Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt () (died 624) was one of the principal adversaries of Islam. He was a Quraysh leader and a member of the Banu 'Abdu Shams clan of

Quraish The Quraysh () are an Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By the seventh centu ...

tribe.

Family

Family lineage

He was 'Uqba, son of Abi Mu'ayt, son of Abi 'Amru, son of

Umayya ibn Abd Shams Umayya ibn Abd-Shams () is the progenitor of the line of the Umayyad caliphs. The clan of Banu Umayya as well as the dynasty that ruled the Umayyad Caliphate are named after Umayya ibn Abd-Shams. Umayya succeeded Abd-Shams as the (judge ...

, son of Abd Shams, son of

Abd Manaf Abd Manaf al-Mughirah ibn Qusai (, ''ʿAbd Manāf al-Mughīrah ibn Quṣayy'') was a Qurayshi and great-great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His father was Quṣai ibn Kilāb. Abd Manaf's name, meaning ''worshiper of Manaf'', rela ...

, son of Qusayy, son of Kilab, son of Murrah, son of Ka'b, son of Lu'ayy, son of

Ghalib Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (27 December 179715 February 1869), commonly known as Mirza Ghalib, was an Indian poet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest poets in the Urdu language, he also produced a significant body of work in Persian. Ghali ...

, son of Fihr, son of

Malik Malik (; ; ; variously Romanized ''Mallik'', ''Melik'', ''Malka'', ''Malek'', ''Maleek'', ''Malick'', ''Mallick'', ''Melekh'') is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic d ...

, son of

Al-Nadr In Islamic tradition, Al-Nadr () was the ancestor of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He precedes Muhammad by 13 generations. Ancestry The tradition (the version of Ibn Ishaq) holds that "Muhammad was the son of 'Abdullah, b. 'Abdu'I-Muttalib (who ...

, son of Kinanah, son of Khuzaymah, son of Mudrikah, son of Ilyas, son of

Mudar The Mudar () was a principal grouping of the northern Arab tribes. History The Mudar and Rabi'a are recorded in central Arabia in the Arabic histories of the pre-Islamic period; the kings of the Kindah bore the title of "king of the Ma'add ( ...

, son of Nizar, son of

Ma'ad ibn Adnan Maʿadd ibn ʿAdnān (Arabic: مَعَدّ ٱبْن عَدْنَان) was a mythic Arab ancestor, traditionally regarded as the son of Adnan and the forefather of several northern Arab tribes, including Mudar and Rabi'ah. He is considered a key ...

, son of

Adnan Adnan () is traditionally regarded as the patriarch of the Adnanite Arabs, a major Arab lineage that historically inhabited Northern, Western, Eastern, and Central Arabia. The Adnanites are distinct from the Qahtanite Arabs of Southern Arabia ...

. ‘Uqbah was the son of Abu Mu‘ayṭ ibn Abu ‘Amr ibn Umayyah ibn ‘Abd Shams and of Shayma bint Abd-al-Uzza from the Banu Amir. Abu Mu'ayt's mother was Kabsha bint Abd al-Manat from Banu Amir. Uqbah's aunt, Safiyya bint Abi ‘Amr, married Abu Sufyan.

Family marriage

He married

Arwa bint Kurayz Arwā bint Kurayz () was the mother of Uthman ibn Affan, a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the third of the ''Rashidun'' or "Rightly Guided Caliphs". Ancestry Arwa was the daughter of Kurayz ibn Rabi'ah ibn Habib ibn Abd Shams ...

, a member of the

Banu Abd-Shams Banu Abd Shams () refers to a clan within the Meccan tribe of Quraysh. Ancestry The clan names itself after Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf, the son of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai and brother of Hashim ibn 'Abd Manaf, who was the great-grandfather of the Islami ...

and the widow of ‘Affān ibn Abu al-‘Āṣ, making Uqba the stepfather of the future Caliph

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 ...

, Abd-Allah and Amina. Uqba and Arwa had six children: Walid,

Umara Emir (; ' (), also transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or ceremonial authority. The title has ...

, Khalid,

Umm Kulthum Umm Kulthum (; 31 December 1898 – 3 February 1975) was an Egyptians, Egyptian singer and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s. She was given the honorific title (). Immensely popular throughout the Middle East and beyond, Umm Kul ...

, Umm Hakim and Hind.Muhammad ibn Saad. ''Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir Volume 8''. Translated by Bewley, A. (1995). ''The Women of Madina''. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.

Role of 'Uqbah in opposing Muhammad

Uqbah was one of the neighbors of Muhammad. Yet he assaulted Muhammad verbally and physically as he was preaching monotheism He also constantly ridiculed Muhammad when the latter was preaching in

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

. On one occasion, when Muhammad was praying in the courtyard of the Ka'ba, Uqba brought the waste of a slaughtered camel (intestines, blood, dung, etc.) upon the suggestion of other Quraysh leaders who were gathered there, and placed it upon Muhammad's back while he was in prostration. They laughed so much so that they fell on each other. He remained in that position due to the weight, unable to lift his head from prostration until his daughter came and removed it.

Sahih Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

: Volume 1, Book 9, Number 499 On another occasion, Uqba spat on Muhammad's face at the incitement of his friend Ubay ibn Khalaf and so, a

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

ic verse was revealed at that moment to Muhammad regarding Uqba and Ubay. Uqbah was also one of those enemies of Muhammad who rejoiced at the news of the death of Muhammad's second son 'Abdullah. Ubayy ibn Khalaf ibn Safwan was a close friend of ‘Uqbah. When Ubayy learned that ‘Uqba had sat and listened to the apostle, he told ‘Uqbah, ‘Do I hear that you have sat with Muhammad and listened to him? I swear I will never see you or speak to you again if you do the same again, or if you do not go and spit in his face.’ ‘Uqba indeed did this so that Allah sent down concerning the pair of them: “On the day that the sinner bites his hands, saying, would that I had chosen a path with the apostle.” (Sura 25: 27)

Death

According to numerous authentic and trustworthy sources such as a number of narrations in

, and

Ibn Sa'd Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and di ...

's biographical compendium, the ''Tabaqat Al-Kubra'', Uqba was killed in the field during 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 was among those Quraysh leaders whose corpses were buried in a pit. According to Muslim scholar Safiur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, after the Battle of Badr two captives – Nadr bin Harith and ‘Uqbah ibn Abū Mu‘ayṭ were beheaded by

Ali Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib an ...

. Mubarakpuri mentions that this incident about the beheading is also mentioned in the

Sunan Abu Dawud ''Sunan Abi Dawud'' () is the third hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. It was compiled by scholar Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (). Introduction Abu Dawood compiled twenty-one books related to Hadith and preferred those (plural of " ...

no 2686 and Anwal Ma'bud 3/12.Mubarakpuri
The Sealed Nectar (Free Version)
p. 129

References