Habibannajjar Meaning

HABĪB AN-NAJJĀR (حبيب النجار‎). “Ḥabīb the Carpenter,” whose story is told in the Qurʾān (Sūrah xxxvi. 12), as follows:—

“Set forth to them the instance of the people of the city (i.e. of Antioch) when the Sent Ones came to it.

“When we sent two (i.e. John and Jude) [153]unto them and they charged them both with imposture—therefore with a third (i.e. Simon Peter) we strengthened them: and they said, ‘Verily we are the Sent unto you of God.’

“They said, ‘Ye are only men like us: Nought hath the God of Mercy sent down. Ye do nothing but lie.’

“They said, ‘Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you;

“ ‘To proclaim a clear message is our only duty.’

“They said, ‘Of a truth we augur ill from you: if ye desist not we will surely stone you, and a grievous punishment will surely befall you from us.’

“They said, ‘Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned? Nay, ye are an erring people.’

“Then from the end of the city a man (i.e. Ḥabīb, the carpenter) came running: He said, ‘O my people! follow the Sent Ones;

“ ‘Follow those who ask not of you a recompence, and who are rightly guided.

“ ‘And why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought back?

“ ‘Shall I take gods beside Him? If the God of mercy be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:

“ ‘Truly then should I be in a manifest error.

“ ‘Verily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me.’

“—It was said to him, ‘Enter thou into Paradise’ (i.e. after they had stoned him to death). And he said, ‘Oh that my people knew

“ ‘How gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones.’

“But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels—

“There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.

“Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn.”

Al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator, says the people of the City of Antioch were idolaters, and that Jesus sent two of his disciples, Yaḥyā and Yūnas (John and Jude) to preach to them. And when they arrived, they met Ḥabīb, the carpenter, to whom they made known their mission. Ḥabīb said, “What signs can ye show that ye are sent of God?” And the disciples replied, “We can heal the sick and give sight to those who are born blind, and cure the leprosy.” Then Ḥabīb brought his sick son to them, and they laid their hands upon him and he was healed. And Ḥabīb believed in Jesus, and he made known the gospel to the people of the city. Many of the people then came to the disciples and were also healed. The news then reached the ear of the governor of the city, and he sent for the two disciples and they preached to him. He replied, “Is your God different from our God?” They said, “Yes. He it is who made thee and thy gods.” The governor then sent them away and put them in prison. When they were in prison, Jesus sent Shamʿūn (Simon Peter), and he came secretly and made friends with the servants of the governor, and in time gained access to the governor’s presence, and performed a miracle in the presence of the governor by raising a child who had been dead seven days. The child when raised from the dead, said he had seen Jesus Christ in heaven, and that he had interceded for the three disciples in prison. The governor believed and many others with him. Those who did not believe raised a disturbance in the city, and Ḥabīb the carpenter exhorted them to believe. For this he was stoned, and, having died, entered into Paradise.

Ḥabīb’s tomb is still seen at Antioch, and is visited by Muḥammadans as a shrine.