Abu Hurayrah Arrives

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Among the arrivals just after the conquest was the single most important narrator of ḥadīth in the history of Islam: Abū Hurayrah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣakhr of the Yemeni tribe of Daws. Making his hijrah north to Medina, he heard the Prophet ﷺ was at Khaybar, which lay on his route, and diverted there with a small group of his tribesmen.

As with the Muslims from Abyssinia who arrived the same season, the question of the spoils arose. The Abyssinian emigrants were given their share; for the Dawsī newcomers, the Prophet ﷺ asked the companions whether they would consent to it, and they agreed. So Abū Hurayrah's first fortune in Islam came from a battle he never fought.

From this point he is a constant presence in the sīrah. And herein lies the wonder the shaykh flags for a future lecture: Abū Hurayrah accompanied the Prophet ﷺ for barely three years, joining in 7 AH, yet in the sheer quantity of narrated aḥādīth no companion comes close to him, without exception. Khaybar marks the moment he became a companion and joined the Muslims of Medina.