The hardships borne by Hadhrat Khabbaab bin Al Arat رضي الله عنه

Hadhrat Khabaab bin Al Arat رضي الله عنه was amongst those great souls who endured the worst of trials and torture in the path of Allaah Ta'aala. He was the sixth or seventh person to enter the fold of Islam and was therefore subjected to suffering for a longer period of time. He was made to wear steel armour and thrown into the sun, causing him to swelter in the extreme desert heat. He was often made to lie on the scorching sand because of which the flesh on his back would fall from his body.

He was a slave of a woman who, when she learnt that he had been meeting with Rasoolullah صلى الله على وسلم, she branded his head with a hot iron.
A while after he had become the Khalifa, Hadhrat Umar رضي الله عنه once asked Hadhrat Khabbaab رضي الله عنه about his sufferings.  “Just look at my back" Hadhrat  Khabbaab رضي الله عنه said . When he did, Hadhrat Umar رضي الله عنه exclaimed, “I have never seen such a back!” Hadhrat Khabbaab رضي الله عنه said, “I was made to lie on burning coals and dragged until the fat and blood from my back would extinguish the coals.”

Despite all his sufferings, when Islaam progressed and the Muslims conquered many lands, he would weep saying, “May it not be that we are been compensated for our sufferings in this world.”

Hadhrat Khabbaab رضي الله عنه relates that Rasoolullah صلى الله على وسلم once performed an unusually long Salaah. When he had completed, the Sahaabah رضي الله عنه asked him about it. Rasoolullah صلى الله على وسلم replied, “this was a Salaah of yearning and fear. I had asked Allah Ta'aala for three things and only two have been granted. When I asked Allah not to let my Ummah perish in drought, He accepted this dua. I then asked Him never to allow an enemy to annihilate them, He accepted this dua as well. However, when I asked him never to allow my Ummah to fight amongst themselves, He did not grant me this.”

Hadhrat Khabbaab رضي الله عنه passed away at the age of 37 and was the first of Rasoolullah's صلى الله على وسلم companions to be buried in Kufa, Hadhrat Ali رضي الله عنه once passed by his grave and remarked, “May Allah Ta'aala have mercy on Khabbaab! He accepted Islam on his own accord, migrated willingly, spent his life in Jihaad, and endured tremendous hardships. Congratulations to the one who remembers the Day of Qiyaamah, who prepares for reckoning, who is content with just what suffices and who pleases his Rabb.”

In reality, only those people are able to please their Rabb whose every deed is a means of pleasing Him