صعصعة بن ناجية

Sa'sa'a ibn Najiya al-Mujashi'i of Tamim, the jahili orator and grandfather of al-Farazdaq — 'Najiya's son, by whose counsel Tamim lived'; he urged Tamim onto Khusraw's convoy before Islam ¹, and he is the legendary 'preventer of the buried-alive': finding a man of Banu al-Hujaym about to bury his newborn daughter he bought her for two milch camels and his own mount, saving a hundred girls in all; he later came in delegation to the Prophet ﷺ, heard sura al-Zalzala and professed Islam ².

Depth

At a glance

Roles: Companion
Era: Pre-Islamic Arabia · The Prophetic Era
Region: Arabia
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Overview

Sasa'a ibn Najiya ibn Aqal al-Mujashi' al-Tamimi, of the Banu Tamim. He was an orator in the pre-Islamic period, and the grandfather of the poet al-Farazdaq ¹.

Some of his reports

According to Ibn al-Athir, he called on his people to fall upon the wealth of Wahraz and to plunder the passers-by through their lands on their way to Kisra ¹.

The sources report that he was known as "the preventer of burying alive" (mani' al-wa'ida): he bought a little girl whose father, of the Banu al-Hujaym, wanted to bury her alive, and then he saved some hundred girls in the same way. Al-Farazdaq composed verse in pride of this ².

The same report says that he went to the Prophet as a delegation and embraced Islam, and asked him whom he should treat with kindness. The Prophet answered: your mother, then your father, then your brother, then the nearest and then the next nearest ².