Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq
The first man to believe in the Prophet ﷺ, his companion on the migration, and the first caliph of the Muslims. God named him in the Qurʾān: “the second of two, when they were in the cave.”
In brief
- His name
- ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿĀmir, of Banū Taym of Quraysh; his lineage meets the Prophet’s at Murra ibn Kaʿb.
- His father
- Abū Quḥāfa — he accepted Islam on the day of the conquest, making Abū Bakr the only Companion whose parents and children all became Muslim.
- His title
- Al-Ṣiddīq, the affirmer — for believing the Night Journey when Quraysh called it a lie. Also al-ʿAtīq: “You are God’s freedman from the Fire,” the Prophet ﷺ told him.
- His birth
- In Mecca about two and a half years after the Year of the Elephant — roughly two years younger than the Prophet ﷺ.
- His caliphate
- From 11 AH to 13 AH — two years and three months.
- His death
- In Medina, 13 AH, at sixty-three — the age of the Prophet ﷺ. He was buried beside him.
His story
Before Islam he was among the nobles and merchants of Quraysh, learned in their genealogy and well loved. When the Prophet ﷺ called him he accepted at once, without hesitation, and through him five of the Ten Promised Paradise entered Islam: ʿUthmān, al-Zubayr, Ṭalḥa, Saʿd, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf.
He spent his wealth in God’s cause and freed seven who were being tortured in Mecca, among them Bilāl. When the army of hardship was equipped he brought everything he owned. “What have you left your family?” he was asked. “I have left them God and His Messenger.”
When the Prophet ﷺ died and the people were shaken, he stood and said: “Whoever worshipped Muhammad — Muhammad has died. Whoever worships God — God is living and does not die.” He then fought the apostasy, and had the Qurʾān gathered into a single volume on ʿUmar’s counsel: the first to do so.