Home > Sira > The Mission of the Messenger of Allah and its Announcements
The prophetic mission: the announcements of the ancient Books, the covenant of the prophets, the invocation of Abraham, the soothsayers and the hurling of meteors, Zayd ibn Sou'na, Salman the Persian, the description in the Torah and the Gospel, Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Mohamed ibn Ishaq relates that the scholars of the Jews, the monks of the Christians and the soothsayers of the Arabs had already spoken of the affair of the Messenger of Allah before his mission, when his time drew near. The scholars of the Jews and the monks of the Christians announced him from what they found in their Books of his description, his era and the interval from their prophets, according to the word of the Most High: those who follow the messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Gospel (al-A’raf, 157); and when Issa son of Maryam said: O children of Israel, I am the messenger of Allah to you, confirming the Torah before me, and bringing glad tidings of a messenger to come after me whose name is Ahmad (as-Saff, 6); and: Mohamed is the messenger of Allah, and those with him are hard against the unbelievers, merciful among themselves:
you see them bowing, prostrating, seeking favour and acceptance from Allah: their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration: such is their example in the Torah and their example in the Gospel (al-Fath, 29). Allah also took the covenant of the prophets: when a messenger comes to you confirming what you have, you shall believe in him and help him (Al Imran, 81). The Boukhari reports from Ibn Abbas that Allah never sent a prophet without taking from him the covenant that if Mohamed were sent in his lifetime he would believe in him and help him, and commanding him to take from his nation the covenant of believing in him and following him if he were sent in their lifetime: whence it is known that all the prophets announced him and commanded his following. Abraham had also invoked for the people of Mecca: Our Lord, send among them a messenger of their own, who recites to them Your verses (al-Baqara, 129).
Imam Ahmad reports, from Abou Oumama, who said: O Messenger of Allah, what was the beginning of your affair? He said: "The invocation of my father Abraham, the glad tidings of Issa, and my mother saw a light come out of her which lit the palaces of Syria." Mohamed ibn Ishaq relates it likewise. We say: he meant the beginning of his affair among the people, the spread of his name: hence he mentioned the invocation of Abraham, from whom the Arabs descend, then the glad tidings of Issa, seal of the prophets of the children of Israel: which proves the prophets between the two announced him too. As for the highest assembly, his affair there was famous and known before even the creation of Adam, as Ahmad reports from al-’Irbad ibn Sariya that the Messenger of Allah said: "I am the servant of Allah and the seal of the prophets, and Adam is yet kneaded in his clay:
I shall inform you of the first of that: the invocation of my father Abraham, the glad tidings of Issa concerning me, and the vision my mother saw; so did the mothers of the prophets see in dreams." It is also related that she saw, at the moment of his birth, a light by which the palaces of Syria were lit. Ahmad also reports, from Mayssara al-Fajr, who said: O Messenger of Allah, when were you a prophet? He said: "While Adam was between spirit and body." It is likewise related from Abou Hourayra that he was asked when prophethood became due to him, and said: "Between the creation of Adam and the breathing of the spirit into him." And in the hadith from Qatada concerning the verse: and when We took from the prophets their covenant, and from you, and from Nouh (al-Ahzab, 7), the Messenger of Allah said: "I was the first of the prophets in creation and the last of them in mission."
As for the soothsayers of the Arabs, the devils among the jinn brought them news stolen from heaven, in an age when heaven was not yet guarded by hurled meteors. The soothsayer and the sorceress never ceased reporting some of that news, without the Arabs heeding it greatly, until Allah sent His prophet: then the devils were barred from listening, a barrier of meteors was set between them and the listening posts, and the jinn understood that a decree of Allah had befallen. Thereupon descended: say: it has been revealed to me that a company of the jinn listened, then said: we have heard a wondrous recitation guiding to rectitude (al-Jinn, 1-2), and: when We turned toward you a company of jinn listening to the Quran (al-Ahqaf, 29-30). Ya’qoub ibn Outba reports that the first of the Arabs alarmed by the meteor-storm was a clan of Thaqif: they came to a most perceptive man, Amr ibn Oumayya of the Banu Ilaj, who rejected that explanation and said: look:
if these are the guiding stars of land and sea, by which the seasons of summer and winter are known, then by Allah this is the end of the world and the ruin of creation; and if they are other stars, still in their places, then it is a decree by which Allah wills something for creation: seek what it is! Ibn Ishaq also relates the story of al-Ghaytala, a sorceress of the Banu Sahm, whose companion came one night saying: know what I know: a day of slaughter and butchery! Then another night: valleys, what valleys! A knee of the south shall be felled there! Quraysh, hearing of it, said: what does he mean? Some event must come: seek it! They recognized it only at the battles of Badr and Ouhoud in the valley, and knew it was what the jinn had brought. And a soothsayer of the clan of Janb in Yemen, when the news of the Messenger of Allah spread among the Arabs, climbed to his people gathered at the foot of his mountain, raised his head long to the sky, then said: O people, Allah has honoured Mohamed, chosen him, purified his heart and filled it; his stay among you, O people, will be brief! Then he went back into his mountain.
Asim ibn Omar ibn Qatada relates that among what called them to Islam, with the mercy of Allah and His guidance, was that they heard a man of the Jews, people of the Book versed in a knowledge they lacked, say whenever they inflicted some disgrace on them: the time of the prophet to be sent is near: we shall kill you with him as ’Ad and Iram were killed! When Allah sent the Messenger of Allah they answered his call, recognizing what the Jews had threatened them with, and outran them to him: they believed in him while the Jews disbelieved out of envy. Upon them and them descended: when there came to them a Book from Allah confirming what they had, though before they prayed for victory over the unbelievers, when there came to them what they recognized, they disbelieved in it: the curse of Allah upon the unbelievers (al-Baqara, 89). Warqa’ relates that the Jews used to say: O Allah, send us this prophet to judge between us and the people! And Sa’id ibn Joubayr relates that the Jews of Khaybar, whenever they met Ghatafan and were defeated, would pray: O Allah, we ask You by the right of Mohamed, the unlettered prophet whom You promised to bring forth for us at the end of time: grant us victory over them! And they defeated Ghatafan. When the Prophet was sent they disbelieved in him.
Salama ibn Salama ibn Waqch, a man of Badr, relates that he had a Jewish neighbour among the Banu Abd al-Achhal. One day the Jew came out and stood before them, speaking of the resurrection, the sending, the reckoning, the scale, Paradise and the Fire. They said: woe to you! Do you see that coming to pass, people resurrected after death to a home of Paradise and Fire, requited for their deeds? He said: yes, by Him by whom oaths are sworn! And for my share of the Fire I would accept the greatest oven of the town, to warm myself by, then be cast into it, were I but saved tomorrow from that Fire! They said: what sign have you of that? He said: a prophet will be sent from near these lands: and he pointed with his hand toward Mecca and the Yemen. They asked: when will you see him? He looked at me, the youngest of them, and said: if this lad uses up his life, he will reach him. Salama said: by Allah, neither night nor day passed before Allah sent His messenger, alive among us: we believed in him, and the Jew disbelieved out of envy. We said: woe to you! Are you not the one who told us that? He said: yes, but this is not he. Abou Nouaym likewise relates that the only Jew of the Banu Abd al-Achhal, called Youcha’, said to Salama, then a boy: the time has come of a prophet who will go forth from near this House, pointing to the House of Allah: whoever reaches him, let him believe him!
An elder of the Banu Qurayza likewise told Asim the story of a rabbi from Syria, called Ibn al-Hayyaban, who settled among them before Islam: by Allah, we never saw a man who prayed more. When drought came we would say: go out, O Ibn al-Hayyaban, and pray for rain for us! He would say: not until you first present a charity! We would give a sâ of dates or two mudds of barley; then he would go with us to the edge of our harra, pray, and not leave his place until the clouds passed and rain fell: that happened many times. When death seized him he said: O assembly of Jews, what do you think I left the lands of wine and delicacies for these lands of misery and hunger, except that I awaited the going forth of a prophet whose time had come? This city will be his land of emigration: I hoped for his mission to follow him; and his time has already come: so let none of you be outrun, O assembly of Jews! He will be sent with the shedding of blood and the taking captive of those who oppose him: let that not bar you from following him! When the Messenger of Allah was sent and besieged the Banu Qurayza, those youths, still adolescents, said: O Banu Qurayza, by Allah, this is the prophet Ibn al-Hayyaban promised you! They said: it is not he. They said: yes, by Allah, it is he, by his description! And they came down, embraced Islam, and so preserved their blood, their property and their families. We mentioned before also the two rabbis who turned Tobba the Yemenite from besieging Medina: it is the land of emigration of a prophet to be sent at the end of time.
Abou Nouaym relates, through Mohamed ibn Hamza, from his father, from his grandfather Abdallah ibn Salam, that the latter’s son related: when Allah willed to guide Zayd ibn Sou’na, Zayd said: nothing remains of the marks of prophethood but that I have recognized it in the face of Mohamed, except two I have not yet tested in him: that his forbearance precedes his ignorance, and that the excess of ignorance only increases his forbearance. I contrived to keep his company. He lent him money payable in dates; and when the term came he seized him by the collar of his shirt and his cloak, amid a funeral procession with his companions, regarding him with a stern face: O Mohamed, will you not pay me my due? By Allah, I know you sons of Abd al-Muttalib to be slow payers! Oumar looked at him, his eyes wheeling in his face like a turning sphere, and said: enemy of Allah! Do you say to the Messenger of Allah what I hear, and do what I see? By Him who sent him with truth, were it not for fear of losing him, I would strike your head with my sword! The Messenger of Allah watched Oumar calmly, smiling, then said: he and I, O Oumar, have more need that you command me good repayment and command him good asking. Take him, O Oumar, pay him his due, and add twenty sâ of dates! And Zayd ibn Sou’na accepted Islam, witnessed the later scenes with the Messenger of Allah, and died in the year of Tabouk.
Ibn Ishaq relates the story of Salman from his own mouth, from Ibn Abbas: "I was a Persian of Esphahan, of a village called Jayy, and my father was its dihqan. I was the dearest of his children, kept in his house like a young girl. I laboured in the Magian religion until I kept the fire he kindled, never leaving it die an hour. My father had a great estate; one day, busy with a building, he said: O my son, I am held this day by my building: go to the estate, inspect it, and I have instructions for you there; and do not be long, for you are dearer to me than the estate. I went out for the estate and passed by a church of the Christians, hearing their voices in prayer. I knew nothing of it: never had I known a religion but my father’s, who kept me in. I entered to watch them: their prayer amazed me and their religion pleased me.
I said: by Allah, this is better than the religion we are upon! I stayed until sunset, forgetting my father’s estate. I asked them where the origin of that religion was: they said: in Syria. I returned at night: my father had sent men searching for me. He said: O my son, where were you? Did I not entrust you what I entrusted? I said: O father, I passed by people praying in their church: their religion pleased me, and I stayed until sunset. He said: O my son, there is no good in that religion: your religion and your fathers’ is better. I said: no, by Allah, it is better than ours! He feared for me, fettered my foot and confined me. I sent word to the Christians: when a caravan from Syria comes to you, inform me! A caravan of Christian merchants came; they told me, and when they wished to return I informed them.
I pulled the iron from my leg and went with them to Syria. I asked: who is the most knowing of this religion? They said: the bishop of the church. I came to him and said: I have taken to this religion and wish to remain with you, serve you in your church, learn from you and pray with you. He said: enter. I entered with him: he was an evil man, commanding them charity and urging it, but hoarding for himself all they brought, giving nothing to the poor, until he amassed seven jars of gold. I hated him intensely for what I saw him do; then he died. The Christians gathered to bury him: I said: this was an evil man, commanding you charity and hoarding it, giving the poor nothing! They said: how do you know? I said: I will show you his treasure! I showed them the place: they brought out seven jars filled with gold. They said: never shall we bury him!
They crucified him and stoned him, and took another man in his place. Salman said: never did I see a man pray more, or more ascetic in this world, or more desirous of the Hereafter, more diligent night and day, than that man: I loved him as I had never loved the like. I stayed with him a while, until death seized him. I said: I was with you, loving you as never before, and the decree of Allah has come to you: to whom do you commend me, and what do you command me? He said: O my son, by Allah, I know no one today upon what I was upon: the people have perished, changed and abandoned most of what they practised, except a man at Mosul, such a one, who is upon what I was upon: join him! When he died and was buried I joined the man of Mosul and told him my story: he said: stay with me! I found him the best of men upon his master’s affair; then he died.
At his death I said: to whom do you commend me? He said: O my son, I know none upon our religion but a man at Nisibis: join him! I went, found him upon my masters’ religion; then he died, and at his death said: I know none upon our religion but a man at Ammuriya in the land of the Byzantines: go to him if you wish, for he is upon our affair. When he died I joined the man of Ammuriya and stayed with him: he was the best of men upon the guidance of his masters. I worked until I owned cattle and flocks. Then the decree of Allah seized him: at his death I said: to whom do you commend me? He said: O my son, by Allah I know no one left upon our religion; but the time of a prophet sent with the religion of Abraham has come, who will go forth in the land of the Arabs. His land of emigration will be a land between two harra, between which are palm trees; he bears marks not hidden:
he eats the gift but not the charity, and between his two shoulders is the seal of prophethood. If you can reach that land, do so! Then he died. I remained at Ammuriya as long as Allah willed, until a caravan of Kalb merchants passed: I said: carry me to the land of the Arabs, and I give you these cattle and flocks! They agreed, carried me with them; but at the wadi al-Qoura they wronged me and sold me as a slave to a Jew. I stayed with him and saw the palm trees, hoping this was the land my master described, but was not confirmed in it. His cousin of the Banu Qurayza of Medina came to him, bought me and carried me to Medina: scarcely had I seen it when I recognized it by my master’s description. The Messenger of Allah was sent and stayed in Mecca without my hearing aught of him, kept by my slavery; then he emigrated to Medina.
I was at the top of a palm of my master, working, when his cousin came and stood over him saying: may the Banu Qayla perish! They are gathering now at Qouba about a man come from Mecca today whom they claim to be a prophet! At that fever seized me till I thought I would fall on my master; I came down and questioned the cousin. My master struck me a violent blow: to your work! I said: nothing: I only wished to confirm what he said. I had gathered some money; at evening I took it to the Messenger of Allah at Qouba and said: I am told you are a righteous man, and have companions, strangers in need: here is money I had set aside for charity: I see you more worthy of it! I brought it near him: he said to his companions: eat! And withheld his hand without eating. I said to myself: this is one!
Then I gathered another sum; the Messenger of Allah had moved to Medina. I came and said: I saw you do not eat the charity: this is a gift with which I honour you! He ate of it and had his companions eat with him. I said to myself: these are two! Then I came to him in the cemetery, following the funeral of one of his companions: he wore two cloaks, seated among his companions. I greeted him, then slipped behind him, looking at his back for the seal my master described. The Messenger of Allah, seeing me slip behind, knew I sought a thing described to me: he cast his cloak from his back. I saw the seal, recognized it, threw myself upon him kissing it and weeping. The Messenger of Allah said: come around! I came before him and related my story as I have related it: his companions marvelled to hear it."
Salman continued: "Slavery kept me and made me miss Badr and Ouhoud. Then the Messenger of Allah said to me: write a contract, O Salman! I wrote to my master a contract of three hundred palm trees I would plant for him and forty ounces. The Messenger of Allah said to his companions: help your brother! One helped me with thirty plants, another twenty, another fifteen, another ten, each as much as he had, until three hundred plants were gathered for me. He said: go, O Salman, and plant them; when finished come to me: I shall plant them with my hand. I planted with my companions’ aid, and when done informed him: he went out with me, and we brought the plants near, and the Messenger of Allah planted them with his hand until we finished. By Him in whose hand is Salman’s soul, not one plant died! I paid over the palms, and only the money remained. A gold nugget like a hen’s egg was brought to the Messenger of Allah, and he said: where is the Persian under contract? I was called. He said: take this and pay what remains! I said: O Messenger of Allah, what does this come to of what I owe? He said: take it: Allah will acquit you by it! I weighed it:
by Him in whose hand is Salman’s soul, forty ounces exactly! I paid them their due, and Salman was freed: I witnessed the Trench with the Messenger of Allah, a free man, and no scene escaped me with him after." In one version the Prophet took the nugget, turned it on his tongue, then said: take it and pay them from it! Abou Bakr the Truthful then bought him from his master and freed him, by another version. Asked of the religion of the Christians, Salman related that the Prophet said: there is no good in them; and Salman thought of those he had accompanied and of that righteous man at Bayt al-Maqdis, until Allah sent down: you will surely find the most intense of people in animosity toward the believers to be the Jews and those who associate, and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say: we are Christians (al-Ma’ida, 82). The Messenger of Allah called me; I came fearful, and sat before him while he recited those verses, then said: "O Salman, those were the ones you were with: your master and his companions were not Christians, they were Muslims!" And Salman said: by Him who sent you with truth, it was he who commanded me to follow you!
Abou Nouaym relates, from Si’r ibn Sawada al-’Amiri, a merchant of the caravans, that he entered Mecca on a fair day and saw a venerable man, turbaned in black, surrounded by silent elders: it was Hachim ibn Abd Manaf presiding over the rifada, the feast of the pilgrims. A scholar of Syria had told him the hour of the unlettered prophet was near: he greeted him as messenger of Allah, but was told it was Hachim. Going out he said: this indeed is glory, not the glory of the house of Jafna! The same collection relates that Abou Talib used to relate from Abd al-Muttalib a vision: I slept within the precinct of the Kaaba and saw a tree grow till its crown touched heaven, extending its branches east and west, with a light more radiant than the sun seventyfold; the Arabs and Persians prostrated to it; some of Quraysh clung to its branches while others sought to cut it: a youth of matchless beauty forbade them, breaking their backs and plucking out their eyes. I reached for my share, but the youth refused me, saying: the share is for those who clung to it and outran you! The sorceress of Quraysh said: if your vision is true, from you will come a man who possesses east and west, and the people will embrace his religion! And she said to Abou Talib: perhaps you will be that scion. Abou Talib related this after the Prophet’s birth and mission; and when told: will you not believe? he would say: curses and shame!
Abou Nouaym likewise relates from al-’Abbas himself a long tale: gone trading to Yemen with Abou Soufyan, he learned from a letter of a son that Mohamed had proclaimed in the valley: I am the messenger of Allah, calling to Him! Al-’Abbas said: I said: perhaps he is truthful! Abou Soufyan said: woe to you: never would I wish him to say that: Quraysh ever promise you honour and bounty, and this is your misfortune! He replied: perhaps it is our fortune! Then, in Yemen, a rabbi asked Abou Soufyan of the news of this prophet: he said: they spoke truly, and I am his cousin. The rabbi asked: cousin on the father’s side? He said: cousin on the mother’s side. Al-’Abbas says: I came next day to the same circle and said to the rabbi: he told you not the truth: his father’s cousin am I, his father’s brother! He said: his father’s brother? He turned to Abou Soufyan: is it true? He said: yes. The rabbi said: ask me, and if I lie let him refute me!
Then he questioned me: did your cousin ever lie or betray? I said: no, by the Lord of Abd al-Muttalib: he never lied nor betrayed, and Quraysh called him al-Amin, the Trustworthy! He said: does he write with his hand? I was about to say yes for his honour, then recalling that Abou Soufyan was a denier, said: he does not write. The rabbi sprang up, cast off his cloak, crying: the Jews will be slaughtered, the Jews will be killed! Al-’Abbas adds: on the return Abou Soufyan said: do the Jews dread your cousin then? I said: you have seen: will you not believe in him? If it is truth you will have outstripped the people; if falsehood, your peers are many! He said: I shall not believe until I see horses issue from Kada’! Al-’Abbas concludes: when the Messenger of Allah conquered Mecca and we saw the horses issue from Kada’, I said: O Abou Soufyan, do you remember the word? He said: yes, by Allah, I remember it: praise to Allah who guided me to Islam!
At-Tabarani relates, by a chain, that Amr ibn Mourra al-Jouhani made pilgrimage with his people in the Time of Ignorance and saw in sleep at Mecca a blazing light issue from the Kaaba reaching the mountain of Yathrib and the harra of Jouhayna. A voice said: the darknesses have cleared, the light has shone, the seal of the prophets is sent! Then another illumination to the palaces of al-Hira and the white cities, with the voice: Islam has appeared, the idols broken, the ties of kinship joined! He said: by Allah, this tribe of Quraysh will have a great event! On returning he was told a certain Ahmad had been sent. He came to the Prophet, told him his vision, and the Prophet said: O Amr ibn Mourra, I am the prophet sent to all the servants: I call them to Islam, command the sparing of blood, the joining of kin, the worship of Allah, the rejection of idols, the pilgrimage to the House and the fast of Ramadhan out of the twelve months: whoever answers shall have Paradise, and whoever disobeys shall have the Fire! So confirm in Allah, O Amr: Allah will preserve you from the horror of Gehenna! He said: I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that you are the messenger of Allah:
I believe in this lawful and unlawful, though much of mankind may hate it! Then he recited verses: I bear witness that Allah is truth, and that I am the first to forsake the deities of stone; I have bared the leg of the garment, emigrating to you, crossing the desert after the dunes; to companion the best of men in self and father, messenger of the King of men above the veils! The Prophet said: welcome, O Amr ibn Mourra! Amr then asked to be sent to his people, and the Prophet sent him with this counsel: use gentleness and sound speech; be not harsh, nor arrogant, nor envious! His people converted all but one man, and he returned with them in delegation: the Prophet welcomed them and wrote them a charter, the text of which is related: in the name of Allah: this is a charter from Allah, from the tongue of the messenger of Allah, a true writing and speaking right, with Amr ibn Mourra al-Jouhani for Jouhayna son of Zayd: to you are the bellies of the earth, its plains, the slopes of its valleys and its heights: you sow its herbage and drink its sweet waters, on condition of acknowledging the fifth and praying the prayer of five times; and for the bought ewe the custom of the season; the needy owe no charity, nor the first arrival any levy.
Many verses attest his description in the Books: those to whom We gave the Book before it believe in it; and when it is recited to them they say: we believe in it: it is the truth from our Lord: we were before it submissive (al-Qasas, 52-53); and: those to whom We gave the Book recognize it as they recognize their children (al-Baqara, 146); and: those given knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, fall upon their faces prostrating, saying: glory to our Lord: the promise of our Lord is surely fulfilled (al-Isra, 107-108); and: when they hear what was revealed to the messenger you see their eyes overflow with tears for what they recognize of truth, saying: our Lord, we believe: write us among the witnesses (al-Ma’ida, 83). Ahmad reports, from a Bedouin bringing goods to Medina: I said: I shall find this man and hear him!
I followed him with Abou Bakr and Oumar till they came upon a Jew spreading out the Torah and reading it to console himself for a dead son, one of the fairest of youths. The Messenger of Allah said: I adjure you by Him who sent down the Torah: do you find in your Book my description and my going forth? He nodded his head saying: no. His son said: yes, by Him who sent down the Torah: we find in our Book your description and your going forth, and I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that you are the messenger of Allah! He said: raise the Jew from his brother! Then he took charge of his shroud and his prayer. Another version tells of a Jew who recognized the Prophet’s description in the Torah but did not believe because he was told seventy thousand of his community would enter Paradise without reckoning, and he saw but a small number with him: the Prophet answered: my community is more numerous than seventy thousand and seventy thousand!
Abou Hourayra relates that the Messenger of Allah passed by the Jews and said: O assembly of Jews, accept Islam! By Him in whose hand is my soul, you surely find my description in your Books. And of the scholar Abdallah ibn Sourayya it is related that he recognized the Prophet’s description and going forth in the Torah but disliked opposing his people, saying: perhaps they will follow him and accept Islam, and I shall accept Islam with them! Ibn Abbas relates also the letter of the Messenger of Allah to the Jews of Khaybar: in the name of Allah: from Mohamed, messenger of Allah, companion of Moussa and his brother, confirmer of what Moussa brought: Allah says to you: O assembly of Jews, people of the Torah, you find in your Book: Mohamed is the messenger of Allah, and those with him are hard against the unbelievers, merciful among themselves: such is their example in the Torah and in the Gospel, like a crop whose shoot has come forth, then strengthened, then thickened, standing on its stem, delighting the sowers, to enrage the unbelievers. I adjure you by Allah, by what He sent down upon you, by Him who fed your forefathers the manna and the quails, by Him who dried the sea behind your fathers to save them from Pharaon and his deeds: tell us whether you find in what Allah sent down upon you that you should believe in Mohamed! If you find it not in your Book, no blame upon you: right has been distinguished from wrong, and I call you to Allah and to His prophet.
Ata’ ibn Yasar relates that he met Abdallah ibn Amr ibn al-As and asked him of the description of the Messenger of Allah in the Torah. He said: yes, by Allah! He is described in the Torah as in the Quran: O prophet, We sent you as witness, bearer of glad tidings and warner (al-Ahzab, 45), and a protection for the unlettered: you are My servant and My messenger: I named you the One who Trusts. You are not coarse, nor harsh, nor clamorous in the markets; you return not evil for evil, but pardon and forgive. Allah will not take him until He has straightened the crooked nation, by their saying: there is no deity but Allah. Through him He will open blind eyes, deaf ears and veiled hearts. The Boukhari reports this hadith through Falih, from Hilal ibn Ali, from Ata’. Ka’b al-Ahbar said likewise: we find the description of the messenger of Allah: Mohamed, messenger of Allah, named the Trustworthy: not coarse, nor harsh, nor clamorous in the markets; he is given the keys: through him Allah will give sight to blind eyes, hearing to deaf ears, straighten crooked tongues, until they witness that there is no deity but Allah alone without partner; he aids the wronged and shields him. Oum ad-Darda’ likewise asked Ka’b al-Ahbar how they found the Prophet’s description in the Torah, and he answered in the same terms, adding: he is aided by awe, and the keys of the earth are given him.
Ishaq ibn Bishr relates, from Ka’b al-Ahbar and Wahb ibn Mounabbih, the story of Daniel and Bakhtnassar: after destroying Bayt al-Maqdis and humiliating the children of Israel seven years, Bakhtnassar saw a great dream which terrified him and threatened his soothsayers with death if they gave him not its interpretation, telling him he had forgotten it. Daniel, then in prison, let him know there was among them a man who knew the dream and its interpretation. Brought to the king, Daniel refused to prostrate to him, saying: Allah has given me knowledge and forbidden me to prostrate to other than Him! The king told him the dream, and Daniel said: you saw a great statue, its feet on earth and its head in heaven: its upper part of gold, its middle of silver, then copper, its legs of iron and its feet of clay; as you gazed at its beauty a stone from heaven struck its head and ground it to powder: gold, silver, copper, iron and clay mingled till none, of men and jinn together, could distinguish them; and you saw the stone grow, wax great and spread till it filled the whole earth, so that you saw nothing but the stone and the sky. Bakhtnassar said:
you spoke truly: what is its interpretation? Daniel said: as for the statue: it is nations diverse at the beginning of time, in its middle and its end; as for the stone: it is a religion Allah will cast upon those nations at the end of time and by which He will prevail over them: Allah will send an unlettered prophet from the Arabs who will overwhelm the nations and religions, as the stone overwhelmed the statue, and prevail over all lands; through him Allah will purify truth, abolish falsehood, guide the astray, teach the unlettered, strengthen the weak, honour the abased and succour the oppressed. Wahb relates that Allah revealed to Dawoud in the Zabour: O Dawoud, after you will come a prophet named Ahmad and Mohamed, truthful and master: never shall I be wroth with him nor he anger Me; I have forgiven him beforehand his sin past and future; his community is covered in mercy: I have given them as supererogations what I gave the prophets, and imposed on them the obligations I imposed on prophets and messengers, and their light shall be like the light of the prophets. O Dawoud, I have preferred Mohamed and his community over all nations!
Aïcha relates that the Messenger of Allah said: written in the Gospel: not coarse, nor harsh, nor clamorous in the markets; he returns not evil for evil, but pardons and excuses. Mouqatil ibn Hayyan relates that Allah revealed to Issa son of Maryam: strive in My affair, hear and obey, O son of the pure, of the virgin! I created you without male and made you a sign to the worlds: worship Me then, and announce to the people of Souran in the Syriac tongue, convey to those before you that I am the Truth subsisting; and confirm the unlettered Arab prophet, of the camel, the cloak and the turban, that is the crown, the two sandals and the staff, crisp-haired, high of brow, with joined brows, large-lidded eyes and long lashes, aquiline of nose, clear of cheeks, thick of beard, sweat on his face like pearls, breathing musk; his neck like a silver ewer and gold flowing in his throat; a line of hair from chest to navel running like a staff, no other hair on his belly; thick of palm and sole; when he walks with the people he outstrips them; and when he walks it is as if he tore himself from a rock to descend a slope:
he will have little progeny. The Bayhaqi relates this description in the proofs of prophethood. Omar ibn al-Hakam relates that his family inherited from the Time of Ignorance a leaf written thus: in the name of Allah, a word of truth, and the word of the wrongdoers in decline: this is a reminder for a community to come at the end of time: they let their hair hang, gird at the waist, cross the seas to their enemies: there is among them a prayer which, had it been among the people of Nouh, they would not have perished by the flood, nor ’Ad by the wind, nor Thamoud by the Cry. And the Messenger of Allah marvelled when it was read to him.
The hafiz al-Khara’iti relates in Hawatif al-Jann that Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan al-Himyari, called an-Nou’man ibn Qays, having prevailed over Abyssinia two years after the birth of the Messenger of Allah, received the delegations of the Arabs and their poets come to congratulate him. Among them came to Sana’a Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hachim, Oumayya ibn Abd Chams, Abdallah ibn Jou’dan and Khouwaylid ibn Asad with notables of Quraysh. The king admired them, then lodged them a month in the house of honour without permitting them to see him or depart. Then he summoned Abd al-Muttalib, secluded him and said: O Abd al-Muttalib, I impart to you a secret of my knowledge I would confide to no other: I saw in you its receptacle. Keep it until Allah ordains:
I have laboured in the hidden Book and the stored knowledge We chose for ourselves, a great good veiled from others, a weighty matter wherein is the honour of life and the virtue of death for people in general, for your whole family, and for you especially. When a boy is born in Tihama bearing a mark, a spot between his two shoulders, the leadership will be his, and yours through him till the Day of Resurrection! Abd al-Muttalib said: O king, you have given me the best of gifts! Sayf said: this is the time of his birth, or he is already born: his name is Mohamed; his father and mother will die, his grandfather and uncle will rear him; Allah will raise him openly, make auxiliaries of us, honouring His allies by them and abasing His enemies, breaking the idols, quenching the fires, worshipping the Merciful, driving off the devil: his word will be decision and justice; he will command good and do it, forbid evil and nullify it! Abd al-Muttalib said: O king, this is a secret indeed:
but does the king confide in me without reserve? Sayf said: by the House of veils and marks: O Abd al-Muttalib, you are his grandfather, without lie! Abd al-Muttalib bowed prostrate with joy, and the king said: raise your head! Have you noted aught of what I said? He said: O king, I had a son of whom I was proud; I married him Amina bint Wahb, noblest of her people, and she bore me a boy I named Mohamed: his father and mother died, and I rear him with his uncle. Sayf said: it is he of whom I spoke: guard your son then, and beware of the Jews, who are his enemies: Allah will never give them a way to him! And conceal this from those with you: I am not sure pride will not drive them to seek snares against him and set pitfalls: they or their descendants will do it! And were I not certain death would seize me before his mission, I would march with horse and foot till I made Yathrib my capital:
for I find in the eloquent Book and the prior knowledge that in Yathrib is the strength of his affair, the people of his aid and the place of his grave! And were it not that I fear calamities for him, I would proclaim his affair at his tender age and grind under heel the jaws of the Arabs: but I impart this secret to you, without shortfall toward those with you! He granted each man ten slaves, ten maids, a hundred camels, two winter cloaks, five pounds of gold and ten of silver, and a skin filled with musk; and to Abd al-Muttalib ten times that, saying: when the year has turned, come to me! But Sayf died before the year turned. Abd al-Muttalib would often say: let none of you envy me the king’s lavish gift: it is spent; but envy me what remains for my posterity after me: his memory, his glory and his honour! Asked when that would be: it shall be known, though after a while!
The same collection relates that four men of the Banu Tamim set out for the king of Ghassan, and on the way met a monk who, hearing their tongue, said: before long will be sent the seal of the prophets: hasten to him, take your share of him and you will be rightly guided! They asked his name: he said: Mohamed! On the return each of them had a son and named him Mohamed, each hoping that the promised prophet would be his son! It relates too that Aws ibn Haritha of Ghassan, at his death, exhorted his people in a long poem wherein he said: My soul saw the captives on the day of the Burnt clan, and my life reached the Cry of Allah in the sanctuary; I saw no kingship nor market but it led but to death and the grave; He who felled Thamoud and Jurhoum shall bring forth for me a progeny to the end of time; Do my people know that Allah has a call whose gain the blessed and pious win? When the One Sent of the clan of Ghalib is raised, at Mecca and between Mecca and the Hijr, seek then his aid in your land, O Banu Amir: felicity is in the aid! And he died on the spot. We mentioned before also the warnings of Saba to his people, the poem of Tobba saluting the Prophet, and the recognition by the companions returned from the Negus, who knew the Messenger of Allah by description the moment they saw him, without any informing them. And to Allah belong praise and favour.
Sawad ibn Qarib as-Sadoussi was a soothsayer in the Time of Ignorance. He relates, in versions reported by al-Khara’iti in Hawatif al-Jann, by Ibn ’Asakir and by Abou Nouaym: my companion among the jinn came to me three nights running, striking me with his foot to wake me, and recited each night a poem wherein he said: the jinn marvel, and their impurities, their swift departure with the aims of their mounts; she descends upon Mecca seeking guidance, her believers are not like her impure ones; so travel to the Safwa of the sons of Hachim! On the third night he added: a prophet has appeared in Mecca, calling to the worship of his Lord: join him! Then I knew Allah intended good by me: I tore a worn cloak, put it on, set my foot in the stirrup, and went until I reached the Prophet, who offered me Islam and I accepted. When the Muslims gathered he said to me: tell them! And I rose and recited my verses: My companion came to me after calm and sleep, and nothing I had experienced was a liar; three nights his word each night: a messenger has come to you, of the sons of Louayy! I bared the hem of the garment, and I know there is no lord besides Him; be my intercessor on the day kinship avails not, O Sawad ibn Qarib! The Prophet then said: go to your people and recite this poem to them!
Oumar ibn al-Khattab later pressed him: I adjure you by Allah, O Sawad: do you sense anything today of your soothsayers? He said: glory to Allah! And Oumar: know, Sawad, that the association we were upon is greater than your divination; tell me that tale I would have loved to hear from you! Sawad related the story of the three nights, and Oumar asked: does your companion still come to you today? He said: since Allah taught me the Quran, no: what a good compensation is the Book of Allah in place of the jinn! It is also related that one day, among Quraysh of the clan of Dharih, while a calf was being slaughtered, they heard a voice from inside the calf say: O people of Dharih, a prosperous affair: a crier cries, in eloquent tongue, that there is no deity but Allah! That account is discontinuous by this route, but the Boukhari attests the hearing of Oumar, and Allah is most knowing.
Jabir relates that a woman of Medina had a companion among the jinn: he came to her in the form of a white bird, alighted on her wall, and when she asked why he no longer came down to converse with them, he said: a prophet has been sent at Mecca: he has forbidden fornication, and has forbidden us to linger listening! The Waqidi names her Fatima, and relates other versions of the same event. He also relates that Outhman ibn Affan said: we went out in a caravan to Syria before the mission of the Messenger of Allah; at the gates of Syria lived a sorceress who approached us: my companion came to me, stood at my door, and when I asked him to enter he said: there is no way to that: Ahmad has gone forth, and an unbearable command has come! And a woman of the Banu Asad, called Sou’ayra, had a companion of the jinn: when he saw he could no longer listen, he entered her breast and began crying from it: the barrier is set, the companions are barred, an unbearable command has come, and Ahmad has forbidden fornication!
Al-Khara’iti reports, from Mirdas ibn Qays as-Sadoussi, who was with the Prophet when divination was mentioned, the very strange story of the sorceress al-Khalasa among Dous: a child born of one of her visions spoke at his birth, announcing to Dous horses behind the hill and a victorious battle; a house was built for him called dhou al-Khalasa; but on the day of the mission he deceived his people in two raids, then, shut up three days, came out like a live coal saying: the heaven is guarded, the best of prophets has gone forth, at Mecca: I am dead, bury me at the top of the mountain, I shall blaze into fire: when you see the flame cast three stones at me, saying at each: in Your name, O Allah, and I am calmed! They did so, the fire went out, and they remained until the pilgrim came announcing the mission to them.
Abou Nouaym finally reports, from an-Nadr ibn Soufyan al-Houthali: we went out in a caravan to Syria, and between az-Zarqa’ and Ma’an, encamped by night, behold a Persian voice between heaven and earth: O sleepers, rise: this is no hour for slumber! Ahmad has gone forth, and the jinn have been chased everywhere! We returned frightened, and found our households speaking of the discord at Mecca over a prophet come forth from among the sons of Abd al-Muttalib, named Ahmad. And al-Khara’iti relates that Waraqa ibn Nawfal, Zayd ibn Amr, Obaydallah ibn Jahch and Outhman ibn al-Houwayrith, coming by night to sacrifice before their worshipped idol at an annual feast, found it toppled on its face: they restored it, it turned over again violently, and they restored it again. And to Allah belong praise and favour.
On the very night the Messenger of Allah was born, the idol before which Quraysh prostrated fell on its face three times; they set it upright, it fell again, and they grieved. Outhman ibn al-Houwayrith cried: what ails it, it keeps overturning! This bespeaks an event that has occurred. He composed his verses to it: "O idol of the feast, ringed by the chiefs of delegations from near and far: vanquished, you have huddled up: tell us what!" When they had stood it upright, a herald cried from within it, aloud: "sacrifice was offered for a newborn whose light lit all the paths of the earth, east and west; the idols fell before him, the hearts of kings trembled with fear, the fire of Persia went out and darkened, the shah of Persia spent the night in greatest distress; her jinn were withheld from the soothsayers, no announcement true or false remaining. O people of Qoussay, return from your error and hasten to islam, to the spacious abode!" They withdrew to confer and agreed to keep one another’s secret; Waraqa then said: you know, by Allah, that your people are not upon a religion: they have missed the proof, forsaken the religion of Ibrahim for a stone they circle that hears not, sees not, profits not nor harms. Seek for yourselves a religion! And they ranged the earth seeking the hanif religion of Ibrahim.
Their lots divided: Waraqa ibn Nawfal became a Christian and read the Books into knowledge; Outhman ibn al-Houwayrith went to Caesar, became a Christian, and won a fair standing; Oubayd Allah ibn Jahch stayed at Mecca until the mission, emigrated to Abyssinia, became a Christian there and died a Christian. As for Zayd ibn Amr ibn Noufayl, first withheld then gone forth, he reached ar-Riqqa in the Jazira and met a learned monk who said: you seek a religion and find none to carry you to it; but the time of a prophet is already upon you: he will come forth from your land, sent with the hanif religion. Returning, a band of the Lakhm met him and killed him. And the Khara’iti relates that Zayd and Waraqa went together to an-Najachi, after Abraha’s return from Mecca. The king asked: has he been born among you whose father sought to slaughter him, whom the arrows spared, and for whom a hundred camels were slaughtered? Yes, they answered: he has married Amina bint Wahb, left her with child and gone away.
Asked of his birth, Waraqa told the voice heard within the idol: "the Prophet is born, the kings are humbled, error is gone afar and association retreats": and the idol had fallen upon its face. Zayd told his own sign: that same night at Abou Qoubays he saw a man with two green wings descend from heaven proclaiming: "the devil is abased, the idols brought to nought, the Trustworthy is born!", spreading a garment from east to west; the earth shone, and all the idols of the Kaaba fell. The Négus said: I will tell you what befell me: asleep that night in my cupola, I saw a head issue from the earth crying: "woe has alighted upon the people of the Elephant: the birds of Ababil pelted them with stones of sijjil; the criminal aggressor has perished, and the unlettered Prophet is born, the Meccan, the sacred: who follows him has bliss, who denies him has ruin." I fell, speech and step were cut from me, and my faculties returned only after I had the Abyssinians veiled from men.
Abbas ibn Mirdas, of Soulaym, was pasturing at midday when a white ostrich mounted toward him bearing a rider clothed in white like milk. The rider said: O Abbas ibn Mirdas, know you not that the sky has drawn up its guards, that war has swallowed its breath, that the horses have set down their burdens, and that what has come down in goodness and piety arrived Monday, in the night of Tuesday? Dhimar, the idol inherited from his father, stood in a house he visited each day: he returned affrighted, swept around it, rubbed himself with it and kissed it; then a cry issued from within it: "say to the tribes of Soulaym all: Dhimar has perished, and the people of the mosque have triumphed; Dhimar that was worshipped before the Book, with the Prophet Mouhammad; he who has inherited prophethood and guidance after the son of Maryam is of Quraysh, rightly guided." He went out, told his people, then set forth with three hundred men of the Banou Haritha to the Messenger of Allah at Medina. How was your islam? asked the Prophet; he told him, and the Prophet rejoiced: Abbas and his people entered islam. Another version hears the voice of Dhimar in the night at the death of his father Mirdas, then the man on the ostrich wing proclaiming the light of Tuesday evening, and Abbas at last burning the idol in fire before coming to pledge himself, composing the verses of his repentance: "I made Dhimar the associate of the Lord of the worlds..."
Men of Khath’am tell the like trial: before their idol a cry proclaimed that a prophet had come after unbelief with islam, noblest of guides, more just than every judgment, commanding prayer, fasting, piety and the ties of kin, forbidding abominations, idols and the unlawful, of the house of Hachim, at the crest of eminence; they went to the Prophet and believed.
The Banou ’Oudra had an idol named Hamam, whose custodian was called Tariq. When the mission appeared they heard a voice: "O people of Hind ibn Haram, the truth has appeared and Hamam has perished, and islam has thrust back association!" Then: "O Tariq, O Tariq, the truthful Prophet is sent, with a speaking revelation, in the land of Tihama: safety to who aids him, regret to who forsakes him: here are my farewells till the Day of Resurrection": and the idol fell upon its face. Zamil ibn Amr set out with men of his people, composed his verses to the Prophet, believed and pledged himself; he told him what he had heard, and the Prophet said: that is the speech of the jinn. Then he called all the Arabs: I am the messenger of Allah to all creation, for the worship of Allah alone, the pilgrimage of the House and the fast of one month of the twelve, the month of Ramadan: who answers me has Paradise for lodging, who disobeys me has the Fire for return. He tied them a banner and wrote for Zamil a letter witnessed by Ali and Mouhammad ibn Maslama: let him call his people; who believes is of the party of Allah, who refuses has two months of safety.
Mazin ibn al-Ghadouba, of Oman, keeper of the idol of Samaya: at the offering the idol cried: "O Mazin, hear and rejoice: good has appeared and evil is hidden; a prophet of Mouddar is sent with the great religion of Allah; leave what is of stone: you shall be saved from the heat of Saqar." A second offering, a second voice: "draw near and hear what you know not: here is a prophet sent with the truth come down: believe, and be saved from the furnace whose fuel is men and stones." A visitor from the Hijaz told him of Ahmed who calls: answer the call of Allah! Mazin broke the idol in pieces, set out, believed, and prayed against his vices: the Prophet asked for him the exchange of music for Quran recitation, of the unlawful for the lawful, of indecency for chastity, and granted him offspring: Allah removed his affliction, Oman grew fertile, he married four free women, memorized half the Quran, and Allah gave him Hayyan ibn Mazin.
And Rachid ibn Abd Rabbih, sent by the Banou Dhafar with a gift to Sou’a, the idol at al-Ma’la of Rouhat worshipped by Houdhayl and the Banou Dhafar: at dawn an idol cried: "the wonder of all wonders: a prophet of the Banou Abd al-Mouttalib has come forth, forbidding fornication, usury and slaughter to idols; the sky is guarded, and we have been pelted with shooting stars!" A second: "Dhimar has been forsaken: Ahmed has come forth, who prays the prayer, commands the zakat, the fast, piety and the ties of kin"; a third: "he who has inherited prophethood and guidance after the son of Maryam is of Quraysh, rightly guided; a prophet who tells what has gone before and what shall be tomorrow." At morning Sou’a was licked by two foxes that urinated upon her head, and Rachid composed: "a master on whose head two foxes urinate: abased is he upon whom the foxes urinate!" It was at the Prophet’s setting out for Medina. Rachid came to him; asked his name he said: Zalim (unjust); and his dog’s: Rachid (guided). The Prophet laughed: your name is Rachid, and your dog Zalim. He believed, and was granted a water concession at Rouhat: the Prophet hurled three stones, handed him a waterskin filled with water and his saliva to pour at the head of the cut: water issued in a spring that flows to this day, called the "water of the Messenger", and Rachid’s arrow reached the Rock of the Rider. Then he went and broke Sou’a.
Rafi’ ibn Omayr, called Dou’mous al-Arab for his night-guiding and daring, had sought protection before sleep with the great one of the valley against the jinn; he saw in dream, thrice, a young man with a spear menacing his she-camel, held back by an old man: "Mouhahlil ibn Dithar," so he was called, "spare the she-camel of the man of the humans, and choose from my wild beasts." The elder promised three bulls, then counselled: when you fear a valley, say: I seek protection with Allah, Lord of Mouhammad, and protect yourself by no jinn. Who is Mouhammad? asked Rafi’. An Arab prophet, neither eastern nor western, sent on a Monday. Where does he dwell? Yathrib of the palms. Rafi’ went; the Messenger of Allah told him his tale before he opened it, and he believed. Sa’id ibn Joubayr used to say: he is the one of whom Allah said: men of the humans sought protection with men of the jinn, and increased them in gravest error.
A herald of the jinn cried also upon Abou Qoubays against the house of Fihir, rebuking their disobedience to the religion of their noble fathers: the jinn of Bousra have allied against you; the poem spread about Mecca, and the Messenger of Allah said: it is a devil who speaks to men within idols, named Misa’ar, Allah abase him! Three days later a voice cried: "we have slain in three Misa’ar, who reviled our purified Prophet!" And the Prophet said: it is an ifrit of the jinn named Samj who believed in me: I have named him Abdallah, and he informed me he pursued him three days. Ali said: may Allah reward him with good.
Sa’d ibn Oubada, journeying toward the Hadramawt, heard by night the poem of death: "Abou Amr, the wakings take their turn upon me... all the people of the generations gone: their lodging is a remnant that perishes; Thamoud has gone by her ruin, ’Ad and the generations of Dhou Chou’ab: all alike, Iram harvested!" Then a second: "O Khirrab, the wonder has carried you off: the whole of wonder, between Zoura and Yathrib!" A prophet of peace, sent with the best of speech to all creatures: come out of the sacred land to the palms! A man of the line of Louayy ibn Ghalib. Sa’d answered: my time is gone: I have seen an-Nadr ibn Kinana; if this one be of his line, the sword is drawn, fear departed, fornication effaced and usury dead! And the herald foretold what would be: prosperity and famine will depart, save a remnant in Khouza’a; hardship and misery, save a remnant of the Khazrajites and Awsites; vainglory, boasting, tale-bearing and treachery, save a remnant in Banou Bakr; the regretted deed and sinful work, save a remnant in Khath’am; then: when the wild beast is vanquished and the free woman roughly used, come out of the land of emigration; when safety is withheld and the womans cut off, come out of the sacred land; and but for an ear that hears and an eye that shines, I would have told you what makes to shudder! Then a grinding like that of a woman in travail, and at morning: an eagle and a serpent, both dead. Sa’d learned of the Messenger of Allah’s emigration to Medina only by this tale.
Tamim ad-Dari was in Syria when an unseen herald cried: seek protection with Allah! The jinn protect none against Allah: the messenger of the unlettered has come forth, we prayed behind him at al-Hajoun, believed and followed; the guile of the jinn is gone and we have been pelted with shooting stars! A monk of the convent of Ayyoub confirmed him: he comes from the Sanctuary and will emigrate to the Sanctuary; be not outstripped to him. And Tamim came and believed. A Hou dhalite heard likewise a voice issue from his idol Sou’a over two hundred scabbed ewes brought to her: the guile of the jinn is gone and we have been pelted with shooting stars, for a prophet named Ahmad! Amr ibn Mourra al-Jouhani, on pilgrimage, saw the light of the Kaaba light up Yathrib and the mounts of Jouhayna: "the darknesses are dispelled, the radiance has shone, the seal of the prophets is sent!" then a second light to the palaces of al-Hira and the white cities: "islam has appeared, the idols are broken, the ties of kin rejoined!" Returning, he was told of Ahmed: he joined him, believed, broke his father’s idol, and went on mission to Jouhayna with the charge: the straight speech, without roughness, pride or envy.
A man of Jouhayna, at the point of death and already dug for, opened his eyes: you have dug my grave? Yes. And what of al-Fadl? His cousin, in good health. Hear: when I lost consciousness a messenger came: weep, Hubal! Your grave will be uprooted, your mother near losing her son; it will be turned from you and filled with pebbles, and al-Fadl who went before you will be laid in it in your stead: will you repent, pray, and leave the religion of him who associated and erred? Yes. Rise, you are healed! The man healed, al-Fadl died and was laid in the grave: and the Jouhanites after that prayed and reviled the idols. Khouraym ibn Fatik, hunting at Abraq al-Irak, had sought protection with the master of the valley: a herald cried to him to seek protection with Allah the Majestic, recite verses of the Anfal and unify Allah; then announced to him the messenger of Allah of the blessings, calling to salvation at Yathrib; Khouraym swore to go to him, and Malik ibn Malik, naqib of the jinn of Nasibin, gave him surety for his camels to his family. He arrived on a Friday and saw the Prophet in the pulpit like the full moon: Abou Dharr (one version says Abou Bakr) came out to him: enter, your islam has reached us! The Prophet said: your companion kept his word, he is worthy of it, and your camels were returned to your family. Omar demanded of him proof of the ablution hadith: no Muslim who performs his ablutions well then prays a guarded prayer escapes Paradise; Othman bore witness, and Omar accepted his testimony.
Amr ibn Ma’dikarib told Omar, before the Companions recounting the Quran’s merits, after Ali’s witness of ayat al-Koursi and his question of the basmala: at the end of the Jahiliyya hunger drove him to seek ostrich eggs; he found a tent where an old man slept beside a handmaid like a rising sun. He reviled him to force hospitality; the old man leapt saying: "in the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate!" and Amr thought himself under him. Slay you, or release? Release me! Twice he began again; the third time the old man called the handmaid, sword in hand, and shore his plait, as the Arabs enslave whom they master. Amr served him a while, then went with him into the desert: in a fearsome valley the old man cried: in the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate! No bird stayed in its nest, no beast in its pasture: then up rose an Abyssinian tall as a standing palm. When you see us locked together, said the elder, say: my companion has overcome him by bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim! Amr said first: by al-Lat and al-’Ozza! Nothing befell; taking up the prescribed formula he saw the old man lean upon the Abyssinian, cleave him with his sword, and draw from within him something like a black lamp: that is his guile and his veil. The handmaid, said the elder, is the Pharaonite daughter of as-Salil al-Jourhoumi, daughter of one of the best of the jinn: her kin war on him each year, and Allah gives him victory by the basmala.
Hunger took Amr again: he returned, found the old man asleep, his head on a case, drew from it a sword a span broad upon seven fingers’ breadth; with one stroke he brought down both legs with the feet. May Allah grant you combat, what a traitor! then Amr cut him in pieces even to mincing. Omar marvelled; Amr composed his verse of shame: "by treachery I seized the brother of islam in his lair: never was the like heard among the Arabs of old..." The handmaid, told of it, wept her master: "by treachery you slew him," she said, and composed her elegy for the proud forbearing one. Amr ran to slay her, but the tent was empty, the cattle driven off: and he went home. The commentator rules: this tale is a strange echo; the old man was of the jinn, and was of those who had embraced islam, learned the Quran and made it their protection, whence the basmala.
Abd ad-Daylami asked Ibn Abbas of Sati’h al-Ghassani, said to be created without peer: Allah had created him flesh upon the joints, without bone or nerve, save the skull, the two palms and the two ankles; he folded from foot to hip-joint as a garment folds, and nothing moved in him but his tongue. Carried to Mecca, four Quraychites came to him: Abd Chams and Hachim, sons of Abd Manaf, al-Ahwas ibn Fihr and Aqil ibn Abi Waqqas, who presented themselves of another lineage. Aqil set at the door of the Sacred House a plate of India and a Roudayni ewe for the test: Sati’h took his hand: O Aqil, by the Hidden Knower, the Pardoner of fault, the Faithful Bond and the built Kaaba: you are come with the gift, the plate of India and the Roudayni ewe! True, they answered. Then he marked them: by the bringer of joy and the bow of Qouzah: the raven is where it passes:
you are not what you say, your lineage is of Quraysh of the flat land! True, said they, we are the people of the Sacred House, come to visit you: tell us what shall be in our time and after. Now you are truthful, said he: take from me and from the inspiration Allah grants me: you, Arabs, are in the age of senility, equal in insight to the Persians, without knowledge or understanding; there shall rise from your posterity men of understanding who will break the idol, carry far, slay the Persians for plunder. Of whom? Of Abd Chams and Abd Manaf shall rise the thousands, among whom difference. From what land the greatest? By the Everlasting of endless term: from this land shall come forth a youth who guides to rightness, repudiates Yaghouth and the idol, purifies himself of the worship of opposites, worships one Lord: then Allah will take him praised, vanished from the earth, witnessed in heaven.
And Sati’h unrolled the sequel, in rimed prose the relator sets down for its strangeness and what it holds of discords and slaughters: then succeeds the Truthful, when he has finished, in the rendering of rights without breach; then the tried hanif, who leaves the word of the violent and establishes hospitality; then he who calls to his order, tried, who musters armies and bands, and is slain for spite and wrath: the white-haired one slaughtered in pieces, and orators take up after him; then succeeds an-Nasir, who mixes the view of the acknowledging one, and shows the armies in the land; then his son takes his host, his praise lessens, he amasses wealth, eats alone and multiplies goods for his posterity; then kings whose blood is without doubt shed; then the spoliator who folds them as the folds of the turban; then the obscene who banish creation afar and bring Mouddar near, conquering the earth a disowned conquest; then the small of stature, a mark on his back, who dies in peace; then the early riser who leaves the kingdom void; then his brother, on his way, who appropriates the wealth and the pulpits; then Ahwaj, the selfish possessor, whom his fellows depose and slay; then the seventh, who leaves the kingdom a lost place, his sons in his realm hungry as disfigured ones: then every naked man covets the kingdom; then Allahfan, who contents Nizar with the muster of Qahtan:
when the two musters meet at Damascus, between Bounyan and Liban, the Yemen divides that day in two camps, the camp of joy and the camp of the forsaken; you see but women with loosened veils and a captive chained between quivers and horses: the dwellings are ruined, the widows despoiled, the pregnant women lose their foetuses, earthquakes appear, the succession is claimed by Wa’il, Nizar rages, draws near slaves and villains, casts afar the exemplars and the best, and prices mount in the famine of famines: then they march to the Trenches, of trees and streams, which the rivers hold back: they are defeated at the day’s first hour, and the virtuous appear, no profit in sleep or rest; then they enter Egypt of the cities, and Death and the Decrees overtake them there: then come the archers, bowing the legs, to slay the hidden, capture the guardians and destroy the proud: there he is overtaken at the top of the waters; then the religion perishes and things turn back, the Zabour is denied and the bridges cut, and none escapes who is not in the islands of the seas; then the grains perish and the tribal Arabs appear, unreproved, in a grievous age: then appears a man of the Yemen, like a scorpion, and Allah removes from his head the discords. Such is this strange tale; and the story of Sati’h with his nephew Abd al-Masih, sent by the king of the Sassanians on the night of the birth of him whose Law abrogated all religions, for the shaking of the iwan, the quenching of the fires and the dream of the Mobadhan, has gone before above.