Ubayy ibn Ka'b (, ') (died 649), also known as Abu Mundhir, was a companion of the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, mos ...

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

and a person of high esteem in the early

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

community. He was short, skinny, and gray haired. He is notable for the Quran codex he compiled.

Biography

Ubayy was born in

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

(then known as Yathrib), into the tribe of the

Banu Khazraj The Banu Khazraj () is a large Arab tribe based in Medina. They were also in Medina during Muhammad's era. The Banu Khazraj are a South Arabian Qahtanite tribe that were pressured out of South Arabia as a result of the destruction of the Marib ...

. He was one of the first to accept

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

and pledge allegiance to Muhammad at al-Aqabah before the migration to Medina, becoming one of the Ansar. He joined the

second pledge at al-Aqabah The second pledge at al-ʿAqabah () was an important event in Islam where 75 residents of the city of Medina pledged their loyalty to Muhammad as their leader in an oath of allegiance known as a '' bay'ah''. It preceded the Hijrah, or migration ...

. Later, he participated in the

battle of Badr The Battle of Badr or sometimes called The Raid of Badr ( ; ''Ghazwahu Badr''), also referred to as The Day of the Criterion (, ; ''Yawm al-Furqan'') in the Qur'an and by Muslims, was fought on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan, 2 AH), near the pre ...

and other following engagements. He acted as a scribe for Muhammad, writing letters for him. Ubayy was one of the few who compiled the

surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...

s of the Quran to write his own codex that had 116 surahs (compared to the 114 of the Uthmanic codex). He believed that the Throne Verse as the greatest verse in Qu'ran when asked by the Prophet himself on an occasion. Ubayy enjoyed a special honor with regard to the Quran. One day, the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "O Ubayy ibn Kab! I have been commanded to show or lay open the Quran to you." Ubayy was elated. He knew of course that the Prophet only received commands from on high. Unable to control his excitement, he asked: "O Messenger of God...Have I been mentioned to you by name?" "Yes," replied the Prophet, "by your own name and by your genealogy (nasab) in the highest heavens." Any Muslim whose name had been conveyed to the heart of the Prophet in this manner must certainly have been of great ability and of a tremendously high stature. Following Muhammad's death, he was one of the twenty-five '' Hafiz'', people who knew the Qur'an completely by heart. He was part of the consultative group (''mushawarah'') to which the

caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruli ...

referred many problems. It included

Umar Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Mu ...

Uthman Uthman ibn Affan (17 June 656) was the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 644 until his assassination in 656. Uthman, a second cousin, son-in-law, and notable companion of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, played a major role ...

, Ali, Abd-al-Rahman ibn Awf,

Muadh ibn Jabal Muʿādh ibn Jabal (; 603 – 639) was a (companion) of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Muadh was an of the Banu Khazraj tribe and compiled the Quran with five companions while Muhammad was still alive. He acquired a reputation for knowledge. Mu ...

, and Zayd ibn Thabit. Plakat Masjid Ubay bin Kaab Jambi

later consulted the same group when he was caliph. Specifically for

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

s (legal judgments) he referred to

Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until Assassination of Ali, his assassination in 661, as well as the first imamate in Shia doctrine, Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muha ...

, Ubayy, and Zayd ibn Thabit. Because of Ubayy's high standing, one might have expected him to have been given positions of administrative responsibility, for example as a governor, in the rapidly expanding Muslim state. (During the time of the Prophet in fact he had performed the fun ction of a collector of sadaqah.) Indeed, Ubayy once asked "What's the matter with you? Why don't you appoint me as a governor?" "I do not want your religion to be corrupted" replied Umar.

Death

Ubayy died in the year 649 AD (30 AH), during the caliphate of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kab, Ubayy Ibn Ansar (Islam) Sahabah hadith narrators 649 deaths Year of birth unknown Khazrajite people

Biography

Death

See also

References