Al-Arqam ibn Abī al-Arqam () (c. 597-675) was a

companion Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. He was the owner of the house where the early

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

community held its meetings.

Biography

He was from the Makhzum clan of the

Quraysh tribe The Quraysh () are an Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By the seventh centu ...

. His father, known as Abu'l-Arqam, was Abdmanaf ibn Asad ibn Umar ibn Makhzum. His mother was Umayma bint Al-Harith from the Khuza'a tribe. He married Hind bint Abdullah from the

Asad Asad (), sometimes written as Assad, is an Arabic male given name literally meaning "lion". It is used in nicknames such as ''Asad Allāh'', one of the by-names for Ali ibn Abi Talib. People Among prominent people named "Asad" or "Assad" a ...

tribe, and their children were Umayya and Maryam. By various concubines, he was also the father of Ubaydullah, Uthman and Safiya. The descendants of Ubaydullah died out; all of Al-Arqam's surviving descendants were through Uthman. Al-Arqam is eighth on the list of "people who became Muslims at the invitation of

Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruli ...

," who of course were not on the total list of all Muslims. He joined the general

emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

in 622, and Muhammad granted him a house there in the Zurayq quarter. He fought at Badr and, at the division of the spoils, asked for and obtained a sword named al-Marzuban. He also fought at the Uhud, the Battle of the Trench and "all the battles with Allah's Messenger." He died during the reign of Mu’aawiyah in the year 675 (55 A.H.).

The House of Al-Arqam

The harassment and persecution of Muslims by Quraysh

polytheist Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese folk religions, is really so, or whet ...

s (''mushriks'') in

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

was increasing, and the Muslims could not

worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity or God. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition of a God. An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, ...

comfortably. Al-Arqam's house was selected as a safe place to meet, pray and learn about the faith because it was located on the east of As-Safa Hill, where Muhammad was living at the commencement of his prophetic mission. The house could be entered and exited secretly because it was in a narrow street, and the street could be surveyed from within. In the fifth year of the mission Arqam’s house, which became known as the House of Islam, can be regarded as the first

Islamic school Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

, with Muhammad as the teacher and the first Muslims as its students. New converts were brought to Al-Arqam's house. In the sixth year of the mission (615-616 CE), two powerful citizens of the Quraysh tribe, Muhammad’s uncle Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib and

Umar ibn Al-Khattab Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muh ...

, entered to announce their adoption of Islam. Umar's conversion brought the total to forty men, after which the members of the group embarked on a mission to spread Islam to the world. Al-Arqam bequeathed his house to his son on the condition that it would not be sold. However, in the time of Abu Jaafar al-Mansur, one of Al-Arqam's grandsons was persuaded to sell his share in the house for 17,000 ''dinars'' in exchange for being released from prison; and his relatives were then bribed into selling their own shares. His house is now called ''Daru’l-Khayzuran'' after a subsequent owner.Ibn Saad/Bewley, p. 186. It is opposite the

Kaaba The Kaaba (), also spelled Kaba, Kabah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaba al-Musharrafa (), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and Holiest sites in Islam, holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Sa ...

and is used as a religious school today.

References

{{Authority control 590s births 675 deaths Sahabah who participated in the battle of Uhud