’Amr ibn al-Jamouh: from the idol Manat to Islam

Medina after the pledge: the elders still upon shirk

Ibn Ishaq said: when the Ansar who pledged to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the night of al-’Aqaba returned to Medina, Islam became manifest there. There still remained, however, elders of their peoples attached to their religion of association, among them ’Amr ibn al-Jamouh ibn Zayd ibn Haram ibn Ka’b ibn Ghannam ibn Ka’b ibn Salama, whose son Mou’adh ibn ’Amr had attended al-Aqaba. ’Amr ibn al-Jamouh was one of the chiefs and notables of the Banu Salama.

The idol Manat and the youths who threw it into the pit

He had taken a wooden idol into his home, called Manat, as the notables used to do: he took it for a deity which he venerated and purified. When the young men of the Banu Salama embraced Islam : his son Mou’adh and Mou’adh ibn Jabal : they would come by night to this idol of ’Amr, carry it and throw it head-down into a pit of the Banu Salama into which went the people’s filth. In the morning, ’Amr would say: “Woe to you! Who passed over our deity this night?” Then he would go seeking it; when he found it, he washed it, purified it and perfumed it, then said: “By Allah, if I knew who does this to you, I would humiliate him.” In the evening, when ’Amr slept, they came back to the charge and did the same, and in the morning he found the idol in the same state, washed it, purified it and perfumed it again.

The sword hung on the idol’s neck and ’Amr’s conversion

When they had multiplied their expeditions against it, he brought it out of its place with force one day, washed it, purified it and perfumed it, then brought his sword and hung it on its neck, saying to it: “I know not, by Allah, who does to you what I see; if there is good in you, defend yourself: here is the sword with you.” When evening came, ’Amr slept, they returned to the charge, took the sword from its neck, then seized a dead dog, tied it to the idol with a rope and threw it into a pit of the Banu Salama filled with filth. In the morning, ’Amr ibn al-Jamouh no longer found it in its place: he went out seeking it until he found it in that pit, overturned, coupled to a dead dog. Upon seeing it, he perceived its true reality. Those of his people who had embraced Islam spoke to him, and he embraced Islam by Allah’s mercy, and his Islam was excellent.

’Amr’s verses against his former idol

When he had embraced Islam and recognized of Allah what he recognized, he would recall his idol, what he had seen of it, and thank Allah for saving him from the blindness and misguidance he was in:

“By Allah, had you been a deity, you would not have been … you and a dog in the middle of a well, tied together ;”

“Shame on my taking you for a deity, O you who were plated with gold : … the crevice turned you away from the pit’s evil ;”

“Praise to Allah, the Most High, rich in favors, … the Bestower, the Provider, the Judge of every judgment ;”

“It is He who saved me before … I lay in the darkness of a grave held in pledge.”