Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl - Biographies of the Companions (Sahabah)

He was at the end of the third decade of his life on the day the
Prophet made public his call to guidance and truth. He was held in
high regard by the Quraysh, being wealthy and of noble lineage. Some
others like him, Saud ibn Abi Waqqas, Musab ibn Umayr and other sons
of noble families in Makkah had become Muslims. He too might have
followed their example were it not for his father. His father,
AbuJahl, was the foremost proponent of Shirk and one of the greatest
tyrants of Makkah. Through torture, he sorely tested the faith of the
early believers but they remained steadfast. He used every stratagem
to make them waver but they continued to affirm the truth.
Ikrimah found himself defendingthe leadership and authority of his
father as he pitted himself against the Prophet. His animosity towards
the Prophet, his persecution of his followers and his attempts to
block the progress of Islam and the Muslims won the admiration of his
father.
At Badr, Abu Jahl led the Makkan polytheists in the battle against the
Muslims. He swore by al-Laatand al-Uzza that he would not return to
Makkah unless he crushed Muhammad. At Badr he sacrificed three camels
to these goddesses. He drank wine and had the music of singing girls
to spur the Quraysh on to fight.
Abu Jahl was among the first to fall in the battle. His son Ikrimahsaw
him as spears pierced his body and heard him let out his last cry of
agony. Ikrimah returned to Makkah leaving behind the corpse of the
Quraysh chieftain, his father. He wanted to bury him in Makkah but the
crushing defeat they suffered made this impossible.
From that day, the fire of hatred burned even more fiercely in the
heart of Ikrimah. Others whose fathers were killed at Badr, also
became more hostile to Muhammad and his followers. This eventually led
to the Battle of Uhud.
At Uhud Ikrimah was accompanied by his wife, Umm Hakim. She and other
women stood behind the battle lines beating their drums, urging the
Quraysh on to battle and upbraiding any horseman who felt inclined to
flee.
Leading the right flank of the Quraysh was Khalid ibn Walid. On the
left was Ikrimah ibn Abu Jahl. The Quraysh inflicted heavy losses on
the Muslims and felt that they had avenged themselves for the defeat
at Badr. This was not, however, theend of the state of conflict.
At the battle of the Ditch, the Quraysh mushrikun besieged Madinah. It
was a long siege. The resources and the patience of the mushrikun were
wearing out. Ikrimah, feeling the strain of the siege, saw a place
where the ditch, dug by the Muslims, was relatively narrow. With a
gigantic effort, he managed to cross. A small group of Quraysh
followed him. It was a foolhardyundertaking. One of them was
immediately killed and it was only by turning on his heels that
Ikrimah managed to save himself.
Nine years after his hijrah, the Prophet returned with thousands of
his companions to Makkah. The Quraysh saw them approaching and decided
to leave the way open for them because they knew that the Prophet had
given instructions to his commanders not to open hostilities. Ikrimah
and some others however went against the consensus of the Quraysh and
attempted to block the progress of the Muslim forces. Khalid ibn
al-Walid, now a Muslim, met and defeated them in a small engagement
during which some of Ikrimah's men were killed and others who could
fled. Among those who escaped was Ikrimah himself.
Any standing or influence that Ikrimah may have had was now completely
destroyed. The Prophet, peace be upon him, entered Makkah and gave a
general pardon and amnesty to all Quraysh who entered the sacred
mosque, or who stayed in their houses or who went to the house of Abu
Sufyan, the paramount Quraysh leader. However he refused to grant
amnesty to a few individuals whom he named. He gave ordersthat they
should be killed even ifthey were found under the covering of the
Kabah. At the top of this list was Ikrimah ibn Abu Jahl. When Ikrimah
learnt ofthis, he slipped out of Makkah in disguise and headed for the
Yemen.
Umm Hakim, Ikrimah's wife, then went to the camp of the Prophet. With
her was Hind bint Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan and the mother of
Muawiyah, and about ten other women who wanted to pledge allegiance to
the Prophet. At the camp, were two of his wives, hisdaughter Fatimah
and some women of the Abdulmuttalib clan. Hind was the one who spoke.
She was veiled and ashamed of what she had done to Hamzah, the
Prophet's uncle, at the battle of Uhud.
"O Messenger of God," she said,"Praise be to God Who has mademanifest
the religion He has chosen for Himself. I beseech you out of the bonds
of kinship to treat me well. I am now a believing woman who affirms
the Truth of your mission." She then unveiled herself and said:
"I am Hind, the daughter of Utbah, O Messenger of God. "
"Welcome to you," replied the Prophet, peace be on him.
"By God, O Prophet" continued Hind, "there was not a house on earth
that I wanted to destroy more than your house. Now, there is no house
on earth that Iso dearly wish to honor and raise in glory than yours."
Umm Hakim then got up and professed her faith in Islam and said: "O
Messenger of God, Ikrimah has fled from you to theYemen out of fear
that you would kill him. Grant him security and God will grant you
security."
"He is secure," promised the Prophet. Umm Hakim set out immediately in
search of Ikrimah. Accompanying her was a Greek slave. When they had
gone quite far on the way, he tried to seduce her but she managed to
put him off until she came to a settlement of Arabs. She sought their
help against him. They tied him up and kept him. Umm Hakim continued
on her way until she finally found Ikrimah on the coast of the Red Sea
in the region of Tihamah. He was negotiating transport with a Muslim
seaman who was saying to him:
"Be pure and sincere and I will transport you."
"How can I be pure?" asked Ikrimah.
"Say, I testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah."
"I have fled from this very thing," said Ikrimah.
At this point, Umm Haklm came up to Ikrimah and said:
"O cousin, I have come to you from the most generous of men,the most
righteous of men, the best of men... from Muhammad ibn Abdullah. I
have asked him for an amnesty for you. This he has granted. So do not
destroy yourself. "
"Have you spoken to him?"
"Yes, I have spoken to him and he has granted you amnesty," she
assured him and he returned with her. She told him about the attempt
of their Greekslave to dishonor her and Ikrimah went directly to the
Arab settlement where he lay bound and killed him.
At one of their resting places on their way back, Ikrimah wanted to
sleep with his wife but she vehemently refused and said:
"I am a Muslimah and you are a Mushrik."
Ikrimah was totally taken aback and said, "Living without you and
without your sleeping with me is an impossible situation." As Ikrimah
approached Makkah, the Prophet, peace be upon him,told his companions:
"Ikrimah ibn Abu Jahl shall come to you asa believer and a muhajir (a
refugee). Do not insult his father. Insulting the dead causesgrief to
the living and does not reach the dead."
Ikrimah and his wife came up to where the Prophet was sitting. The
Prophet got up and greeted him enthusiastically.
"Muhammad," said Ikrimah,"Umm Hakim has told me that you have granted
me an amnesty."
"That's right," said the Prophet,"You are safe."
"To what do you invite?" asked Ikrimah.
"I invite you to testify that there is no god but Allah and that I
amthe servant of Allah and His messenger, to establish Prayer and pay
the Zakat and carry out all the other obligations of Islam."
"By God," responded Ikrimah,"You have only called to what is true and
you have only commanded that which is good.You lived among us before
the start of your mission and then you were the most trustworthy of us
in speech and the most righteous of us." Stretching forth his hands he
said, "I testifythat there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is
His servant and His messenger." TheProphet then instructed him to say,
"I call on God and those present here to witness that I am a Muslim
who is a Mujahid and a Muhajir". This Ikrimah repeated and then said:
"I ask you to ask God for forgiveness for me for all the hostility I
directed against you and for whatever insults I expressed in your
presence or absence." The Prophet replied with the prayer:
"O Lord, forgive him for all the hostility he directed against me and
from all the expeditions he mounted wishing to put out Your light.
Forgive him for whatever he has said or done in my presence or absence
to dishonor me."
Ikrimahs face beamed with happiness.
"By God, O messenger of Allah, I promise that whatever I have spent
obstructing the way of God, I shall spend twice as muchin His path and
whatever battles I have fought against God's way I shall fight twice
as much in His way."
From that day on, Ikrimah was committed to the mission of Islam as
brave horseman in the field of battle and as a steadfast worship per
who would spend much time in mosques rending the book of God. Often he
wouldplace the mushaf on his face andsay, "The Book of my Lord, the
words of my Lord" and he wouldcry from the fear of God.
Ikrimah remained true to his pledge to the Prophet. Whateverbattles
the Muslims engaged in thereafter, he participated in them and he was
always in the vanguard of the army. At the battle of Yarmuk he plunged
into the attack as a thirsty person after cold water on a blistering
hot day. In one encounter in which the Muslims were under heavy
attack, Ikrimah penetrated deep into the ranks of the Byzantine.
Khalid ibn al-Walid rushed up to him and said, "Don't, Ikrimah. Your
death will be a severe blowto the Muslims."
"Let us carry on, Khalid," said Ikrimah, now at the peak of
motivation. "You had the privilege of being with the Messenger of God
before this. Asfor myself and my father, we were among his bitterest
enemies. Leave me now to atonefor what I have done in the past.I
fought the Prophet on many occasions. Shall I now flee from the
Byzantines? This shall never be." Then calling out to the Muslims, he
shouted, "Who shallpledge to fight until death?"
Four hundred Muslims including al-Harith ibn Hisham and Ayyash ibn Abi
Rabiah responded to his call. They plunged into the battleand fought
heroically without the leadership of Khalid ibn al-Walid. Their daring
attack paved the way for a decisive Muslim victory.
When the battle was over, the bodies of three wounded mujahideen lay
sprawled on the battleground, among them Al-Harith ibn Hisham, Ayyash
ibn Abi Rabiah and Ikrimah ibn Abu Jahl. Al-Harith called for water
todrink. As it was brought to him, Ayyash looked at him and Harith
said:
"Give it to Ayyash." By the time they got to Ayyash, he had just
breathed his last. When they returned to al-Harith and Ikrimaha, they
found that they too had passed away.
The companions prayed that God may be pleased with them all and grant
them refreshment from the spring of Kawthar in Paradise, a refreshment
after which there is thirst no more.

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And Allah Knows the Best!

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Published by :->
M NajimudeeN Bsc- INDIA

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