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| How Salman the Magian became a Muslim |
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| amatullah |
| 01/20/04 at 01:22:55 |
| Salman said to Abdullah ibn Abbas: My father was the principal landowner in his village and I was dearer to him than the whole world. His love for me to such lengths that he shut me in his house as though i were a slave girl. I was such a zealous Magian that I became keeper of the sacred fire, replenishing it and not letting it g out for a moment. Now my father owned a large farm, and one day when he cold not attend to his farm he told me to go to it and learn about it, giving me certain instructions saying 'Do not let yourself be detained for you are more important to me than my farm and worrying aboutyou will prevent me from going about my business'.So I started out for the farm, and when I passed by a Christian church I heard the voices of men praying. I knew nothing about them because my father kept me shut in the house. When I heard their voices I went to see what they were doing; their prayers pleased me and I felt drawn to their worshp and thought that it was better than our (magian) religion, and I decided that I would not leave them until sunset. So I did not go to the farm. When I asked them where their religion originated from, they sadi 'Syria'. I returned to my father who asked where I had been and had reproached me for not following his instructions. I told him that I had passed by some men who were praying in their church and was so pleased with what I saw of their religion that I stayed with them until sunset. He said, 'My son, there is no good in that religion; the religion of your fathers is better than that'. No, I said, it is better than our religion. My father was afraid of what I would do, so he bound me in fetters and imprisoned me in his house. I sent a message to the Christians and asked if they would tell me when a caravan if Christian merchants would come from Syria. They told me, and I said to them, 'When they have finished their business and want to go back to their own country, ask them if they will take me' They did so, so I cast off the fetters from my feet and I went with them to Syria. When I arrived there I asked them to take me to the most learned person in their religion, and they directed me to the bishop. I went with him and told him that I liked his religion and should like to be with him and serve him in his church, to learn from him and to pray with him. He invited me to come in and I did so. Now he was a bad man who used to command people to give alms (charity) and induced them to do so and when thyey brought him money he put it in his own coffers and did not give it to the poor, until he had collcted seven jars of gold and silver. I concieved a violent hatred for the sam when I saw what he was doing. Sometime later when he died and the Christians came together to bury him I told that he was a bad man who exhorted them and persuaded them to give him alms, and when they brought money he put it in his coffers and didnt give it to the poor. They asked how I could possibly have known that so I led them to his treasure and when I showed them the place they saw the seven jars. When they saw this they said, 'By God, we will never bury him' so they crucified him and then appointed another religious leader in his place. I have never seen any non-Muslim whom I consider more virtous and more devoted to the next life than he (the new man). I loved him as I had never loved anyone befkre. I stayed with him a long time until he was about to die and I tild him how I lovedhim and asked him wfor advice as he was about to die. He said, 'My dear son, i do not know anyone who is as I am. Men have died and have either altered or abandoned most of their true religion, except a man in Mausil, he dollows my faith, so join yourself to him'. When he died and was burried, I attached myself to the bishop of Mausil telling him that so-and-so said that he followed the true path. It was not long before he was soon to die so I asked him about him about where to go. He said that he knew of only one man in Nasibin who followed the same path as him, so he reccomended that I go there. I stayed with this man for some time in Nasibin and when he died he told me to go to Ammuriya. I stayed in Ammuriya and labored until I posessed some cows and a small flock of sheep; then when he was about to die I asked him where to go. He replied that he knew of no one who followed his path but that a Prophet was about to rise who would be sent with the religion of Abraham; he would come forth in Arabia and would migrate to a country between two lava belts, between which there were palm trees. This man has unmistakable marks. He will eat what is given to him but not what is given as alms (charity). Between his shoulder is the seal of Prophecy. He told me, 'If you are able to go to that country, do so'. When he died, I stayed in Ammuriya for some time. Then a party of Kalibite merchants passed by and I asked them to take me to Arabia and I would give those cows and sheep of mine in exchange. They accepted the offer and took me to Wadi-Qura, when they sold me to a Jew as a slave. I saw the palm-trees and I hoped that this would be the town which had been described to me, for I was not certain. Then a cousin of my master from the tribe of Qurayaza of Medina came and took me to Medina, and by God, as soon as I saw it I recognised it from the bishops in Ammuriya's description. I lived there and the Apostle of God was sent and lived in mecca but I did not hear him mentioned because I was fully occupied as a slave. Then he migrated to Medina and as I was in the top of a palm-tree belonging to my master, carrying out my work while my master sat below, a cousin of his came to him and said, 'God smite the tribe of Qayla! They are gathering at this moment in Quba around a man who has come to them from Mecca today asserting that he is a Prophet'. When I heard this news on top of the palm tree I began trembling so much so that I thought I would fall on my master; so I climbed down from the tree and said to his cousin, 'What did you say? What did you say?'. My master reacted angrily and hit me, saying 'What do you mean by this? Get back to your work'. I said, 'Never mind, I only wanted to find out the truth of this report'. Now I had a little food which I had gathered and I took it that evening to the apostle of God who was in quba and said, 'I have heard that you are an honest man and that youe companions are strangers in want; here is something for alms, for I think tha you have more right to it that others'.So I gave it to him. The Apostle said to his companions 'Eat' but he did not eat that food. I said to myself, "That is one" I left him and went to collect some more food. I brought it to him him and said, 'I see that you do not eat food that is given in alms, here is a present which I give freely to you'. The Apostle then ate some of it and shared the rest with his companions. I said to myseld, "That is two". Then I went to the Apostle when he wasat the Gharqad cemetry where he had followed the funeral procession of one of his companions, I salued him and went round to look at his back so that I could see whether there was the seal which the bishop had told me about. When the Apostle saw me looking at his back he knew that I was trying to find out the truth of what had been described to me, so he threw off his cloak laying his back bare and I looked at the seal and recognised it. The Apostle said, 'Come here' so I came and sat before him and told him my story as I have told you. The Apostle wanted his companions to also hear the story. When the Battle of Badr and Uhad came, I could not join the Prophet as I was working for my master. So the Apostle told me to write an agreement with my master so I can be set free, to plant three hundred palm-trees for him, and to pay forty okes of gold. The apostle called on his companions to help me, which they did. Then he gave me a piece of gold the size of a hen's egg, and it weighed forty okes. So I paid my debt to my master and I was now a free man. Thereafter I took party with the Prophet in the battle of the dich as a free man and from then on I was at every other battle. [Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, pp 95-98 abridged] |
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