Companions · Poet of the Prophet · The truthful of Tabuk
كعب بن مالك
Ka'b ibn Malik
Fifty days of silence bought him a verse of forgiveness read until the end of time.
The account
One of the Prophet's ﷺ three poets, present at Aqabah and every field except Badr and one more, Tabuk, which he missed with no excuse and refused to invent one: "By Allah, if I sit before anyone other than you I could escape his anger with an argument, but I know if I lie to you today, Allah will soon anger you against me." The boycott followed: fifty days, the earth narrowing "for all its vastness," the letter from Ghassan's king burned unread, his wife sent away, until forgiveness descended from above seven heavens (9:118) and the mosque rose to congratulate him. His own verdict: "Allah never blessed me after Islam with anything greater than my truthfulness that day." The Codex sets him beside every easy excuse never made.
The facts
- Trial50 days of silence
- RefusedThe easy lie
- Verse9:118, his forgiveness
Read beside it
The words
Lights that name it
- He told the truth about staying behind and lost fifty daysKa'b ibn Malik · Tabuk and Madinah, 630 CE
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