Assalam alaikum, His name was Abu Ubaida ibn al-Jarrah and he was the ninth person to accept Islam. Participating in all of the battles led by Prophet Muhammad, during the first two caliphates he was the commander of an army in Syria and Iraq.
An incidet occurred at the battle of Uhud which explains the title of this e-mail. Abu Bakr said, "The Prophet was injured in the battle of Uhud. A couple of links from his own helmet had pierced through his forehead, which was bleeding. I ran towards him, and then suddenly, what I should see but a friend running towards him from the east. He raced him before me and I saw that it was the self-sacrificing Abu `Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah. He requested that I should give him the honor of removing the links from the helmet. With great care and at the same time with great force he lost a tooth in the process. Then without bothering about the pain he must be suffering, again he held on to the other link with his teeth and exerted force. As the other link came out, he lost another tooth as well. Thus two of his teeth were sacrificed, but his beloved Prophet was found relieved and comfortable. It seemed as if he looked even more handsome and graceful than before with the loss of his two from teeth, because it was done for the love of the Prophet. All the other companions used to look at him with envious eyes. There the only criterion for judging the worth of a person was the extent to which he was willing to sacrifice himself for the Prophet." [Ref: Ghandanfar, Commanders of the Muslim Army] NB. One of the customs of the Arabs in that era was to have a gap between their front two teeth. It was considered a sign of beauty. The comment in the quote about him looking more beautiful doesn't relate to this custom of having a gap between ones front teeth, but more because of the reason it was done i.e. to help remove the links from the helmet. May Allah Almighty have mercy and bless us all with good health, peace of heart, and integrity in all that we do, ameen. fi amanillah, assalam alaikum, f ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamcity/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/