Abu Ayyub al-Ansari

A companion of the Prophet ﷺ from the Banū ʿAdī ibn al-Najjār, one of the most prominent clans of the Khazraj tribe of Madinah. He is the companion in whose house the Prophet ﷺ stayed when he first arrived in Madinah, and this was not a coincidence.

The Prophet ﷺ's great-grandfather Hāshim had married Salmā bint ʿAmr from this very clan, the Banū ʿAdī ibn al-Najjār. Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī was therefore among the closest living relatives of the Prophet ﷺ among the Anṣār. The Prophet ﷺ always referred to his mother's relatives (akhwāl) as sources of familial connection, and when his she-camel al-Qaṣwāʾ knelt in Madinah, it was in the Banū ʿAdī ibn al-Najjār quarter. The Prophet ﷺ stayed with Abū Ayyūb for approximately seven months until his own mosque and adjacent rooms were completed.

He was one of the most devoted companions and participated in virtually every major expedition of the Prophet ﷺ. He continued fighting in the path of Allāh even in his extreme old age under the Umayyad caliphate and died in a military campaign against Constantinople, where he was buried. His grave is said to be near or within what is today the Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.