Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

c. 573 - 634 CE

First adult male to accept Islam. Sole companion of the Prophet in the cave of Thawr on the night of the Hijra. First Rashidun caliph. Held the fracturing ummah together after the Prophet's death.

Life

Abu Bakr Abdullah ibn Uthman al-Taymi, known by his kunya Abu Bakr, was the closest friend of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ from before the revelation. He was the first adult male to embrace Islam. He spent his considerable wealth to free tortured slaves, among them Bilal, the first muezzin.

On the night of the Hijra, when the Meccans had planted assassins around the Prophet's house, Abu Bakr was the sole companion who accompanied the Prophet on the long escape to Medina. They hid in the cave of Thawr for three days. When Meccan trackers stood at the mouth of the cave, Abu Bakr wept: "O Messenger of Allah, if they look down at their feet, they will see us." The Prophet answered him with the verse recorded in Surah At-Tawbah: "Do not grieve. Verily, Allah is with us."

He earned the epithet al-Siddiq ("the truthful, the confirming") on the night of the Isra and Mi'raj, when the Prophet described his ascent through the heavens and many refused to believe. Abu Bakr said: "If he said it, it is true."

He became the first caliph after the Prophet's death. In the two years of his rule, he held together an ummah on the verge of collapse: he suppressed the Ridda apostasies, initiated the collection of the Quran into a single mushaf, and dispatched the armies that would soon bring down two empires. He died in 634 CE and was buried beside the Prophet in Aisha's chamber.

Stories

Each story below is drawn from the classical Islamic sources and is told in longer form on its own page.