The genealogy of this person is as follows: ʿUbaydullāh b. ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib al-Qurashī al-Hāshimī. He was the cousin of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He was one year younger than his brother ʿAbdullāh. His mother was Umm al-Faḍl Lubāba bint al-Ḥārith al-Hilāliyya. ʿUbaydullāh was a person of generosity, courage, handsome appearance, and beautiful stature; in beauty, he resembled his father ʿAbbās. As we have narrated in previous sections, the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) would line up ʿAbdullāh, ʿUbaydullāh, and Kathīr side by side, then say to them: “Whoever comes to me first, I will give him such and such.” They would then run and come, sitting on the back and chest of the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him). The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) would then embrace and kiss them.
During the caliphate of ʿAlī, he appointed ʿUbaydullāh as governor of Yemen. ʿUbaydullāh led the people in the pilgrimage in the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh years after the Hijra. When it was the thirty-eighth year of the Hijra, a dispute arose between ʿUbaydullāh and Yazīd b. Samura al-Ruhawī, who had been sent as the amīn (superintendent) of the pilgrimage by Muʿāwiya. Then the two agreed that Shayba b. ʿUthmān al-Ḥajabī should act as the amīr of the pilgrimage. Thus, Shayba led the people in the pilgrimage that year. Later, when Muʿāwiya seized power, he sent Busr b. Artāt against ʿUbaydullāh.
Busr b. Artāt persecuted ʿUbaydullāh and killed his two children. As a result, some skirmishes took place in Yemen, some of which we have recounted on previous pages. ʿUbaydullāh and his brother ʿAbdullāh came to Medina. ʿAbdullāh would offer the people of Medina a feast of knowledge, while ʿUbaydullāh would show them generosity.
It is narrated that ʿUbaydullāh, together with his slave, once stopped at the tent of a Bedouin during a journey and became his guest. When the Bedouin saw him, he honored and respected him. Upon seeing his beauty and the harmony of his form, he said to his wife:
– O woman, what do you have to offer to our guest?
His wife replied:
– We have only this sheep. Our daughter is nourished by the milk of this sheep.
Thereupon the Bedouin said:
– We must slaughter this sheep.
His wife asked:
– Will you let your daughter die of hunger?
The Bedouin replied:
– Even if the girl dies, I will slaughter this sheep.
After saying this, the Bedouin took a knife, slaughtered the sheep, and skinned it. While slaughtering the sheep, he recited the following poem:
"O neighbor, do not wake the child; if you wake her, she will cry over the slaughter of the sheep. The knife will slip from my hand and fall away."
After slaughtering the sheep, he cooked and prepared it, placed it before ʿUbaydullāh and his slave, and fed them. However, ʿUbaydullāh had overheard the conversation between the Bedouin and his wife while the sheep was being slaughtered. When he was about to leave the house, he said to his slave:
– How much money do you have with you?
– I have 500 dinars, saved from my allowance.
– Give those 500 dinars to this Bedouin.
– Subḥānallāh! Will you give him 500 dinars? He only slaughtered a sheep worth 500 dirhams for you. – Shame on you. By Allah, he is more generous and noble than us. I am giving him only a part of my wealth, whereas he offered us all he had. Even at the cost of leaving himself and his child hungry, he slaughtered the sheep and honored us."
When Muʿāwiya heard of this incident, he said: "May Allah grant ʿUbaydullāh goodness. From which egg did he hatch and into which womb did he enter?" That is, do you know who his mother and father are? According to the statement of Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, ʿUbaydullāh died in the fifty-eighth year after the Hijra. According to others, he died during the reign of Yazīd, the son of Muʿāwiya. Abū ʿUbayd Qāsim b. Sallām said: ʿUbaydullāh died in the eighty-seventh year after the Hijra, and his death was in Medina. There is also a narration that he died in Yemen. There is a ḥadīth that our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) narrated from him: Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal,
narrated that ʿUbaydullāh b. ʿAbbās said:
Umaysa (or Rumaysa) came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) to complain about her husband. She claimed that her husband did not have sexual relations with her. Shortly after, her husband arrived and claimed that his wife was lying. He alleged that by saying this, she wanted to separate from him and return to her first husband. Thereupon, the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Umaysa: "You cannot return to your first husband until another man has tasted your clay."