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The
blessed Companion of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings
be upon him), Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him)
narrates his journey to Islam as follows:
"I
grew up in the town of Isfahan in Persia, in the village of
Jayyan. My father was the chief of the village. He was the
richest person there and had the biggest house. Since I was a
child, my father loved me, more than he loved any other. As
time went by, his love for me became so strong and
overpowering that he feared to lose me or have anything happen
to me. Thus, he kept me at home, a veritable prisoner, in the
same way that young girls were kept.
I
became devoted to the Zoroastrian religion so much so that I
attained the position of custodian of the fire that we
worshipped. My duty was to see that the flames of the fire
remained burning and that it did not go out for a single hour,
day or night.
My
father had a vast estate that yielded an abundant supply of
crops. He himself looked after the estate and the harvest. One
day he was very busy with his duties as chief of the village
and he said to me, 'My son, as you see, I am too busy to go
out to the estate now. Go and look after matters there for me
today.'
On
my way to the estate, I passed a Christian church, and the
voices at prayer attracted my attention. I did not know
anything about Christianity or about the followers of any
other religion during the time that my father kept me in the
house away from people. When I heard the voices of the
Christians, I entered the church to see what they were doing.
I was impressed by their manner of praying and felt drawn to
their religion. 'By God,' I said, 'this is better than ours. I
shall not leave them until the sun sets.'
I
asked and was told that the Christian religion originated in
the Levant (greater Syria). I did not go to my father's estate
that day, and at night, I returned home. My father met me and
asked what I had done. I told him about my meeting with the
Christians and how I was impressed by their religion. He was
dismayed and said, 'My son, there is nothing good in that
religion. Your religion and the religion of your forefathers
is better.'
'No,
their religion is better than ours,' I insisted.
My
father became upset and afraid that I would leave our
religion. So he kept me locked up in the house and put a chain
on my feet. I managed however to send a message to the
Christians asking them to inform me of any caravan going to
Syria. Before long they got in touch with me and told me that
a caravan was headed for Syria. I managed to unfetter myself
and in disguise accompanied the caravan to Syria. There, I
asked who was the leading person in the Christian religion and
was directed to the bishop of the church. I went up to him and
said, 'I want to become a Christian and would like to attach
myself to your service, to learn from you, and to pray with
you.'
The
bishop agreed and I entered the church in his service. I soon
found out, however, that the man was corrupt. He would order
his followers to give money in charity while offering the
promise of blessings to them. When they gave anything to spend
in the way of God, however, he would hoard it for himself and
not give anything to the poor or needy. In this way he amassed
a vast quantity of gold. When the bishop died and the
Christians gathered to bury him, I told them of his corrupt
practices and, at their request, showed them where he kept
their donations. When they saw the large jars filled with gold
and silver they said, 'By God, we shall not bury him.'
They
nailed him on a cross and threw stones at him. I continued in
the service of the person who replaced him. The new bishop was
an ascetic who longed for the Hereafter and engaged in worship
day and night. I was greatly devoted to him and spent a long
time in his company."
After
his death, Salman attached himself to various Christian
religious figures in Mosul, Nisibis and elsewhere. The last of
these told Salman about the appearance of a new and final
Prophet in the land of the Arabs who would have a reputation
for strict honesty, and who would accept a gift but would
never consume charity for himself. Salman continues his story:
"A
group of Arab leaders from the Kalb tribe passed through
Ammuriyah, and I asked them to take me with them to the land
of the Arabs in return for whatever money I had. They agreed
and I paid them. When we reached Wadi al-Qura (a place between
Medina and Syria), they broke their agreement and sold me to a
Jew. I worked as a servant for him but eventually he sold me
to a nephew of his belonging to the tribe of Banu Qurayzah.
This nephew took me with him to Yathrib (Medina), the city of
palm groves, which is how the Christian at Ammuriyah had
described it.
At
that time the Prophet was inviting his people in Mecca to
Islam, but I did not hear anything about him then because of
the harsh obligations that slavery imposed upon me.
When
the Prophet reached Yathrib after his hijrah from Makkah, I
was in fact at the top of a palm tree belonging to my master
doing some work. My master was sitting under the tree. A
nephew of his came up and said:
'May
God declare war on Aws and Khazraj (the two main Arab tribes
of Medina). By God, they are now gathering at Quba to meet a
man who has today come from Mecca and who claims he is a
Prophet.'
I
felt hot flushes as soon as I heard these words, and I began
to shiver so violently that I was afraid that I might fall on
my master. I quickly got down from the tree and said to my
master's nephew, 'What did you say? Repeat the news for me.'
My
master was very angry and gave me a terrible blow. 'What does
this matter to you? Go back to what you were doing,' he
shouted.
That
evening, I took some dates that I had gathered and went to the
place where the Prophet had alighted. I went up to him and
said, 'I have heard that you are a righteous man and that you
have companions with you who are strangers and are in need.
Here is something from me as charity. I see that you are more
deserving of it than others.'
The
Prophet ordered his companions to eat but he himself did not
eat of it. I gathered some more dates and when the Prophet
left Quba for Medina, I went to him and said, 'I noticed that
you did not eat of the charity that I gave. This, however, is
a gift for you.' Of this gift of dates, both he and his
companions ate."
The
strict honesty of the Prophet was one of the characteristics
that led Salman to believe in him and accept Islam.
Salman
was released from slavery by the Prophet who paid his Jewish
slave-owner a stipulated price and who himself planted an
agreed number of date palms to secure his manumission. After
accepting Islam, Salman would say when asked whose son he was,
"I am Salman, the son of Islam from the children of
Adam."
Salman
was to play an important role in the struggles of the nascent
Muslim state. At the "battle of the trench," he
proved to be an excellent innovator in military strategy. He
suggested digging a ditch around Medina to keep the pagan army
at bay. When Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Meccan pagans, saw
the ditch, he said, "This stratagem has not been employed
by the Arabs before."
Salman
became known as "Salman the Good." He was a scholar
who lived a rough and ascetic life. He had one cloak that he
wore and upon which he slept. He would not seek the shelter of
a roof but stayed under a tree or against a wall. A man once
said to him, "Shall I not build you a house in which to
live?"
"I
have no need of a house," he replied.
The
man persisted and said, "I know the type of house that
would suit you."
"Describe
it to me," said Salman.
"I
shall build you a house which if you stand up in it, its roof
will hurt your head and if you stretch your legs, the wall
will hurt them."
Later,
as a governor of Ctesiphon, near Baghdad, Salman received a
stipend of five thousand gold coins. This he would distribute
in charity. He lived from the work of his own hands. When
people came to Ctesiphon and saw him working in the palm
groves, they would say, "You are the governor here: your
sustenance is guaranteed and yet you do this work!"
"I
like to eat from the work of my own hands," he would
reply.
As
a scholar, Salman was noted for his vast knowledge and wisdom.
`Ali said of him that he was like Luqman the Wise; while Ka`b
al-Ahbar said, "Salman is filled with knowledge and
wisdom – an ocean that does not dry up."
Salman
had a knowledge of both the Christian scriptures and the
Qur'an, in addition to his earlier knowledge of the
Zoroastrian religion. Salman, in fact, translated parts of the
Qur'an into Persian during the lifetime of the Prophet. He was
thus the first person to translate the Qur'an into a foreign
language.
Salman,
because of the influential household in which he grew up,
might easily have been a major figure in the sprawling Persian
empire of his time. His search for truth however led him to
renounce his comfortable and affluent life and even to suffer
the indignities of slavery even before the Prophet had
appeared. According to the most reliable account, he died in
Ctesiphon during the caliphate of `Uthman, in the thirty-fifth
year after the hegira (migration of the Muslims to Median).
May Allah be well pleased with him.
This
narration was taken from Abdul Wahid Hamid's "The
Companions of the Prophet" with a few minor changes.
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