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.
Al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin al-Muzani,
may Allah be pleased with him.
The tribe of Muzaynah
made their dwellings near Yathrib,
along the road stretching between Medina and Mecca.
The Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
had migrated to Medina,
and news of him began reaching Muzaynah continuously through passersby,
and they heard nothing of him but good.
One evening, the chieftain of the people,
al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin al-Muzani, sat
in his gathering with his brothers and the elders of his tribe,
and said to them, "O my people,
by Allah, we have known nothing of Muhammad but good,
and we have heard from his message nothing but mercy, beneficence, and justice.
Why then do we hold back,
while people are hastening to him?"
He then continued, saying,
"As for me,
I have resolved to set out to him come morning.
Whosoever among you wishes to join me, let him prepare."
It was as though al-Nu'man's words had struck
a tender chord within the hearts of his people.
No sooner had morning broken
than he found his ten brothers
and four hundred horsemen of Muzaynah
fully prepared to accompany him to Yathrib,
to meet the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,
and to embrace the religion of Allah.
However, al-Nu'man felt ashamed to arrive with such a vast delegation
before the Prophet, peace be upon him,
without carrying anything in hand for him and the Muslims.
Yet the barren year of severe drought
that had afflicted Muzaynah
had left them neither livestock nor crops.
So al-Nu'man went round his house and the houses of his brothers,
collecting whatever few sheep the drought had spared them,
and drove them before him.
He arrived with them before the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
and he and those with him declared their Islam in his presence.
Yathrib shook with joy from end to end
in celebration of al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin and his companions,
for never before had an Arab household
seen eleven brothers born of a single father embrace Islam together,
accompanied by four hundred horsemen.
The noble Messenger rejoiced at the Islam of al-Nu'man
with the greatest joy,
and Allah, Glorified and Exalted, accepted his meager sheep,
revealing Qur'an concerning him, saying:
Al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin enlisted beneath the banner of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
and witnessed all of his military campaigns with him,
never wavering nor falling short.
When the caliphate passed to al-Siddiq,
he and his people of Banu Muzaynah stood resolutely at his side,
an allegiance that had a profound effect in crushing the tribulation of apostasy.
And when the caliphate came to al-Faruq,
al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin attained a stature during his reign
that history still commemorates with a tongue moist with praise
and fragrant with commendation.
Shortly before the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah,
Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas,
the commander of the Muslim armies,
dispatched a delegation to Khosrow Yazdegerd
headed by al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin,
to invite him to Islam.
When they reached Khosrow's capital at al-Mada'in,
they requested permission to enter his presence.
He granted them audience, then summoned his interpreter and said to him:
"Ask them:
What has brought you to our land,
and what emboldened you to invade us?
Perhaps you coveted our wealth and dared defy us
because we were preoccupied with other matters
and did not wish to strike you down?"
Al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin turned to his companions
and said, "If you wish, I shall answer him on your behalf,
or if any of you wishes to speak,
I will defer the floor to him."
They replied, "Nay, you speak."
Then they turned to Khosrow and said,
"This man speaks on our behalf,
so listen to what he says."
Al-Nu'man praised and extolled Allah,
and invoked blessings and peace upon His Prophet.
He then said, "Indeed, Allah had mercy upon us,
and sent to us a Messenger to guide us to the good
and command us to do it,
to warn us of evil and forbid us from it,
and who promised us that if we responded to what he called us to,
Allah would grant us the best of this world and the Hereafter.
It was not long
before Allah replaced our hardship with ease,
our humiliation with honor,
and our animosity with brotherhood and mercy.
He has commanded us to invite mankind to that which is best for them,
beginning with those closest to us.
Thus, we invite you to enter our religion,
a faith that deemed all good to be virtuous
and encouraged it, and deemed all evil to be vile
and warned against it.
It delivers its followers from the darkness and oppression of disbelief
into the light and justice of faith.
If you accept our invitation to Islam,
we will leave the Book of Allah among you,
establishing you upon it so that you may rule by its rulings,
and we will depart from you, leaving you to your own affairs.
But if you refuse to enter the religion of Allah,
we will collect the jizya from you and protect you;
and if you refuse to pay the jizya, we will fight you."
Yazdegerd was infuriated and flared with rage at what he heard,
and said:
"I know of no nation on earth
that was more wretched than you, fewer in numbers,
more severely divided, or in a worse condition.
We used to leave your governance to the prefects of our outlying districts,
and they would secure your obedience on our behalf."
Then, tempering his harshness slightly, he said,
"If it is sheer need that has driven you
to come to us,
we will decree provisions for you until your lands become fertile,
clothe your nobles and prominent figures,
and appoint over you a ruler from our side who will treat you gently."
Thereupon, a man from the delegation gave him a retort
that reignited the fire of his wrath anew,
and he said:
"Were it not that envoys are never slain, I would have killed you!
Begone, for you have nothing to receive from me!
Inform your commander that I am sending Rostam against him,
so that he may bury him and bury you all together in the trench of al-Qadisiyyah!"
Then he commanded that a basket of dirt be brought to him,
and said to his men:
"Place it upon the head of the most noble among them,
and drive him before you in full view of the people
until he exits the gates of our capital."
They asked the delegation, "Who is the most noble among you?"
'Asim ibn 'Amr stepped forward
and said, "I am."
So they loaded it upon him until he exited al-Mada'in.
He then loaded it onto his camel
and brought it with him to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas,
giving him the glad tidings that Allah would grant the Muslims victory over the lands of the Persians
and bestow upon them the very soil of their earth.
Then the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah took place,
and its trench was packed with the bodies of thousands of the slain;
yet they were not from the soldiers of the Muslims,
but rather from the troops of Khosrow.
The Persians did not surrender to their defeat at al-Qadisiyyah;
they assembled their hosts
and mobilized their armies,
until they had gathered one hundred and fifty thousand
fierce fighters.
When al-Faruq learned of this massive host,
he resolved to march forth to confront this grave peril in person.
However, the prominent figures of the Muslims dissuaded him from doing so,
advising him instead to dispatch a commander
upon whom he could rely in such a momentous affair.
'Umar said,
"Advise me on a man whom I may appoint over that frontier."
They said, "You know your soldiers best, O Commander of the Believers."
He said, "By Allah, I will surely place in command of the Muslim army a man
who, when the two hosts meet, is swifter to advance than the spearhead:
he is al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin al-Muzani."
They replied, "He is indeed the man for it."
So he wrote to him, saying:
"From the servant of Allah, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab,
to al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin.
To proceed:
It has reached me that vast hosts of the Persians
have assembled against you at the city of Nihawand.
When this letter of mine reaches you,
march forth by the command of Allah,
with the help of Allah,
and with the victory of Allah,
alongside the Muslims who are with you.
Do not tread with them through rugged terrain lest you harm them,
for a single Muslim man
is dearer to me than one hundred thousand dinars.
And peace be upon you."
Al-Nu'man mobilized his army to confront the enemy,
sending advance scouts of his cavalry ahead of him
to reconnoiter the route.
When the horsemen approached Nihawand,
their horses came to an abrupt halt;
they urged them forward, but they would not move.
So they dismounted from their backs to investigate the matter,
only to find shards of iron embedded in the horses' hooves,
resembling the heads of nails.
They looked down at the ground,
and discovered that the Persians had scattered across the roads leading to Nihawand
iron caltrops,
to impede the cavalry and the infantry from reaching it.
The horsemen informed al-Nu'man of what they had seen
and asked him to give them his counsel.
So he ordered them to hold their positions,
and to light fires at night so the enemy could see them,
and at that point,
to feign fear of them and act as though they were routed before them,
in order to entice the enemy to pursue them
and clear away the iron caltrops they had strewn.
The ruse deceived the Persians,
for no sooner did they see the vanguard of the Muslim army
falling back in apparent defeat before them,
than they sent out their workers,
who swept the pathways clear of the caltrops.
Thereupon, the Muslims charged back at them
and seized control of those mountain passes.
Al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin encamped with his army
on the outskirts of Nahavand,
resolved to take his enemy by surprise with an assault.
He said to his soldiers,
"I shall proclaim the takbir three times.
When I utter the first takbir,
let whoever is not yet ready prepare himself.
When I utter the second,
let every man among you fasten his armor and weapons securely.
And when I utter the third,
I shall charge against the enemies of Allah,
so charge alongside me."
Al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin proclaimed his three takbirs,
and plunged into the enemy ranks
like a charging lion,
and behind him, the Muslim soldiers poured forth
like an overwhelming torrent.
Between the two sides,
a fierce, grinding battle raged,
the likes of which military history has rarely seen.
The Persian army was utterly shattered,
their dead littering the plains and the mountains,
and their blood coursing through the passes and paths.
Then the horse of Al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin slipped
in the blood and fell,
and Al-Nu'man himself was struck
with a mortal wound.
His brother took the standard from his hand,
covered him with a cloak he had with him,
and concealed the news of his death from the Muslims.
When the great victory was complete—
which the Muslims called the "Conquest of Conquests"—
the victorious soldiers asked after their valiant commander,
Al-Nu'man ibn Muqarrin.
His brother uncovered the cloak from him and said,
"Here is your commander;
Allah has delighted his eyes with victory
and sealed his life with martyrdom."
"Indeed, faith has its households,
and hypocrisy has its households;
and the household of the Banu Muqarrin
is among the households of faith."
— 'Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud