The kunya of this person is Abū Qatāda al-Anṣārī. According to the statement of Wāqidī, his real name is Nuʿmān b. Ribʿī. Others, however, have said that his name was ʿAmr b. Ribʿī. He was from the tribe of the sons of Salama and was a native of Medina. He was a Muslim warrior, having participated in the Battle of Uhud and subsequent expeditions. He displayed great valor in the expedition of Dhī-Kared. Indeed, we have recounted his outstanding heroism when discussing that expedition. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said during that expedition: "Today, the best and most virtuous of our horsemen is Abū Qatāda. The best and most virtuous of our foot soldiers is Salama b. al-Akwaʿ." According to Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim, this person participated in the Battle of Badr. However, this is not known with certainty.
Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī said: Abū Qatāda al-Anṣārī, who is more virtuous than I, narrated to me that the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to ʿAmmār: "O ʿAmmār! A rebellious group will kill you." Wāqidī and several others said: Abū Qatāda (Ḥāris b. Ribʿī) died in Medina in the fifty-fourth year of the Hijra at the age of seventy.
Haytham b. ʿAdī and several others have said that he died in Kufa in the thirty-eighth year of the Hijra. His funeral prayer was led by ʿAlī. However, this narration is unusual.
The genealogy of this person is as follows: Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām b. Huwaylid b. Asad b. ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā b. Quṣayy b. Kilāb al-Qurashī al-Asadī Abū Khālid al-Makkī. His mother was Fākhita bint Zuhayr b. Ḥāris b. Asad b. ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā. His paternal aunt was Khadīja bint Huwaylid. As is well known, Khadīja was the wife of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and, except for his son Ibrāhīm, the mother of all his other children. Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām’s mother gave birth to him inside the Kaʿba thirteen years before the Year of the Elephant. This happened as follows: His mother entered the Kaʿba for a visit, and while inside, she was overtaken by labor pains and gave birth to him on a mat. Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām loved the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) greatly. When the Banū Hāshim and Banū al-Muṭṭalib were boycotted in the Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib, and no one would trade with them or marry into them, Ḥakīm would buy a camel from the caravans coming from Syria and drive it to the entrance of Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib. In this way, foodstuffs and clothing on the camel would enter that neighborhood. Ḥakīm did this as a gesture of kindness to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and his aunt Khadīja bint Huwaylid. Ḥakīm had purchased Zayd b. Ḥāritha while he was a slave and sold him to his aunt Khadīja. Khadīja then gifted him to the Messenger of God, who then freed him. Ḥakīm bought the cloak of Dhī Yazan and gifted it to the Messenger of God. When the Messenger of God wore that cloak, Ḥakīm said: "I have never seen anyone more beautiful than the Messenger of God in that cloak." Despite all this, he and his children only became Muslim on the day of the conquest of Mecca.
Al-Bukhārī and others said: "Ḥakīm lived sixty years in the Age of Ignorance and sixty years in Islam." He was among the leaders of the Quraysh, a noble person, and well-versed in genealogy. He gave much charity, did much good, and freed many slaves. When he became Muslim, he asked the Messenger of God about this, and the Messenger of God replied: "You have become Muslim while upon a good state."
Ḥakīm participated in the Battle of Badr on the side of the polytheists, and when he came to the pool to get water, Ḥamza was about to kill him, but he escaped from his hand and survived. Therefore, when he would swear an oath, he would say: "No, by Allah who saved me on the day of Badr." When the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) was with his army at Marr al-Zahrān, on his way to the conquest of Mecca, Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām and Abū Sufyān set out to gather information. ʿAbbās met them and secured protection from the Messenger of God for Abū Sufyān. Abū Sufyān became Muslim that night, albeit reluctantly. The next morning, Ḥakīm also became Muslim and received kindness and compassion from the Messenger of God. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) gave him one hundred camels; when Ḥakīm asked for more, the Messenger of God gave him more, and when he asked yet again, he was given more. Then the Messenger of God said to him: "O Ḥakīm! Truly, this wealth is sweet and lush.
Whoever takes it with generosity (by being given it) will find blessing in it. But for whoever takes it with greed and insistence, there is no blessing in it. That person will be like one who eats but is never satisfied." Thereupon, Ḥakīm said: "By Allah, who sent you as a true prophet, I will never take anything from anyone after you." Indeed, after the Messenger of God, he never took anything from anyone. Abū Bakr wanted to give him wealth, but he would not accept it. All the Muslims bore witness that he never took anything from anyone. Despite this, he was still the wealthiest of people. When al-Zubayr died, he owed Ḥakīm one hundred thousand dinars. At the time of his entry into Islam, Ḥakīm held the offices of Rifāda and Dār al-Nadwa. Later, he sold these to Muʿāwiya for one hundred thousand dinars (according to another narration, forty thousand dinars).
Ibn al-Zubayr said to him:
- By selling these, you have sold the honor of the Quraysh.
- O my nephew, honors have gone. There is no honor except taqwa (God-consciousness). My nephew! I had bought this in the Age of Ignorance for a skin of wine, and now I am selling it for a house in Paradise. Now I make you a witness that I have given these in the way of Allah. Dār al-Nadwa, in the time of the Quraysh, was a kind of palace of justice. No one under forty years of age could enter it. However, Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām became a member at the age of twenty-five.
According to what Zubayr b. Bakkār narrated, Ḥakīm once went on pilgrimage. During the Hajj, he sacrificed one hundred camels with saddles and one thousand sheep. On ʿArafa, he had one hundred slave girls with him, each with a silver collar around her neck, and on these collars was written: "These have been freed by Ḥakīm b. Ḥizām for the sake of Allah's pleasure." Ḥakīm freed them and sacrificed all his livestock. May Allah be pleased with him. He died in the fifty-fourth year of the Hijra. This is how it is related in the sound narration. According to others, he died in another year at the age of one hundred and twenty.