah will feed you. Full scholarship. And there was a Bedouin rhyme. They used to say من أراد الدنيا والآخرة فعليه بدار العباس
Whoever wants the dunya or the akhira go to the house of al-Abbas. You want the dunya meaning the food. You go to Ubaydullah. You want the akhira meaning the knowledge the hereafter. You go to Abdullah.
And this also subhanAllah teaches us a practical manifestation of a hadith from Anas ibn Malik (رضي الله تعالى عنه) which is authentic. That during the time of the Prophet (ﷺ)
كان أخواني على عهد النبي (ﷺ) فكان أحدهما يأتي النبي (ﷺ) والآخر يحترف He says that there were two brothers in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ)
One of them used to come and spend all of his time with the Prophet (ﷺ) The other one used to have to work. So one did business. The other one spent all his time with the Prophet (ﷺ)
فشكل محترف أخاه إلى النبي (ﷺ) So the businessman complained to the Prophet (ﷺ) that my brother gets to spend all this time with you and I've got to go spend time
you know, huddling with people in the marketplace and you know, earning my money so I can spend on him. It's not fair, right? Like, by the way, like think about it from that man's perspective.
Your life is awesome. You go in the morning, mashallah, you spend time with the Prophet (ﷺ), you take ilm, you come back and you got a full plate for you, ready to go.
I on the other hand, I got to go do business so that I can feed you and I got to deal with everybody else while you get to be with the Prophet (ﷺ). So he goes to the Prophet (ﷺ) complaining and the Prophet (ﷺ) said to him,
لعلك ترزق به It may be that the only reason Allah gives you is because you spend on him.
Think about that. لعلك ترزق به The only reason you have money is probably because you spend on your brother. So don't resent your brother's position. Instead, see your own unique role.
And that is subhanAllah the prototype, wallahi, of any person who wants to sponsor khair. You know, when someone comes and Allah (عز وجل) has opened the doors for them and they feel like they're missing out,
like I'm building the masjid, I'm sponsoring the da'wah, I'm sponsoring the education, I'm spending on this, I'm spending on that, but I'm not getting to taste the sweetness. Allah (عز وجل) is documenting all of that for you bi-idhnillahi ta'ala.
So Ubaydullah, in his mind, he's like, I get all of the ajr of my brother Abdullah. I don't have to learn to be as eloquent as him, I don't have to learn to be as knowledgeable as him, I just have to support him.
And Allah (عز وجل) blesses me in this dunya and in the akhira and indeed, as the books of biography say,
that ajwad al-hijaz, that the most generous three people in the Arabian Gulf, in al-hijaz, were three and they all coincided with one another.
Ubaydullah ibn al-Abbas, wa'abdullah ibn ja'far, who was the husband of Zaynab bint Ali, and then Umm Kulthum bint Ali after she passed away, wa Sa'id ibn al-Ans, may Allah be pleased with all three of them.
That all three of the most generous men coincided in the same era, in the same place, and they used to open their doors to the people and feed the people and take care of them.
Ubaydullah ibn al-Abbas, (رضي الله تعالى عنه), was appointed the governor of Yemen by Ali, (رضي الله تعالى عنه), for a short period in the year 36 after hijrah. So he did actually become an ameer in his lifetime of Yemen.
And he also was appointed as the ameer of hajj. So being the ameer of hajj is a very prestigious position. And this is something that was shared, subhanAllah, like hajj is a tradition within the family of al-Abbas. Abdullah ibn al-Abbas was the mufti of hajj.
He went to hajj, again everyone pointed to Abdullah ibn al-Abbas for fatawa. Al-Fadl narrated he was the rider with the Prophet (ﷺ) in hajj. And Ubaydullah now is the ameer of hajj. He's the person who leads the people in hajj.
He was the ameer for one or two years, the year 36, and some scholars say the year 37, as well after hijrah, under Sayyidina Ali, (رضي الله تعالى عنه).
And as for his ahadith, he only has a single hadith. And it's an interesting hadith. A single hadith meaning that's most famous to him.
And it is the hadith of tahlil, the hadith of usaila, which in fiqh they talk about, which is that if a woman divorces from a man, right, if she wants to remarry,
then she has to actually be intimate with a man and then get remarried, so that there's no trickery, there's no deception of the marriage. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay.
But you look up the rules of tahlil, obviously this was so that you don't game the system. Three divorces and then you just go marry someone for the sake of being married, on paper, and then go back to that man.
That you have to actually have a real marriage and then go back to that man. And he is the one who narrates the woman from Al-Ghumaisah, who came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and asked the Prophet (ﷺ) this question.
And the Prophet (ﷺ) gave the fatwa of tahlil, that you have to actually be married before you can go back to that person. And that's how we get that fiqh as well.
Alright, last thing I'll share about him insha'Allah ta'ala, then we will move on. One of the most beautiful things about the naming schemes. Abdullah, Ibn Ubaydullah, Ibn Abbas.
Ubaydullah, Ibn Abdullah, Ibn Abbas. The two brothers named their sons after each other. Two brothers named their sons after each other, Abdullah and Ubaydullah.
Both had sons named after each other. And you can see Abdullah, Ibn Ubaydullah, Ibn Abbas, narrating from Abdullah Ibn Abbas in the chains of hadith. Which is just something very beautiful.
And you see an example on the other end as well. One example on the other end of Ubaydullah, Ibn Abdullah, Ibn Abbas. So they named their sons after each other.
And this particular narration from Ubaydullah, Ibn Abdullah, Ibn Abbas. I'm sorry, I confused it. Abdullah, Ibn Ubaydullah, Ibn Abbas, narrating from Abdullah Ibn Abbas.
Abdullah, Ibn Ubaydullah, Ibn Abbas, narrating from Abdullah Ibn Abbas.
The Prophet (ﷺ) gave us three orders.
That he ordered us that we make our wudu' well, that we do isba' with our wudu' And that we don't eat from the charity. And that we don't pair a donkey with a horse.
So this is an authentic hadith from Abdullah Ibn Ubaydullah Ibn Abbas, narrating from his uncle, Abdullah Ibn Abbas. He died, there are different years that are given to him.
They go all the way up to him perhaps dying at the age of 87 years old. In Al-Madinah, so he's buried in Al-Baqi' (رضي الله تعالى عنه). Again, someone that you probably don't even know of, you don't hear of. But look what Allah (عز وجل) honoured him with.

























































































































































































