Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As

Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi al-Qurashi; his kunya per most is Abu Muhammad, or Abu Abd al-Rahman, and Abu Nu'aym tells a saying that it was Abu Nasir ¹. His mother was Rayta bint Munabbih ibn al-Hajjaj al-Sahmiyya ¹.

It is said his name was al-As and the Prophet changed it ¹. Abu Zur'a al-Dimashqi relates from Abdullah ibn al-Harith ibn Jaz' that they attended a funeral with the Prophet, who asked each his name; they said: al-As — and he said: "you are servants of God" ¹.

He related much from the Prophet, and from Umar, Abu al-Darda', Mu'adh, Ibn Awf and his father Amr ibn al-As ¹. In Bukhari from Abu Hurayra: "I know none of the Messenger of God's companions more copious in hadith than me — except Abdullah ibn Amr, for he used to write" ¹.

Ibn Sa'd said he became Muslim before his father; it is said only twelve years lay between their births. Ibn Yunus asserted twenty years between them, and al-Waqidi said Abdullah became Muslim before his father ¹.

In the two Sahihs is Abdullah ibn Amr's story with the Prophet: his forbidding him to persist in night prayer and daytime fasting, ordering him to fast alternate days and read the Qur'an every three. In some transmissions: when he grew old he used to say, "would that I had accepted the Messenger of God's concession" ¹.

Al-Tabari said: it was said he was tall, reddish, thick-calved, white-headed and bearded, and went blind late in life ¹. Al-Waqidi said he died in Syria in year sixty-five aged seventy-two ². The place of his death is disputed — Mecca, or al-Ta'if, or Egypt where he was buried in his house; and Bukhari tells a saying that he died in year sixty-nine ².