Mu'adh ibn Jabal

An Ansari companion from the Khazraj tribe of Madinah and one of the most celebrated scholars among the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ. He accepted Islam at an early age and was among the most learned of the Anṣār in Islamic jurisprudence.

He is the Mu'akhah partner of Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, a pairing that occurred in the 7th year of the Hijra, when Jaʿfar returned to Madinah from Abyssinia. This shows that the Mu'akhah was not limited to the beginning of the Madani period; the Prophet ﷺ continued the practice throughout, pairing newcomers with appropriate partners even years later.

The Prophet ﷺ famously said about Muʿādh: "Aʿlamu ummatī bi-l-ḥalāl wa-l-ḥarām Muʿādh ibn Jabal", "The most knowledgeable of my Ummah regarding what is lawful and what is forbidden is Muʿādh ibn Jabal." He was also one of the companions whom the Prophet ﷺ appointed to teach the Quran to others in Madinah.

He was sent by the Prophet ﷺ to Yemen as a judge and teacher, which is when the famous Ḥadīth of Ijtihād occurred, the exchange in which the Prophet ﷺ approved his method of using Ijtihād (independent legal reasoning) when the Quran and Sunnah do not explicitly address a question. He died in the plague of ʿAmwās in Syria in 18 AH, during the caliphate of ʿUmar, at a young age.