Junda' ibn Damrah

A companion from Makkah who had accepted Islam but remained there after the Hijrah, likely due to genuine physical incapacity rather than preference. He was very elderly, blind, and unable to walk without assistance. Despite these severe limitations, when the Quranic verse of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (4:97) was revealed, threatening those who remained in Makkah without valid excuse, he declared that he had no excuse and would not spend another night in Makkah.

He commanded his servants to lift him onto a sarīr (a large couch or portable bed) and carry him out of the city. He intended to find his way to Madinah somehow. His physical state made the journey effectively impossible, but his intention was absolute.

Allāh in His mercy took his soul that very day at Tanʿīm, the area just outside of Makkah that is today the site of Masjid ʿĀʾishah (also called Masjid al-Tanʿīm), on the Makkah–Madinah road. As he was dying, with the pangs of death upon him, he clasped his right hand in his left hand and said: "Allāhumma hādhihi bayʿatī li-Rasūlillāh", "O Allāh, this is my oath of allegiance to the Messenger of Allāh." He could not make it in person; this was the best he could do.

When the news reached Madinah, some Companions said it was unfortunate, he had almost made it. They weren't ready to give him the full exemption because he never actually reached Madinah. Then Allāh revealed the following verse:

Illal-mustaḍʿafīna minar-rijāli wan-nisāʾi wal-wildāni lā yastaṭīʿūna ḥīlatan wa lā yahtadūna sabīlā. Fa-ulāʾika ʿasallāhu an yaʿfuwa ʿanhum wa kānallāhu ʿafuwwan ghafūrā. (Qurʾan 4:98–99)

"Except for the genuinely weak among men, women and children who cannot find a way or a passage [out of Makkah]. For these people, it may be that Allāh will pardon them, and Allāh is Ever Pardoning and Forgiving."

Ibn ʿAbbās says that whenever Allāh uses ʿasā ("it may be"), it is certainty in the case of Allāh, but the hesitant phrasing underscores the severity of what those without valid excuse were doing.