HIS PERSONALITY AND INTELLECTUAL LIFE

Abu Hurairah had wide shoulders, double plaited hair and a hennaed beard.  He would wear a black turban around his head. He slept during one third of the night and prayed during one third of the night and debated on the hadith during the rest of the night.

He expressed his deep love for the Holy Prophet (pbuh) by saying “When I see you, I become happy, you enlighten my eyes and my heart”. After the death of Prophet Muhammad, there were times when he couldn’t hold back his tears in Mescid-i Nebevi as he was telling a hadith.

Abu Hurairah liked jokes and with his humorous warnings he urged people to think. Acquiring good deeds since he immigrated before the conquest of Mecca, participating in the Prophet’s speeches for a period of three years, gaining the prayers of the Messenger so that he and his mother is endeared by the believers and his appreciation for the interest in hadith were some of his most important virtues.

Another virtue of Abu Hurairah was the respect he showed to his mother. His heart was broken as his mother did not accept Islam and from time to time spoke against the Prophet. Abu Hurairah requested Prophet Muhammad to pray so that his mother would become a Muslim and after his mother became a Muslim, in order to serve his mother, he did not unnecessarily make the pilgrimage to Mecca until she passed away.

Abu Hurairah, not being able to get married in the period of the Prophet due to economic problems, later on married the sister of Utbe b. Gazvan who was the Amir of Basra and Busre who was the sister in-law of Uthman. As he had a slave during his immigration, it is understood that he was not poor when he accepted Islam, yet became a poor man since he totally devoted himself to the service of the Prophet. After the death of the Prophet, when his financial state improved, since many of his slaves were passing on hadith, it is understood that he dealt with the education of his slaves.

Abu Hurairah passed on the words of Prophet Muhammad, the words of companions such as Ubey b. Ka‘b, Abu Bakr, Umar, Usama b. Zaid, Aisha, Fazl b. Abbas b. Abdulmuttalib and the words of Ka‘b el-Ahbar who was a subject. Considered to be subjects to him, many companions and subjects with a number up to 800 people passed on hadith. Among these companions who passed on the largest numbers of hadith were Anas b. Malik, Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar. Jabir b. Abdullah and among the subjects there were well known intellectuals such as al-Hasan al-Basri, Sha‘bi, Mujahid, Ibn Sirin, Hammam b. Munabbih, Abu Idris el-Khavlani and Abdurrahman b. Hurmuz known as A'raj, his son Mujahid, Caliph Marwan b. Hakam. It is significant that among the companions passing on words from Abu Hurairah was Abu Ayyub el-Ansari who was one of the few companions respected by the Shiites. The names of those companions passing on his words are available in the Six Books which are also given in some research books. Among those who were passing on hadith from Abu Hurairah were thirty seven qadis assigned in Mecca, Medina, Qufa, Basra, Damascus, Egypt and in other prominent regions. The variety of those people might give some information as to the value of the students of Abu Hurairah.

Abu Hurairah acquiring the readings by requesting from Ubay b. Ka‘b, subsequently began to teach this wisdom. Two of the ten reading imams Abu Ja'far el-Kari and A’raj learned this profession of reading from Abu Hurairah.

After the Caliph Uthman passed away, in addition to Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar, Abu Said el-Khudri and Jabir b. Abdullah; until his death Abu Hurairah continued answering the questions which were addressed to him in Medina with the purpose of acquiring fatwa.