Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf's detachment to Dumat al-Jandal

Ibn Ishaq relates from this expedition only the session at which it was sent out. He tells, from "one I do not doubt", on the authority of Ata ibn Abi Rabah, that he heard a man of Basra ask Abd Allah ibn Umar about letting the end of a turban hang behind a man when he wraps it, and Ibn Umar answered with a long report. ^{1 2}

Ibn Umar was the tenth of ten in the mosque of the Prophet: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Ibn Mas'ud, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman (may God be pleased with him), Abu Sa'id al-Khudri and himself, when a young man of the Ansar came, greeted and sat, and asked: which of the believers is best? He said: the best in character. He asked: which believer is the most sagacious? He said: the one who remembers death most and prepares for it best before it comes; those are the sagacious. ²

The Prophet then turned to the emigrants and said: five qualities, which I seek refuge in God from your reaching; and he counted them: no indecency appears among a people until they make it public, but plague and diseases appear among them that were not in their forefathers; they did not diminish measure and balance but they were seized by years of drought, hardship of livelihood and the injustice of the ruler; they did not withhold the zakat but the rain was withheld from them, and were it not for the animals they would not have been given rain; they did not break the covenant of God and His Messenger but an enemy from others was given power over them; and their leaders did not judge by the Book of God and became tyrants in what God had sent down, but God made their might a matter between them. See the hadith of the five afflictions. ²

Then he ordered Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf to prepare for the expedition he was sending him on, and in the morning he came wearing a black cotton turban. The Prophet drew him near, undid it, and wound it upon him with his own hand, letting about four fingers' length hang behind, and said: so, Ibn Awf, wind it, for it is better and more recognised. ² Then he ordered Bilal to give him the banner; he praised God, invoked blessings upon himself and said: take it, Ibn Awf; fight together in the way of God against those who disbelieve in God; do not embezzle, do not betray, do not mutilate, and do not kill a child; this is the covenant of God and the practice of His Prophet among you; and he took the banner. ³ Ibn Hisham adds: he set out for Dumat al-Jandal. ³

Ibn Umar's answer about the turban carries three texts that are cited in several places: the intelligent and their remembrance of death; the five afflictions in the jurisprudence of social punishments; and the covenant of war, counted among the foundations of the rulings of war for Muslims: no embezzlement, no betrayal, no mutilation, and no killing of a child. The expedition itself, and whom he met at Dumat al-Jandal, is not related by Ibn Ishaq; what is said of Ibn Awf's marriage there to Tumadir bint al-Asbagh comes from other sources (needs_source). ³

• The chain: Ibn Ishaq "from someone I do not doubt" from Ata from an unnamed man of Basra from Ibn Umar. ¹
• "Wa-tajabbarū" in two copies and "tahayyarū" in one copy. ²
• The destination comes from Ibn Hisham, not Ibn Ishaq. ³