'Abd ar-Rahmân ibn 'Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) was brought his meal one day.
He said: “Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr (may Allah be pleased with him) was killed, and he was better than me.”
“Nothing was found to shroud him but a cloak.” Then he wept and left the food. Keep this image: we will return to it.
Khabbâb (may Allah be pleased with him) counts him among those who emigrated for Allah's face and took no reward here.
Better than Ibn 'Awf, and buried in a single cloak. Who was this man before he believed?
His name: Mus'ab, son of 'Umayr, of the clan of 'Abd ad-Dâr, one of the houses of Quraysh.
In war, men of his clan carried the banner of Quraysh. Remember it: a banner awaits Mus'ab too.
The biographer Ibn Sa'd opens his page on him with a name: Mus'ab al-Khayr, Mus'ab the Good.
The biographers paint the young man: the youth of Mecca in beauty and dress, loved by both his parents.
His mother was rich and dressed him in the finest cloth. The most perfumed man in Mecca, in sandals from Hadramawt.
They describe him: fine skin, beautiful hair, neither short nor tall.
He heard that the Prophet ﷺ was calling to Islam in the house of al-Arqam ibn Abî al-Arqam.
He went in, accepted Islam and believed him. Then he walked out, and told no one.
He hid his faith, fearing his mother and his people, and kept coming to the Prophet ﷺ in secret.
He had more to lose than most: a mother's love, her wealth, a name in Mecca.
Everyone in Mecca knew his clothes, his scent, his sandals. His mother was rich, and his parents adored him.
What happens to a young man like that when he hears the Qur'an?
The softest life in Mecca, and a secret carried through its streets. The secret will not hold.
Tonight, name one comfort you would find hard to give up, and ask what you would do if your faith required it.