Musaylima (Arabic: مُسَيْلِمَةُ), otherwise known as Musaylima ibn Ḥabīb (Arabic: مسيلمه ابن حبيب) d.632, was a claimant of prophethood from the Banu Hanifa tribe,of which present day descendants include the House of Saud among other Najd tribesBased from Diriyah in present day Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he claimed to be a prophet and was an opponent of Islam in 7th-century Arabia. He was a leader during the Ridda wars. He is considered by Muslims to be a false prophet (Arabic: اَلْكَذَّابُ al-Kadhdhāb).He is commonly called Musaylima al-Kadhāb (Musaylima the Arch-Liar)
Etymology
Musaylima’s real name was Maslama ibn Habib, but Muslims altered his name to Musaylima, which is the diminutive of Maslama (i.e., ‘Little Maslama’)
Early life
Musaylima was the son of Habib, of the tribe Banu Hanifa, one of the largest tribes of Arabia that inhabited the region of Najd. The Banu Hanifa were a Hanafite Christian branch of Banu Bakr and led an independent existence prior to Islam.
Among the first accounts of him describe events in the late 9th Hijri, the Year of Delegations, when he accompanied a delegation of his tribe to Medina. The delegation included two other prominent Muslims. They would later help Musaylima rise to power and save their tribe from destruction. These men were Nahar Ar-Rajjal bin Unfuwa (or Rahhal)
and Muja’a bin Marara. In Medina, the deputation stayed with the daughter of al-Harith, a woman of the Ansar from the Banu Najjar. When the delegation arrived at Medina the camels were tied in a traveler’s camp, and Musaylima remained there to look after them while the other delegates went in.
