Selected Hadiths on Yemen

For more details on the following Hadiths on Yemen please refer to

The Excellence of Syro-Palestine Al-Sham & its People : Forty Hadiths 

by Gibril Fouad Haddad 

 

Anas ibn Mālik said that the Prophet s.a.w. looked toward Iraq, Shām, and Yemen then said: “O Allāh! Bring their hearts over to Your obedience and relieve them of their burdens.

From Nāfi‘, from Ibn ‘Umar, the Prophet s.a.w. said: “O Allāh, bless us in our Shām and our Yaman!”

Five of the Companions who reported narrations on the excellence of Syro-Palestine from the Messenger of Allāh s.a.w. hail from Yemen: Ka‘b ibn ‘Iyād. al-Ash‘arī, Abū Umāma al-Bāhilī [al-S. adī ibn ‘Ajlān], Abū Hurayra al-Dawsī, Salama ibn Nufayl, and Thawbān the Mawlā of the Prophet s.a.w. . Among the Yemeni Tābi‘īn are Ka‘b al-Ah.bār ibn Māti‘ al-H.imyarī, ‘Abd al- Rah. mān ibn ‘Ā’ish al-H. ad. ramī – both may have seen the Prophet s.a.w. –, Jubayr ibn Nufayr, and Kathīr ibn Murra. It is established that the Prophet s.a.w. said: “The best of men are the people of Yemen, belief is Yemeni, and I am Yemeni.”

According to a Hadith of the Prophet s.a.w. narrated from Abū Hurayra by al-Bukhārī and Muslim in their Sahih, the Prophet s.a.w. said: “The people of al-Yaman have come to you, most sensitive in their souls, softest of hearts! Belief is from al-Yaman, wisdom is from al-Yaman!”

The Prophet s.a.w said: “At some point you will all be [split into] standing armies: one army in Syro-Palestine, one in Yemen, and one in Iraq.” ‘Abd Allāh ibn H.awāla said: “Choose for me, Messenger of Allāh! in case I live to see that day.” The Prophet s.a.w said: “You must go to Syro-Palestine! For it is the chosen land of Allāh in all His earth. He protects, by sending them there, the chosen ones among His servants. If you do not wish to go there, then go to your Yemen and drink from your streams. For Allāh has given me a guarantee concerning Shām and its people.

Another Yemenite Companion who lived and died in Syro-Palestine, Abū Umāma al-Bāhilī, narrated that the Prophet s.a.w. said: “Allāh made me face Syro-Palestine with my back to Yemen and said: ‘Muhammad! I have made the region behind you a help for you and that facing you an immunity and sustenance for you.’”