The Islam of Abdallah ibn Salam

Imam Ahmad reports through Zurara, from Abdallah ibn Salam himself: when the Messenger of Allah arrived in Medina, the people hurried to him, and I was among them. When I discerned his face I knew it was not the face of a liar. The first words I heard him say were: "O people, spread the greeting of peace, feed the hungry, uphold the ties of kinship, and pray by night while people sleep: you will enter Paradise in peace." The Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah reported it by similar chains, and the Tirmidhi declared it authentic.

In the Sahih of the Boukhari, through Abd al-Aziz, from Anas: when the Prophet arrived, Abdallah ibn Salam came and said: I bear witness that you are the Messenger of Allah and that you have come with truth. The Jews know that I am their lord and the son of their lord, the most knowing among them and the son of their most knowing. Call them therefore and ask them about me before they know that I have embraced Islam: if they learn of my conversion they will say of me what is not true. The Prophet sent for the Jews, who came to him.

He said to them: "O assembly of Jews, woe to you! Fear Allah. By Him besides whom there is no deity, you know certainly that I am the Messenger of Allah in truth, and that I have come to you with truth: so embrace Islam." They said: we have no knowledge of that.

They said it to the Prophet three times. He said: "What kind of man is Abdallah ibn Salam among you?" They said: he is our lord and the son of our lord, our most knowing and the son of our most knowing. He said: "And if you saw him embrace Islam?"

They said: Allah forbid! He would not do such a thing. He said: "O ibn Salam, come out before them." He came out and said: O assembly of Jews, fear Allah!

By Him besides whom there is no deity, you know that he is the Messenger of Allah and that he has come with truth. They said: you lie. The Messenger of Allah dismissed them.

The Bayhaqi reports, through Anas, that Abdallah ibn Salam, hearing of the Prophet’s arrival while on his land, came to the Prophet and said: I will ask you about three things which none but a prophet knows. What is the first of the signs of the Hour? What is the first food the people of Paradise will eat? And why does a child resemble his father, and why does another resemble his mother?

The Prophet said: "Jibril taught me these just recently." He said: Jibril? He said: yes. He said: Jibril, the enemy of the Jews among the angels!

Thereupon the Prophet recited: whoever takes Jibril for an enemy, he it is who brought it down upon your heart by the permission of Allah (al-Baqara, 97). Then he said: "As for the first of the signs of the Hour, it is a fire that will go out from the east to the west gathering the people; as for the first food the people of Paradise will eat, it is the extra lobes of the liver of the fish; and as for the child, if the water of the man precedes the water of the woman, the child will resemble the father, and if the water of the woman precedes, the child will resemble the mother."

He said: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that you are the Messenger of Allah. The Jews are a people of slander: if they learn of my conversion before you ask them about me, they will slander me. The Jews came, and the Prophet said: "What kind of man is Abdallah among you?" They said: the best of us and the son of our best, our lord and the son of our lord. He said: "And if you saw him embrace Islam?" They said: Allah preserve him from that! Abdallah came out and said: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and that Mohamed is the Messenger of Allah. They said: the worst of us and the son of the worst, and they belittled him. He said: this is what I feared, O Messenger of Allah.

Ibn Ishaq reports, from a man of the family of Abdallah ibn Salam, his words at the time of his conversion, when he was a learned rabbi: when I heard of the coming of the Messenger of Allah, and recognised his description, his name and his appearance, and that toward which we extended our hands in hope, I kept it secret within me. When he entered Medina and stopped at Qouba among the Banu Amr ibn Awf, a man came announcing his arrival, while I was at the top of one of my palm trees at work, and my paternal aunt Khalida bint al-Harith sat below me. When I heard the news of the Messenger of Allah’s arrival, I cried out Allah is great! My aunt said: no good will come to you; you have heard of Moussa, and now more!

I said to her: O my aunt, by Allah, he is the brother of Moussa and was sent in his religion. She said: O son of my sister, is he the one of whom we were told he would be sent at the end of time? I said: yes. She said: then that is he.

I went out to the Messenger of Allah, embraced Islam, then returned to my family and had them embrace Islam, concealing my Islam from the Jews. I said: O Messenger of Allah, the Jews are a people of slander, and I wish you to hide me in one of your houses, away from them, and then to ask them about me, so that they may tell you what I am among them before they learn of my conversion; for if they learn of it they will slander me and revile me. He did as I had requested; I made my Islam and that of my household manifest, and my aunt Khalida bint al-Harith embraced Islam.

Younous ibn Boukayr reports from Ibn Ishaq, from Safiyya bint Houyayy: no child of my father and my uncle was ever dearer to them than I, and never did I run to them among their children but they received me kindly. When the Messenger of Allah arrived at Qouba, the village of the Banu Amr ibn Awf, my father and my uncle Abou Yasir ibn Akhtab went to him early in the morning, and by Allah they did not return to us until the sun had set, both worn out, dragging their feet. I ran to them as I was accustomed to do, but by Allah not one of them looked at me. I heard my uncle Abou Yasir say to my father: is it he? He said: yes, by Allah. He said: do you recognise him with your own eyes? He said: yes, by Allah. He said: then what is in your heart concerning him? He said: enmity toward him, by Allah, so long as I have a breath left.

Moussa ibn Oqba reports from az-Zouhri that Abou Yasir ibn Akhtab, when the Messenger of Allah arrived in Medina, went to him, listened to him, questioned him, then returned to his people and said: O my people, obey me: Allah has brought you what you were waiting for, so follow him and do not oppose him. His brother Houyayy ibn Akhtab, at that time the lord of the Jews, both of them of the Banu an-Nadir, sat with the Messenger of Allah, listened to him, then returned to his people, whose obedience he possessed, and said: I come from a man, by Allah, whose enemy I shall never cease to be. His brother Abou Yasir said to him: O brother of my mother, obey me in this matter and disobey me in whatever you wish after it: do not perish. He said: by Allah, I shall never obey you.

The devil gained mastery over him, and his people followed his counsel. As for Abou Yasir ibn Akhtab, we do not know how his affair ended; as for Houyayy ibn Akhtab, father of Safiyya, he drank deeply of enmity toward the Prophet and his companions, and it remained his habit until he was slain, patient in his obstinacy, before the Messenger of Allah on the day of the execution of the Banu Qurayza, as will come in its place.