Exemplary Youths during the Early Days of Islam

Yazīd ibn Hātib, the Happy and Prosperous Youth

One of the Muslim youths who took part in the Battle of Uhud was Yazīd ibn Hātib. While fighting, Yazīd ibn Hātib was badly wounded, so he was removed from the battlefield to the village of Banī Zafar, to his father’s house.

His relatives came to see him, and noticed that his condition was very grave. Realizing that he was going to die, they gave him the good news of heaven and said, “How fortunate you are that you are going to heaven.”

But his father, who was one of the hypocrites, could not hide his hypocrisy. He shouted, “What good news are you giving my son? Heaven is nothing but Island of trees![^1] I swear by Allah that you deceived my son into battle.”[^2]

[^1]: That Hātib has compared the Heaven with Ispand is due to the abundance of the Ispand trees in deserts of Medina and around the Baqī‘ Cemetery at the time. Therefore, he meant that there exists no paradise but Ispand trees under the soil of which he was to be buried.

[^2]: Ibn Hishām, Al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, vol. 3, p. 93; Tārīkh-e Payāmbar-e Islām, p. 332.