Mu'adh ibn Jabal (ra)

A young Ansari Companion of great learning, deeply loved by the Prophet ﷺ, sent to Yemen as governor and judge — the recipient of some of the most quoted advice in the Sunnah.

One-line: the beloved scholar-Companion sent to teach Yemen — “make things easy, and give glad tidings.”

Identity & lineage

Of the Khazraj of Madinah; among the most knowledgeable of the Companions, especially in halal and haram. “The Prophet ﷺ loved Mu’adh with a very strong love.”

Role in the Seerah (this volume)

• On the road to Tabuk — the intimate night-journey narration (Musnad Ahmad): “tell me a deed that enters me into Jannah” → “the head of the matter is Islam, its pillar the salah, its pinnacle jihad” and “shall I not tell you the control of all that?” — “hold your tongue.”
• Sent to Yemen (after Abu Bakr’s Hajj, 9–10 AH) as deputy and judge over a Himyarite king who accepted Islam. The Prophet ﷺ walked him out south of Madinah on foot while Mu’adh rode — “call them first to tawhid; if they obey, then the salah… then the zakat” — and his farewell: “perhaps you will not see me after this year.” Mu’adh wept.
• His famous parting advice — “Make things easy and do not make them hard; give glad tidings and do not repel; bring people together and do not divide them.”

Character & lessons

A model of the gentle, gradual da’wah the Prophet ﷺ commanded — meeting people at their level. His sending to Yemen is bound up with the many hadith praising the Yemenis (“Iman is Yemeni”).

Death

Died in the plague of Amwas, 18 AH, in al-Sham, during Umar’s caliphate.

Cross-references

The Expedition of Tabuk · The Year of Delegations · The Hajj of Abu Bakr & the Verse of the Sword · Da'wah & Its Five Stages · Muhammad ﷺ

Sources

• S012 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 091, 096, 099. Musnad Ahmad (the Tabuk-road narration), Bukhari & Muslim (the Yemen instructions; “make things easy”).