The Islam of Dimam ibn Tha’laba

The healer who sought “the madman of Mecca”

Mouslim and al-Bayhaqi related, from Dawoud ibn Abi Hind, from Amr ibn Said, from Said ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas: Dimam came to Mecca; he was a man of Azd Shanoua seeking a cure for that illness. He heard some fools of the people saying that Muhammad was mad. He said: “Where is this man? Perhaps Allah will heal him at my hands.” I met Muhammad and I said: “I treat this illness, and Allah heals at my hands whom He wills: come.” Muhammad said: “Praise be to Allah, we praise Him and seek His aid: whoever Allah guides, none can lead astray, and whoever He leads astray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, alone, without partner,” three times.

“I have never heard words like these”

Dimam said: “By Allah, I have heard the speech of the soothsayers, the speech of the sorcerers and the speech of the poets, but I have never heard words like these. Give me your hand: I pledge allegiance to you upon Islam.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave him his hand and said: “And upon your people?” He replied: “And upon my people.” In one version, Dimam said: “Repeat these words of yours to me, for they have reached the oars of the sea.” The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then sent an expedition that passed by Dimam’s people: the commander asked whether they had taken anything from these people; a man answered that he had taken an object, and he ordered it returned to them: “These are Dimam’s people.”

The early converts enumerated by Ibn Ishaq

Abu Nu’aym devoted a long chapter in the Dala’il an-Nubuwwa to the notables who embraced Islam, detailing it with care. Ibn Ishaq likewise enumerated the early Companions who converted (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): then Abu Ubayda, Abu Salama, al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam, Uthman ibn Maz’oun, Ubayda ibn al-Harith, Said ibn Zayd and his wife Fatima bint al-Khattab, Asma bint Abi Bakr, Aisha bint Abi Bakr while still young, Qudama ibn Maz’oun, Abdallah ibn Maz’oun, Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, Umayr ibn Abi Waqqas, Abdallah ibn Mas’oud, Mas’oud ibn al-Qari, Salit ibn Amr, ’Ayyash ibn Abi Rabia and his wife Asma bint Salama ibn Mukharriba al-Tamimiyya,

Khunays ibn Hudhafa, Amir ibn Rabia, Abdallah ibn Jahsh, Abu Ahmad ibn Jahsh, Ja’far ibn Abi Talib and his wife Asma bint Umays, Hatib ibn al-Harith and his wife Fatima bint al-Mujallal, his brother Hattab ibn al-Harith and his wife Fukayha bint Yassar, Ma’mar ibn al-Harith al-Jumahi, as-Sa’ib ibn Uthman ibn Maz’oun, al-Muttalib ibn Azhar ibn Abd Awf and his wife Ramla bint Abi Awf, an-Nahham, named Nu’aym ibn Abdallah ibn Assid, Amir ibn Fuhayra, freed slave of Abu Bakr, Khalid ibn Said, Umayna bint Khalaf ibn As’ad, of Khuza’a, Hatib ibn Amr ibn Abd Shams, Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba ibn Rabia, Waqid ibn Abdallah at-Tamimi, ally of the Banu Adi, Khalid, Amir, ’Aqil and Iyas ibn al-Bukayr, ’Aqil being named Ghafil before the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) renamed him ’Aqil, Ammar ibn Yassir and Souhayb ibn Sinan. Then people entered Islam in groups, men and women, until Islam spread in Mecca and became the talk of its people.

The command to proclaim and the first blood shed in Islam

Ibn Ishaq said: three years after the beginning of the mission, Allah ordered His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to proclaim what he had been commanded and to endure the harm of the polytheists. The Companions, when they prayed, would withdraw into the valleys and conceal their prayer from their people. Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas was with a group praying in a valley of Mecca when some polytheists came upon them: they disapproved of them and reviled them for what they were doing, until it came to blows. Sa’d struck one of the polytheists with a camel’s jawbone and split his head: that was the first blood shed in Islam. al-Umawi related in his Maghazi, through the chain of al-Waqqasi, from az-Zuhri, from Amir ibn Sa’d, from his father, the story at length, and in it the wounded man was Abdallah ibn Khatl, may Allah curse him.