Abu Dharr al-Ghifari

Fearless from the First

Abu Dharr — Jundub of Banu Ghifar — was among the very earliest to seek out the Prophet ﷺ and accept Islam. Against the Prophet’s ﷺ counsel of caution, he went to the Masjid al-Haram and proclaimed the testimony of faith aloud before the assembled Quraysh. They fell upon him and beat him to the ground; al-Abbas saved him by warning that he was of Ghifar, astride their trade route to Syria — yet the next day he proclaimed it again, and was beaten again. 1 Hayatus Sahaba · Vol 1 · pp. 305–307 — Kandhlawi — Abu Dharr proclaims Islam aloud at the Ka'ba and is beaten; Abbas shields him; he repeats it the next day. 2 Seerat-e-Mustafa · Vol 1 · pp. 57–58 — Idris Kandhlawi — Abu Dharr's conversion and his open proclamation before the Quraysh.

Asceticism

Abu Dharr was famed for his renunciation of the world. In his later years at al-Rabadha he lived in the barest simplicity — a coarse mat, plain fare of milk and a little wheat — refusing wealth and worldly ease, mindful of the Prophet’s ﷺ warning that the one with light burdens crosses most easily the path of the Hereafter. 3 Hayatus Sahaba · Vol 2 · pp. 317 — Kandhlawi — Abu Dharr's extreme asceticism in exile at al-Rabadha; his refusal of wealth.

Virtues in the Hadith

The Prophet ﷺ bore witness to his plain truthfulness:

مَا أَظَلَّتِ الْخَضْرَاءُ وَلاَ أَقَلَّتِ الْغَبْرَاءُ أَصْدَقَ مِنْ أَبِي ذَرٍّ

”The sky has not shaded, nor the earth carried, anyone more truthful than Abu Dharr.”

Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 3801 · Book 49, Hadith 201 · narrated by Abdullah ibn Amr · graded Hasan (Darussalam)

He died, as he had lived, in poverty and far from the cities, at al-Rabadha.