Husayl ibn Jabir (al-Yaman)

Ḥusayl ibn Jābir, universally known by his nickname al-Yamān, was the father of the celebrated Ṣaḥābī Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān. He was not from the Anṣār but from the tribe of ʿAbas. Having killed a man in the days of Jāhiliyyah, he fled his own tribe and sought refuge in Medina, forming a ḥilf (alliance) with one of its tribes. His Medinan allies called him al-Yamānī (allied with the people of Yemen, as Medinans were sometimes called), and al-Yamān became his lasting nickname. He married a Medinan woman and was among the earliest converts to Islam. When the Prophet (ﷺ) emigrated to Medina, Ḥusayl asked whether he was Anṣārī or Muhājir; the Prophet (ﷺ) honoured him: "You are both." At Badr, he and Ḥudhayfah were captured by the Quraysh on the road and forced at sword-point to promise they would not fight. The Prophet (ﷺ) honoured their covenant and sent them back to Medina, yet Allah gave them the reward of Badr. At Uḥud, al-Yamān was so elderly that the Prophet (ﷺ) exempted him from fighting, only two companions received this exemption. But his īmān overcame him, and he made his way to the battlefield during the chaos of Khālid's counter-attack. Unrecognised by Muslim fighters (he had not been present in the morning battle), he was struck down by friendly fire. Ḥudhayfah recognised his father and screamed "Abī! Abī!" but the din of battle swallowed his cries. When the killers sought forgiveness afterward, Ḥudhayfah responded: "Yaghfirullāhu lakum wa huwa arḥamu r-rāḥimīn." The Prophet (ﷺ) paid his blood-money, a hundred camels, from the Bayt al-Māl, and Ḥudhayfah distributed it all to the poor.