Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī: Guidance Out of a Harsh Environment

Occasion: Transcript of a khatira delivered on September 16, 2026 Source: Transcript of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif, [watch the original video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT0PCGWA-ps)

Last time we spoke about one of the Companions, and today, God willing, we turn to another. When we look at such a person, we should look at him as a star in this life. This is not my description. It is a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that his Companions are like stars: whichever of them you take as a guide, you will be guided by him.^[1] Today's Companion is Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, may God be pleased with him.

Born into a bad environment

Abu Dharr came from a harsh environment. His tribe stopped travelers on the road, robbed them, and killed. Imagine growing up inside that mentality: we have the right to take whatever is in your pocket right now, and it is ours whether you agree or not; if you say no, we will kill you. That was the world he saw around him.

Yet he kept asking himself where the righteous way was, and whether there was a good community anywhere. One day he heard of a man who had appeared in Mecca and was speaking about God, glory be to Him. He sent someone to Mecca to investigate and report back. When the man returned and told him what he had found, Abu Dharr was not convinced. It was not enough for him, and he decided to go himself.

The journey to the Prophet ﷺ

Some narrations tell us that when he reached Mecca he was found sitting near the Kaaba, on the first day, the second, and the third. He was asked what he was doing there. He said he had come to see the man who was calling to this message, hoping to learn something about him. The one who asked told him to be careful: "What are you saying, man? You will bring harm on us," because Quraysh held everything tightly in their hands. Even so, he told Abu Dharr to follow him at a distance, and to take care that no one saw them, until they reached the Prophet ﷺ.

Abu Dharr sat with the Prophet ﷺ, who gave him advice, brief and direct. Then the Prophet ﷺ warned him: keep this to yourself, hold your tongue, and do not speak openly about this matter. Abu Dharr said he would do it. What did he do the next day? He went out and called to the people openly. They fell upon him and beat him hard. Some bystanders intervened: "Are you mad? He is from Ghifar, a tribe that blocks the roads. Do you know what they could do to you if you travel that way? Be careful!" So they left him. The next day he stood by the Kaaba and called out again, and again they beat him in the same way.^[3]

The lessons

First: our children. We worry about our children in this environment. But if we give them clear direction about right and wrong, they will find the best way by themselves. Abu Dharr grew up in a tribe that killed and trapped people, yet he was wise enough to decide which road to take.

The ordinary example we always give is Yusuf, peace be upon him, who grew up in the house of the ruler, the treasurer of Egypt, and that land was not a Muslim land at that time. With Musa, peace be upon him, we find nearly the same scenario. He grew up in the palace of the man who ruled the world of that age, with power reaching everywhere. So the question is how we plant these seeds in our children's minds, so that they see for themselves what is right and what is wrong.

Second: he was not an angel. Praise be to God, we look at the righteous and at the best of them, but we must not think such people never made mistakes. We are human. If you see me sitting here, you cannot see me at home, or how I am with my wife and children. My ordinary life may be a little different, because desires, temperament, background, and culture all play their part.

One day Abu Dharr was in an argument with a man, said to have been Bilal, may God be pleased with him, and he taunted him about his mother.^[4] It is a shameful thing to say. The Prophet ﷺ came to him and asked what he had said. When Abu Dharr told him, the Prophet ﷺ replied: you still carry something of the old ways. He had a good heart and a good mind, yet he could not forget what he had learned from the beginning of his life, seeing people of other kinds treated with contempt.

Third: leadership. Once Abu Dharr came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked for a position of authority. Think of the head of a masjid, a community, an organization. I will not say a country, but even in small matters. The Prophet ﷺ told him that he was weak.^[2] He was a man who would fight before he spoke, which is the mentality of that environment. In truth he was strong, and because of that he did not fear anyone. But the Prophet ﷺ spoke to him about a different kind of weakness.

I feel this myself. As an imam leading the prayer, giving fatwa, sitting to teach, I may see something in myself and not stop at it even once: that I am better than you, that you have come to learn from me. That feeling is itself a great weakness. If it enters the heart, a person starts to think, "What would these people do without me?"

The Prophet ﷺ advised Abu Dharr that if there were only two people around him, and he found himself presiding over them, he should avoid that responsibility, because he would be questioned about those people on the Day of Judgment, even if he did his best. And look at me: whatever you do, nobody will be satisfied. That is what responsibility means. This is normal for anyone who holds responsibility for a place or a community. The real question is whether we are trying to do our best or not.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The speaker mentions this saying about the Companions and the stars as something explained in the previous session, and it is rendered by its sense. For this reason it is presented in the text as a saying attributed to the Prophet ﷺ: al-Bayhaqī said in *al-Madkhal* that “its text is well known, but its chains are weak,” and al-Albānī judged it fabricated (*al-Silsilah al-Ḍaʿīfah*, no. 58). The Companions’ standing is established by other authentic texts. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker gives only the sense of the Prophet’s reply (that Abu Dharr was weak, and the matter a heavy trust), and likewise the advice about presiding over two people; he did not state the wording or the source. Both ḥadīths are in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: «إِنَّكَ ضَعِيفٌ، وَإِنَّهَا أَمَانَةٌ» (“You are weak, and it is a trust,” no. 1825) and «لَا تَأَمَّرَنَّ عَلَى اثْنَيْنِ» (“Do not take command over two,” no. 1826). ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The story of Abu Dharr’s acceptance of Islam is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (nos. 3522 and 3861) and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (no. 2474). There, he first sent his brother to find out the news and then came himself; ʿAlī, may God be pleased with him, hosted him and led him to the Prophet ﷺ; the Prophet ﷺ told him to keep the matter to himself and return to his people; he declared the testimony of faith openly at the Kaaba and was beaten; al-ʿAbbās rescued him by warning Quraysh that their trade route to Syria passed through Ghifār; and the next day the same thing happened again. The speaker narrated the story by its sense. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (no. 30) Abu Dharr says: «سَابَبْتُ رَجُلًا فَعَيَّرْتُهُ بِأُمِّهِ» (“I quarrelled with a man and taunted him about his mother”), and the Prophet ﷺ told him: «إِنَّكَ امْرُؤٌ فِيكَ جَاهِلِيَّةٌ» (“You are a man in whom there is still something of the Age of Ignorance”); the man is not named. Naming him as Bilal, the words “son of a black woman,” and the report that Abu Dharr laid his cheek on the ground for Bilal to step on are not in this narration, so what is not established has been removed from the text.