2 of 2 · c. 8 AH · his boyhood · Madinah
'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr رضي الله عنه
The Boy Who Pledged
'Abdullah was about seven or eight when his father al-Zubayr told him to go to the Prophet ﷺ and pledge allegiance. The boy walked to him. The Prophet ﷺ saw him coming, smiled, and accepted his pledge.
He grew up among the greatest of the Companions and lived by their example. He was known for the length of his night prayer, for his fasting, and for his steady courage. Those who saw him in prayer said he stood like a peg and bowed and prostrated for so long that birds would come to rest on his back, thinking him a wall. Such descriptions come from later reports and are about his character rather than a measured fact.
His mother, Asma', is the one who shaped him, a woman of the strongest faith, known as Dhat al-Nitaqayn (She of the Two Belts) because she tore her belt in two to carry food for the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr in the Hijrah. That faith stayed with him to the end.
Early training in worship and courage can shape a whole life.
What habit from childhood still anchors you?
- Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-KubraHistorical report
- al-Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' (biography of 'Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr)Historical report
- Ibn Hajar, al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-SahabahHistorical report
- Sahih al-Bukhari 2979 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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