Abu Dharr al-Ghifari

Believed before the mosque existed, shouted tawhid at the Kaaba, and died alone as promised.

The account

Jundub ibn Junadah of Ghifar, a highway tribe, was a monotheist before he ever heard of the message. When rumor of a prophet reached him he sent his brother, then came himself, sleeping in the mosque precinct until Ali smuggled him to the Prophet ﷺ. He believed on the spot, and refused the counsel of secrecy: he stood at the Kaaba and shouted the shahadah into the faces of Quraysh, was beaten to the ground twice, and went home to convert half his tribe.

The Prophet ﷺ said: "The sky has not shaded, nor the earth carried, anyone more truthful of tongue than Abu Dharr." That tongue cost him dearly. His asceticism hardened after the Passing into public rebuke of hoarded wealth, quoting the verse of the treasurers of gold; the friction ended with his withdrawal to the desert of ar-Rabadhah, where he died with no one beside him but his family, exactly as the Prophet had foretold at Tabuk: "May Allah have mercy on Abu Dharr; he walks alone, dies alone, and will be raised alone." A caravan of Iraq, Ibn Mas'ud at its head, buried him weeping.

The facts

BelievedAmong the first five
First actPublic shahadah at the Kaaba
His ﷺ wordMost truthful under the sky
EndAlone at ar-Rabadhah, as foretold

The narrations

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

Tirmidhi 3801 (hasan)

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BeforeMu'adh ibn Jabal AfterAbdullah ibn Mas'ud

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