Ahl aṣ-Ṣuffah, The People of the Shelter

❧Background: The Need for the Ṣuffah

The Ṣuffah (صُفَّة, the shade/shelter) was a covered area built at the back of Masjid an-Nabawī to house Companions who had no accommodation in Madinah. It came into existence around the time of Badr (Ramaḍān, 2 AH), approximately one year after the Hijra.

In the early Madinan period, every new Muslim who emigrated from Makkah was hosted by an Anṣārī family through the Muʾākhah (brotherhood pairing) system. But as the numbers of emigrants and new converts grew, the hosting capacity of individual households was exhausted. The Prophet ﷺ created a public shelter to house those who could not be placed. The timing coincided with the change of Qiblah: when the new Qiblah meant the back of the Masjid became the wall facing Makkah (the new front), the Prophet ﷺ ordered the old front, now the back, to be covered with a shade. This covering became the Ṣuffah.

❧The People of the Ṣuffah (*Ahl aṣ-Ṣuffah*)

The Ṣuffah was not simply a homeless shelter, it became the first university of Islam. Its residents included:

- Abu Hurairah, the most famous, who chose to remain in the Ṣuffah even after his mother bought a house in Madinah

- Abu Dharr al-Ghifārī, one of the earliest converts, voluntarily living in the Ṣuffah for its spiritual and educational value

- Bilāl ibn Abī Rabāḥ, the former slave and first muʾadhdhin

- Ṣuhayb ibn Sinān ar-Rūmī, who had surrendered his entire wealth to escape Makkah

- Abdullah ibn Masʿūd, who could have lived elsewhere but chose to stay

- Some of the Anṣār who voluntarily left their homes to live in the Ṣuffah to benefit from the Prophet's ﷺ constant proximity

The number of residents varied: at times five or ten, at times seventy or more. Many stayed temporarily, a week, a month, to learn the Quran, Ṣalāh, and Fiqh before returning to their distant tribes. Delegations (wufūd) who came to learn Islam from far-flung tribes would lodge in the Ṣuffah. Abdullah ibn Masʿūd narrates: "Whenever someone came to us, the Prophet ﷺ would assign one of us to the newcomer to teach him the Quran and prayer." The Ṣuffah was men only.

❧The Poverty of the Ṣuffah

The People of the Ṣuffah lived in extreme poverty. Many did not have adequate clothing:

The Prophet ﷺ had to issue a general command to the women: "Do not raise your heads from Sajdah until some time has passed", because when the People of the Ṣuffah went into Sajdah, whatever little they wore would be exposed from behind. This narration is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. They did not even have enough cloth to cover themselves modestly in full prayer.

❧The Prophet's ﷺ Care for the People of the Ṣuffah

The Prophet ﷺ maintained constant attention to their welfare:

Fatimah's request for a servant: When a batch of prisoners of war arrived in Madinah (who would become servants), Fatimah bint Muḥammad came to her father to request one, explaining that she had overwhelming housework and Ali had little help to offer. The Prophet ﷺ became stern and said: "How can I give you a servant when the People of the Ṣuffah's stomachs have collapsed from hunger? By Allah, I will sell all of them and spend the money on the People of the Ṣuffah."

He refused, his own beloved daughter, the dearest person to him, because those in need had a prior claim. Fatimah never asked again.

Every time food came: Whenever the Prophet ﷺ received anything, food, milk, dates, he would include the People of the Ṣuffah before benefiting himself.

❧The Milk Story (Narrated by Abu Hurairah)

Abu Hurairah narrates in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī:

One day the Prophet ﷺ found Abu Hurairah lying weak with exhaustion in the Ṣuffah, faint from hunger. The Prophet ﷺ invited him to his house. He asked ʿĀʾishah: "Is there anything to eat?" She produced one large cup of milk, a gift from a neighbouring Anṣārī family.

Abu Hurairah's heart leapt. "Alḥamdulillāh, a cup of milk!" But then the Prophet ﷺ said: "Go and call all the People of the Ṣuffah."

Abu Hurairah narrates: "Fa-mā kāna lanā min budd" (فَمَا كَانَ لَنَا مِنْ بُدٍّ, "There was no escape for us"). I had to obey. I went and gathered thirty or forty men and brought them to the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ handed me the cup: "Serve them."

I went from man to man, each one drinking his fill. All the while I was thinking: what will be left for me? When every single one had drunk and only I and the Prophet ﷺ remained, the Prophet ﷺ took the cup, and it appeared to be as full as when he first handed it to me. He said to me: "Ijlis." Sit down. I sat. "Ishrab." Drink. I drank. "Ishrab." Drink again. I drank. "Ishrab."

He kept saying "Ishrab" until finally I said: "By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, there is not a single space left in my stomach for this milk." Then, and only then, the Prophet ﷺ took the cup and drank from it himself.

This story illustrates the Prophet's ﷺ character: he fed thirty or forty men before himself; he made Abu Hurairah serve them all before drinking; he then played with Abu Hurairah, testing whether he truly believed the Prophet ﷺ would not forget him, and then ensured he drank until satisfied.

❧Abu Hurairah: Profile of the Most Famous Resident

Abu Hurairah (ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn Ṣakhr al-Dawsī, from Yemen) arrived in Madinah after the Battle of Khaybar in the 7th year of the Hijra, relatively late. Yet he became the single most prolific narrator of hadith in Islamic history, over 5,000 narrations, more than any other Companion.

The next generation questioned this: "How can Abu Hurairah narrate so much when Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī, his seniors in Islam, narrated far less?"

Abu Hurairah explained in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim:

"The Muhājirūn were busy throughout the day buying and selling in the markets of Madinah. The Anṣār were busy in the cultivation of their farms and fields. As for me, I stuck to the Prophet ﷺ with my hungry stomach. I memorised what they did not memorise."

❧He was not poor by necessity

His mother, who had been a pagan in Yemen, moved to Madinah specifically to live near him. She purchased a house. But Abu Hurairah chose to remain in the Ṣuffah, the dormitory of the Prophet's university, because the Prophet ﷺ was in the Masjid, and the Masjid was attached to the Prophet's house. To be in the Ṣuffah was to be perpetually in the Prophet's ﷺ orbit.

Abu Hurairah himself said that were it not for Allah's warning against those who withhold knowledge ("Inna lladhīna yaktumūna mā anzalnā mina l-bayyināt", إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَا أَنزَلْنَا مِنَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ, Q 2:159), he would not have narrated a single hadith.

His humility about food was legendary. He narrates that he would sometimes follow a Companion out of the Masjid asking him a question, knowing the answer already, just to walk with him to his doorstep, hoping to be invited in for a meal. He was too dignified to beg; this was his way.

Abu Hurairah later served as the Governor of Bahrain under ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and lived a comfortable life in his later years. Islam does not demand permanent poverty, but Abu Hurairah's sacrifice in those early years preserved a treasury of knowledge.

❧The Food-Donation String

A Companion proposed: whenever the Anṣār harvested dates, they would send the first portion to the Ṣuffah. A string (ḥabl) was hung between two pillars of the Ṣuffah, and dates would be hung on it for the residents to take without having to beg.

This custom of publicly hanging food in the Prophet's Masjid for the needy persisted, in various forms, for approximately thirteen centuries, until the modernisation of Madinah in the 1940s–50s. Elder scholars of Dr. Qadhi's teachers' generation can still recall it.

❧The Ṣuffah and the Compilation of the Quran

The People of the Ṣuffah were the Qurrāʾ, the primary memorisers and reciters of the Quran. They were among the most prominent in every major battle: Badr, Uḥud, Khandaq (Battle of the Trench), Khaybar, and the Conquest of Makkah.

In the Wars of Riddah under Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, particularly the battle against the false prophet Musaylima al-Kadhdhāb, more than 70 of the Qurrāʾ were killed in a single engagement. Many were People of the Ṣuffah.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb went to Abu Bakr: "Yā Abā Bakr, we have lost many of the Qurrāʾ and I fear that if more die, the Quran will be lost." This prompted the first official compilation of the Quran into a single Muṣḥaf, an initiative directly traceable to the deaths of the People of the Ṣuffah.

❧The Ṣuffah as the First University of Islam

The Ṣuffah was:

- A shelter for those with nowhere else to go

- A residence for those who voluntarily chose scholarship over comfort

- A reception centre for delegations from distant tribes learning Islam

- A training ground producing the most knowledgeable, most pious, most brave Companions

It lasted from approximately 2 AH until the death of the Prophet ﷺ in 11 AH, roughly nine years.

Important clarification: The term Ṣūfī (صُوفِي, denoting mystical Islam) does not derive from Ṣuffah. The word Ṣūfī comes from ṣūf (صُوف, wool), referring to the coarse woollen garments worn by early ascetics. The Ṣuffah and Ṣūfism share the letters ṣ and f but are etymologically unrelated. Some later mystical groups tried to claim descent from the Ṣuffah; the connection is false.

The raised platform today: In the contemporary Masjid an-Nabawī there is a raised platform at the back said to mark the site of the Ṣuffah. This is a modern reconstruction and its exact placement is disputed. The historical Ṣuffah was at floor level, not raised.