Companions · The servant of ten years
أنس بن مالك
Anas ibn Malik
His mother gave him to the Prophet ﷺ as a gift; ten years of service, and never once the word 'uff'.
The account
When the Prophet ﷺ entered Madinah, Umm Sulaym brought her ten-year-old son and said: O Messenger of Allah, Anas will serve you. For ten years he did, and his testimony is the finest character reference ever recorded: "He never said to me about anything I did, why did you do it, nor about anything I left, why did you not do it. And he never once said to me: uff." He carried the Prophet's water, his secrets, and his sandals, and grew up inside the household of revelation.
The Prophet ﷺ prayed for him: "O Allah, increase his wealth and his children, and bless what You give him, and admit him to Jannah." Anas lived to bury, by his own count, over a hundred of his descendants, his orchards fruited twice a year, and he died past a hundred years old in Basra, the last companion to die there, still narrating: over two thousand hadith, the childhood memories of the ummah. His nephew asked him about the fourth part of the du'a; Anas said: I have seen three, and I await the fourth.
The facts
- Service10 years, no “uff”
- Du'a for himWealth · children · Jannah
- Narrations2,200+
- DiedBasra, 93 AH, past 100
The narrations
I served the Prophet ﷺ for ten years, and he never said to me: uff.
Bukhari 6038 · Muslim 2309
Read beside it
The words
- المَدِينَةMadinahHistory
- الجَنَّةJannahBelief
- الحَدِيثHadithHadith
- الأُمَّةUmmahHistory
- الدُّعَاءDu'aThe heart
- أَبُو حَنِيفَة النُّعْمَانImam Abu HanifahHistory
Lights that name it
- Ten years of service and not one rebukeAnas ibn Malik · Madinah, ten years
- A man urinated in the mosque and was left aloneAnas ibn Malik · the mosque at Madinah
- He greeted children first and kept doing itAnas ibn Malik · Madinah
- He drank in three breaths and said it was betterAnas ibn Malik · Madinah
On the Path