In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Mawaddah Association is pleased
to present to you
portraits from the lives of the Companions,
by Abd al-Rahman Ra'fat al-Basha,
may Allah have mercy upon him.
Salman al-Farisi,
may Allah be pleased with him.
This story of ours
is the story of one who sought the truth,
a seeker of Allah.
It is the story of Salman al-Farisi,
may Allah be pleased with him and grant him satisfaction.
Let us leave
the stage to Salman himself
to narrate the events of his story to us,
for his own feeling of them
is deeper, and his account
of them is more precise and truthful.
Salman said:
"I was a Persian youth from the people
of Isfahan, from a village
called Jayyan.
My father was the village chief (dehqan),
the wealthiest
of its people, and the highest in status.
I was the most beloved
of Allah’s creation to him since
I was born. Then, his love for me
continued to intensify and grow
with the passing of days, until
he confined me to the house out of fear
for me, just as one confines
young girls. I strove
in Magianism (Zoroastrianism) until
I became the caretaker of the fire we
used to worship,
and the task of keeping it lit was entrusted to me
so that it would not flicker for a moment,
neither by night nor by day.
My father owned a vast
estate that yielded us
a great harvest. My father
would oversee it and gather the yield.
Then, on one occasion,
he was preoccupied from going to the estate,
so he said,
'My son,
I have been preoccupied from the estate by what you see,
so go to it
and take charge of its affairs for me today.'
I went out, heading toward our estate.
While I was on the way,
I passed by a church
of the Christians,
and I heard their voices inside
as they were praying.
This caught my attention.
I had known nothing of
the affairs of the Christians or the affairs
of others among the followers of religions,
because of how long my father had kept me
hidden from people in our house.
When I heard their voices,
I entered to see what they were doing.
When I observed them,
their prayer impressed me,
and I felt a desire for their religion.
I said,
'By Allah, this is better than what
we are upon.' By Allah,
I did not leave them until the sun set,
and I did not go to
my father's estate.
Then I asked them,
'Where is the origin of this religion?'
They said, 'In the land of Ash-Sham (Syria).'
When night fell,
I returned to our house.
My father met me and asked me
about what I had done.
I said, 'O my father,
I passed by some people
praying in a church of theirs,
and I was impressed by what I saw of their religion,
and I remained with them
until the sun set.'
My father was alarmed by what I had done
and said, 'O my son,
there is no good in that religion.
Your religion
and the religion of your forefathers is better than it.'
I said, 'No,
by Allah, their religion
is better than our religion.'
My father feared what I was saying
and worried that I would apostatize from my religion,
so he confined me to the house
and put shackles on my legs.
When the opportunity
presented itself to me,
I sent word to the Christians, saying,
'If a caravan comes to you
intending to go to the land of Ash-Sham,
then inform me.'
It was only a short while
before a caravan arrived
heading to Ash-Sham,
and they informed me of it.
I devised a trick regarding my shackles until I removed them,
and I went out with them in secret
until we reached
the land of Ash-Sham.
When we arrived there,
I asked, 'Who is the best man
among the people of this religion?'
They said, 'The bishop,
the caretaker of the church.'
So I went to him and said,
'I have developed a desire for Christianity,
and I would like to stay with you,
serve you, learn from you,
and pray with you.'
He said, 'Enter.'
I entered and began to serve him.
Then it was not long
before I realized that the man
was a man of evil;
he would command his followers to give charity
and entice them with its reward,
but when they gave him
something to spend in the way of Allah,
he would hoard it for himself
and give the poor and the needy
nothing of it,
until he had collected seven jars
of gold.
I despised him with a deep hatred
for what I saw of him.
Then it was not long before he died.
The Christians gathered to bury him,
and I said to them,
'He was a man of evil;
he would command you to give charity and entice you
to do so, but when you brought it
to him, he would hoard it for himself
and give the needy
nothing of it.'
They said, 'How did you know that?'
I said, 'I
will show you his treasure.'
They said, 'Yes,
show it to us.' I showed them
its location, and they extracted
from it seven jars filled
with gold and silver.
When they saw it, they said,
'By Allah, we will not bury him.'
Then they crucified him and pelted him
with stones. Then,
not long after,
they appointed another man
in his place, and I stayed with him.
I have never seen a man
more ascetic regarding this world,
nor more desirous of the Hereafter,
nor more diligent in
worship by night and day.
I loved him with a great
love and stayed with him.
When death approached him,
I said to him,
'O so-and-so,
to whom do you entrust me?
And with whom do you advise me to be after you?'
He said,
'O my son,
I do not know anyone who is upon what I was upon,
except for a man in Mosul;
he is so-and-so.
He has not distorted or changed.
So join him.'
When my companion died,
I joined the man in Mosul.
When I arrived to him,
I told him my story
and said to him, 'So-and-so
advised me at his death that I should
join you and informed me that you are
holding fast to what he was upon
of the truth.' He said,
'Stay with me.'
I stayed with him and found him
to be in the best of states.
Then it was not long before he died.
When death approached him,
I said to him,
'O so-and-so, the decree of Allah
You know what Allah has decreed regarding my situation.
And you know what you know of my affairs.
So to whom do you
recommend I go? He said,
"My son,
by Allah, I do not know of any man who is upon
the same path we were upon,
except for a man in Mosul,
and he is so-and-so; so join him."
When the man was hidden
in his grave, I joined
the companion in Mosul,
and I informed him of my story and what
my master had instructed me to do.
He said to me, "Stay with us."
So I stayed with him and found him
to be upon the same
goodness as his two predecessors.
By Allah, it was not long before
death came to him. When death
approached him, I said to him,
"You have known of my affairs what
you have known, so to whom do you
recommend I go?" He said,
"My son,
by Allah, I do not know of anyone
who remains upon our path except
for a man in Amorium,
so join him."
So I joined him,
and I informed him of my story.
He said, "Stay."
So I stayed with a man
who was, by Allah, upon the guidance
of his companions. I had acquired
while with him some cows and a flock of sheep.
Then it was not long before there befell him
what had befallen his companions
by the decree of Allah. When
death approached him, I said to him,
"You know of my affairs
what you know, so to whom do you
recommend I go, and what do you command me
to do?"
He said, "My son,
by Allah, I do not know that there is
anyone left among the people upon the face
of the earth who holds fast
to what we were upon.
However, a time has cast its shadow
in which there will emerge in the land
of the Arabs a Prophet who is sent
with the religion of Ibrahim, then he will migrate
from his land to a land between
two lava fields, where there are palm trees.
He has signs that are not hidden:
he eats of the gift,
but he does not eat of the zakat,
and between his shoulder blades is the seal of prophethood.
So if you are able to reach
that land, then do so."
Then his time came.
I remained after him
in Amorium for a time,
until a group of merchants
from the Arab tribe of Kalb passed by.
I said to them,
"If you take me with you
to the land of the Arabs,
I will give you these cows and my flock of sheep."
They said, "Yes,
we will take you."
So I gave them to them,
and they took me with them.
Until, when we reached Wadi al-Qura,
they betrayed me and sold me
to a man of the Jews.
I entered into his service,
and it was not long before a cousin of his
from the tribe of Banu Qurayza
came and bought me from him,
and he took me with him to Yathrib.
I saw the palm trees that my companion
in Amorium had mentioned to me,
and I recognized the city by the description
he had given me.
I stayed there with him.
The Prophet was, at that time,
calling his people in Makkah,
but I did not hear any mention of him
due to my preoccupation with the duties
of slavery.
Then it was not long before the Messenger migrated
to Yathrib.
By Allah, I was at the top of a palm tree
for my master, doing some work,
and my master was sitting
beneath it, when his cousin
approached and said to him,
"May Allah fight the Banu Qayla!
By Allah, they are now
gathered at Quba
around a man who arrived among them
today from Makkah,
claiming that he is a Prophet."
No sooner had I heard his words than
I was seized by something like a fever,
and I trembled violently,
until I feared that I would
fall upon my master.
I hastened to descend from the palm tree,
and I began saying to the man,
"What are you saying?
Repeat the news to me."
My master became angry and struck me a
severe blow and said to me,
"What is this to you?
Return to the work you were doing."
When evening came,
I took something of the dates
that I had gathered,
and I headed to where the
Messenger was staying. I entered
upon him and said, "It
has reached me that you are a righteous man
and that you have companions
who are in need.
This is something I had
for zakat, and I saw that you are
more deserving of it than others."
Then I brought it near to him.
He said to his companions,
"Eat," but he withheld his hand
and did not eat. I said
to myself, "This is
one." Then I left.
I began to gather some more dates.
When the Messenger moved
from Quba to Madinah,
I came to him and said,
"I saw that you do not eat
the zakat, and this is a gift
with which I honor you."
So he ate from it,
and he commanded his companions, and they ate with him.
I said to myself,
"This is the second."
Then I came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
while he was at Baqi' al-Gharqad,
where he was burying one of his companions.
I saw him sitting,
wearing two garments.
I greeted him,
then I moved around to look at his back,
hoping to see the seal
that my companion in Amorium had described to me.
When the Prophet saw me
looking at his back,
he understood my purpose, so he cast
his garment from his back.
I looked and saw the seal,
and I recognized it. I threw myself upon him,
kissing him and weeping.
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said,
"What is your story?"
So I told him my story,
and he was amazed by it,
and he was pleased that his
companions should hear it from me.
So I let them hear it,
and they were amazed by it with the greatest amazement,
and they were pleased with it with the greatest pleasure.
So peace be upon
Salman al-Farisi,
the day he stood searching for the truth
in every place.
And peace be upon Salman al-Farisi,
the day he recognized the truth
and believed in it with the firmest
faith. And peace
be upon him the day he died,
and the day he is raised to life.
Salman is of us, the People of the House,
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.