- Category: BIOGRAPHIES
- Language: ENGLISH
- Format: PDF
The pages of our Islamic history and heritage are filled with the lives of men and women whose influence on our history can only be retold by history itself. They served as beacons of light, illuminating the path set by this Ummah’s Messenger (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam), and yet they were the heroes who protected this very path.
From amongst such figures are those who excelled in certain fields be they in leadership, scholarship, political thought, arts of war, business or literature to name but a few.
However, rarely has history in the post-Prophethood era witnessed personalities who had gathered all these characteristics and succeeded across numerous fields and avenues. Rarely has it witnessed lives that were so enriched and yet enriching, so influential and inspiring, so powerful and empowering, so humble and yet so humbling.
One of these rarities lies in the very being of that scholar from Khurasan, the Mujahid between the army ranks, the faqeeh (jurist) and muhaddith (narrator) of his time, the righteous ‘aabid (worshipper) of his Lord, the successful merchant across cities, the well-known zahid (ascetic), the poet and writer, the grammarian and linguist, the respected and the leader of the Pious – ‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak…’
A story: Mubarak was working for his master in the fields/plantations: After having worked in those fields and tended to the fruits and crops for many years, he was one day approached by his master who requested a sweet pomegranate. Mubarak went to the crops and brought back a pomegranate but as the master bit into it, he found it to be sour. He said, ‘I request a sweet one and you bring me a sour one?
Bring a sweet one!’ So he went and brought another pomegranate which again turned out to be sour. He rebuked him harshly and ordered a sweet one again. This happened for a third time whereupon the master said, ‘Do you not know the difference between sweet and sour?’
Mubarak said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘How is that possible?’ He said, ‘Because I have never eaten from it such that I should know the difference.’ His master said, ‘And why have you not eaten of it?’ He said, ‘Because you have never given me permission to eat it.’
