Simāk ibn Kharasha

Simāk ibn Kharasha — known by his kunya as Abū Dujānah.

The Prophet ﷺ gave him his sword, preferring him over the elders of the Muhājirīn and the horsemen of the Anṣār.

This is the city of the Greatest Messenger ﷺ, surging with movement as its people prepare to face the enemy.

Here are the Prophet’s companions—coming and going in iron armor like lions of the wilderness…

Their faces glow and shimmer with joy and longing, ablaze with desire for martyrdom and the pleasure of Allah.

And here comes the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, emerging among them, clad in his armor, ready to meet the enemy of Allah and his messenger.

The moment the eyes of the believers fall upon him, their hearts flare with pride and honor…

Their souls ignite with resolve and might…

And here come the young men—sons of the Muhājirīn and Anṣār—none older than fifteen… Stretching their short statures, puffing out their youthful chests… Trying to appear like men before the Prophet ﷺ, hoping he would allow them the honor of battle under his banner and the privilege of martyrdom in the path of Allah, near him.

When the army was complete, the Prophet ﷺ raised his sword and said: “Who will take this sword?”

Many hands reached out to him, each longing to grasp the Prophet’s sword ﷺ and be honored with it.

But the Prophet ﷺ withdrew it and said: “Who will take this sword with its due right?”

Men stood—among them ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, and others—but he held it back…

Then stepped forward Simāk ibn Kharasha, of the Banū Sāʿidah, known as Abū Dujānah, and asked: “O Messenger of Allah, what is the right of this sword?”

He ﷺ said: “That you fight with it in the path of Allah until He grants you victory, or you are killed.”

Abū Dujānah said: “I will take it with its right, O Messenger of Allah.”

And so the Prophet ﷺ gave it to him.

At that moment, all eyes turned to Abū Dujānah, the one whom the Messenger ﷺ had honored with his sword—preferring him over the elders of the Muhājirīn and the valiant horsemen of the Anṣār.

Abū Dujānah was no unknown figure on the battlefield among the Prophet’s companions. His position was far from obscure… for they all acknowledged him as a brave, valiant warrior, who feared not death. They all knew of his red headband—the one he would tie around his head whenever battle intensified and the armies clashed… They called it “the headband of death.” And they were all amazed by the proud, swaggering gait with which he would march between the ranks, boldly presenting himself for single combat against the enemy’s champions—those equal to him in strength and skill.

Yet despite this, some of the noble companions felt a touch of envy at the unique honor the Greatest Messenger ﷺ had granted him that day.

So let us now give the floor to one of those companions… to tell us in his own words about Abū Dujānah and how this moment affected his heart.

Az-Zubayr ibn al-‘Awwām said:

I felt something stir within me—a kind of anger—when I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to give me his sword, and he refused, only to give it to Abū Dujānah instead.

I thought to myself: Am I not the son of Ṣafiyyah bint ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet’s own aunt? And am I not among the highest in Quraysh in lineage and honor? I had stepped forward and asked the prophet for the sword before him—yet he turned away from me and gave it to him! By Allah, I shall watch what he does with it…

So he went ahead, and I followed closely behind him. As he advanced to face the army of the polytheists, he drew out his red headband and tied it around his head. When the Anṣār saw him do this, they turned to one another and said: “Abū Dujānah has tied the headband of death on his head. That was what they would always say when they saw him wear it in battle.

Then he drew the sword of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with his right hand, and began walking with a swagger—boldly and boastfully—weaving between the rows of fighters.

The Messenger ﷺ looked at him and said:

“This is a kind of walk that Allah and His Messenger dislike—except in this place.”

(Meaning: in the face of the enemies of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.)

Abū Dujānah then moved forward, chanting a war song that stirred the hearts, igniting courage and noble pride in the chests of the believers.

He threw himself upon the polytheists, striking deep into their ranks. He did not encounter a single one without killing him.

Among the enemy was a man who had made it his mission to hunt down the wounded Muslims, finishing them off one by one. I saw Abū Dujānah heading toward him, and I saw the man moving closer to Abū Dujānah…

So I called upon Allah to bring them face to face, and to make that vile man fall at the hands of Abū Dujānah.

It was not long before the two met. They exchanged blows with their swords in less than the blink of an eye.

Abū Dujānah received the man’s strike with his shield—it cut through the shield, slicing it nearly in two…

But Abū Dujānah’s own blow struck the polytheists with deadly precision, cutting him down and leaving him drenched in his own blood.

Then he pressed on, storming through the ranks, defending the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with his sword, fearlessly facing the enemies of Islam. I kept seeing him—sometimes to the right of the Prophet ﷺ, sometimes to his left, sometimes ahead of him, and sometimes behind him.

Then Abū Dujānah saw a figure moving through the ranks of the polytheists, stirring them to fight and urging them to kill the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He rushed toward the figure and raised the Prophet’s sword high above his head. But suddenly—he swerved the sword away and did not strike. I drew closer to him and asked why he had spared the person. He replied: “I recognized that it was one of the women whom Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb had brought with him to the battlefield, so I honored the sword of the Greatest Messenger ﷺ to stain it with the blood of a woman.”

At that moment I realized that the Prophet ﷺ had entrusted his sword to the right man, and I said to myself: Allah and His Messenger know best.

Abū Dujānah continued to defend Islam and the Muslims with the sword of the Prophet ﷺ for as long as the Messenger ﷺ lived.

When the Prophet ﷺ passed to the highest companions in Paradise, Abū Dujānah gave his sword and his loyalty to Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, the successor of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

When the tribe of Banū Ḥanīfa turned apostate, joining the ranks of the apostates, began leaving the religion of Allah in crowds, and followed the liar Musaylimah Al-Kadhdhab, Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, assembled a mighty army to confront them—an army filled with the greatest of the Companions from both the Muhājirīn and the Anṣār. At the forefront of them stood Abū Dujānah, bearer of the sword of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The command of the army was given to the Sword of Allah, Khālid ibn al-Walīd.

The army of the believers swept down upon the enemies of Allah like a descending terror…

Musaylimah and his followers stood firm—as firm as mountains…

The battle raged between the two sides with a ferocity that would turn the hair of children white. The dead from both camps began to pile up—but their numbers only inflamed the fighting, increasing it in intensity and rage. Finally, the scales began to tip in favor of the Muslims, after a long ordeal and great hardship…

The liar Musaylimah Al-Kadhdhab retreated, along with thousands of his followers, to a fortified garden that came to be known afterward as: “The Garden of Death.”

There, they barricaded themselves behind its massive walls, and used it as a shield, sheltering behind its tightly shut gates.

When all strategies failed the Muslims, al-Barā’ ibn Mālik al-Anṣārī rose and carried out one of the boldest acts of sacrifice ever recorded in the annals of valor on this earth.

He managed to force open the gates of the garden before the Muslim army—the Garden of Death.

Then the Companions of the Messenger ﷺ rushed into the garden like a surging flood, pouring in upon those inside like the onslaught of fate itself. Some of them stormed through the gates, while others flung themselves over its walls. Abū Dujānah was among those warriors.

He flung himself over the garden from atop one of its towering walls. And when he landed, his leg broke—but he neither cared nor gave it a thought. Instead, he drew the sword of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from its sheath, and began cutting through the enemy ranks, leaning only on his uninjured leg, until he reached the liar Musaylimah Al-Kadhdhab.

There, he struck a mighty blow with his sword—at the very moment Wahshī ibn Ḥarb also thrust his spear into Musaylimah. The liar collapsed between them, soaked in his own blood.

At that moment, Musaylimah’s men charged at the warrior who fought on with one leg, intent on finishing him off. But Abū Dujānah kept fighting fiercely, striking and resisting with valor—until at last, his foot gave way, and the blows of swords and the thrusts of spears overwhelmed him…

And he fell as a martyr.

Yet Abū Dujānah did not close his eyes for the final time until he saw the Muslim soldiers raising the banners of Islam over the land of al-Yamāmah.

• Suwar min Hayat al-Sahabah (Scenes from the Lives of the Companions) | Abdul Rahman Ra’fat al-Basha