Rafi' ibn Khadij

Rafi' ibn Khadij ibn Rafi' al-Ansari al-Awsi, Abu Abdullah or Abu Khadij; his mother Halima bint Mas'ud of Banu Bayada ¹.

He was presented to the Prophet on the day of Badr and judged too young; he passed him on the day of Uhud, went out, and witnessed what followed ¹. He was his people's arif (leader) in Medina ¹.

He related from the Prophet and from his uncle Zuhayr ibn Rafi'; from him related his son Abd al-Rahman, his grandson Abaya ibn Rifa'a, al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid, Mahmud ibn Labid, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, Nafi' ibn Jubayr, Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Rahman and Sulayman ibn Yasar ¹.

Ibn Shahin's account relates that an arrow struck him on the day of Uhud; the Prophet told him: "if you wish I will draw the arrow, leave the fevered mark, and bear witness on resurrection day that you are a martyr" — and afterwards the wound relapsed and he died of it. Ibn Hajar credits the narrator's saying this was in Uthman's caliphate, says the correct dating is Mu'awiya's caliphate, and allows there may have been a span between the wound's relapse and death ¹.

He dwelt in Medina until his wound relapsed at the start of year 74 AH and he died at eighty-six — so said al-Waqidi ¹. Ibn Hajar answers: it is established that Ibn Umar prayed over him, and at the start of 74 AH Ibn Umar was in Mecca after Ibn al-Zubayr's killing — so perhaps Rafi' lived on until Ibn Umar reached Medina, or he died within year 73 AH before Ibn Umar's hajj ¹. Yahya ibn Bukayr said he died at the start of year 73 AH; Bukhari said he died in Mu'awiya's time — the view Ibn Hajar relies on — and Ibn Qani' dated it year 59 AH ¹.