Islamic Stories

Beauty and the Beast

This story is about the Sahabah who was described to might have had Dwarfism and was ugly in appearance. This is the story about how he got married and how he died.

 This is the story of Julaybib.

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) used to check up on all of his Sahabah, so one he checked up on Julaybib. He asked how is you wife? And Julaybib replied: I am not married, we both know that only women who would be my wife are the huraleen (women of Jannah).

The Prophet (saw) was saddened by this so he went to one of the Ansar and said: "I want to have your daughter married."

"How wonderful and blessed, O Messenger of God and what a delight to the eye (this would be)," replied the Ansari man with obvious joy and happiness.

"I do not want her for myself," added the Prophet.

"Then for whom, O Messenger of God?" asked the man, obviously somewhat let down.

"For Julaybib," said the Prophet.

The Ansari must have been too shocked to give his own reaction and he merely said: "I will consult with her mother." And off he went to his wife.

"The Messenger of God, may God be bless him and grant him peace, want to have your daughter married," he said to her.

She too was thrilled. "What a wonderful idea and what a delight to the eye (this would be)," she said.

"He doesn't want to marry her himself but she wants to marry (her) to Julaybib," he added.

She was flabbergasted, "To Julaybib! No, never to Julaybib! No, by the living God we shall not marry (her) to him," she protested.

As the Ansari was about to return to the Prophet to inform him of what his wife had said, the daughter who had heard the her mother's protestations, (she was described as one of the most beautiful women in the area and was quite pious) asked: "Who has asked to marry me?"

Her mother told her of the Prophet's request for her hand in marriage to Julaybib. When she heard that the request had come from the prophet and that her mother was absolutely opposed to the idea, she was greatly perturbed and said: "Do you refuse the request of the of the Messenger of God? Send me to him for he shall certainly not bring ruin to me."

This was the reply of a truly great person who had a clear understanding of what was required of her as a Muslim.

The Sahabi and Julaybib were then happily married for many years until Julaybib died as martyr in battle. 

When said battle was over, the Prophet asked his companions: "Have you lost anyone?" They replied giving the names of their relatives of close friends who were killed. He put the same questions to other companions and they also named the ones they has lost in battle. Another group answered that they had lost no close relative whereupon the prophet said: "But I have lost my Julaybib. Where is my Julaybib? Search for him in the battlefield."

They searched and found him beside seven (some say 9) enemy bodies whom he had struck before meeting his end. The Prophet stood up and went to his body, his short and deformed companion. He stood over him and said: "This man is if me and I am of him." He repeated this two or three times. The Prophet then took him in his arms and it is said that he no better bed than the for arms of Messenger of God. The Prophet then dug for him a grave and himself placed him in it. He did not wash him for martyrs are not washed before burial.

When the Prophet stood over the grave he smiled because he had seen Julaybib and his wife together hand in hand in Jannah, and that as they were walking, Julaybib's wife's ankle became exposed and the Prophet turned away and said "He had no right to look upon the auwra of the wife of Julaybib."

May we all have souls as beautiful and as brave the Prophet peace be upon him's beloved companion, Julaybib. Ameen.