Ka'b offers his wealth and vows to speak only the truth
كعب يعرض ماله وينذر الصدق
October 630 CE · Rajab 9 AH
Ka'b told the Prophet that part of his repentance was to give up his wealth in charity; the Prophet said: keep some of your wealth, it is better for you, so Ka'b kept his share of Khaybar and vowed to speak nothing but the truth as long as he lived, counting his truthfulness to the Prophet the greatest blessing after Islam.
At a glance
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Region
- Arabia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
In time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Summary
Ka'b offered his wealth in charity; the Prophet ordered him to keep part of it, so he kept his share of Khaybar and vowed to speak only truth for the rest of his life. 1
The offer
Ka'b said: Messenger of God, part of my repentance to God is that I divest myself of my wealth as charity to God and His Messenger. The Prophet said: "keep part of your wealth — it is better for you." 2
The Khaybar share
He said: then I keep my share at Khaybar. And he said that God saved him through truthfulness, and part of his repentance was to speak nothing but truth as long as he lived. 2
Ka'b's reflection
Ka'b said he knew no one God had tried in truthfulness of speech better than He had tried him, and that he had not deliberately lied since he said that — and he hoped God would preserve him for what remained. 3
The greatest blessing
He said God had not blessed him, after guiding him to Islam, with a blessing greater in his eyes than his truthfulness to the Prophet that day — that he did not lie to him and perish as those who lied perished. 3
Source notes and markers of doubt
- In manuscript (a) "as long as I remain" appears instead of "as long as I live", per the editors (p. 180 n. 1).
- The phrase "as those who lied perished" is Ka'b's words, not the museum's.
Connections
- Occurred at
- Medina
- Part of
- The three who were left behind after Tabuk
- Had participant
- MuhammadKa'b ibn Malik al-Ansari
People and things also explored
The fifty-night boycott of the threeKa'b tells the Prophet the truthThe order that the three keep apart from their wivesThe acceptance of the repentance of the threeThe three who were left behind after TabukThe expedition to TabukThe letter of the king of Ghassan to Ka'b ibn MalikKa'b and Abu Qatada at the garden wall
Sources
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham, al-Saqqa edition (1355/1936), 4/180-181
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham, al-Saqqa edition (1355/1936), 4/180
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham, al-Saqqa edition (1355/1936), 4/181
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Ka'b offers his wealth and vows to speak only the truth”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/kaab-offers-his-wealth-and-vows-truthfulness/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-12.