Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (595-674) was the Rashidun Caliphate's governor of Busra (Bosra, Syria) from 638 to 644 and from 645 to 646.
Biography[]
Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas was born in 595 in Mecca to the Banu Zuhrah clan of the Quraysh tribe. At the age of seventeen, he embraced Islam and was a sahabi of Muhammad, fighting at the battle of Badr and battle of Uhud. He fell ill at the same time as Muhammad, and because he had only a daughter to succeed him, he felt inclined to donate two-thirds of his wealth as sadaqah; Muhammad told him that he needed to feed his family, and accepted one-third of his fortune as charity. He served Abu Bakr and Umar as a general during the 630s, fighting at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and Battle of Nahavand against the Sassanids of Persia and serving as governor of Kufa and Nejd under Umar. In 650, he introduced Islam to China during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and he died in 674, the last of the Ten Great Companions.