[1] Following the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Shurahbil and his father loyally served the nascent Medina-based Muslim state and fought with distinction during the Ridda wars against the Arabian tribes that had defected from Medina.
[1][2] As a result, their star rose in Medina at the expense of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays, a rival Kindite chief who fought against the Muslims in the Ridda and repented following his defeat and capture in Yemen.
[5] He settled in the newly-established Arab garrison town of Kufa, but emerging as the weaker Kindite against al-Ash'ath in the rivalry for the leadership of the tribe in the city, he moved to join his father in Homs.
[1] After moving to Syria, he became a committed partisan of its governor Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan during the latter's conflict with the Kufa-based Caliph Ali (r. 656–661) in the First Fitna.
At some point during Mu'awiya's or Yazid I's reign, he was surpassed in influence with the Umayyads by his Syrian Kindite rival, Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni.