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.
Fayruz al-Daylami, may Allah be pleased with him.
When the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, fell ill after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage,
and news of his illness spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula,
al-Aswad al-'Ansi apostatized from Islam in Yemen,
as did Musaylimah the Liar in al-Yamamah,
and Tulayhah al-Asadi in the lands of Banu Asad.
The three liars claimed that they were prophets,
each of them sent to his people just as Muhammad ibn 'Abdullah was sent to Quraysh.
Al-Aswad al-'Ansi was a sorcerer and a charlatan,
black-hearted and of immense wickedness,
of great strength and a massive frame.
Furthermore, he was eloquent, captivating minds with his rhetoric,
a cunning man capable of playing with the minds of the masses through his falsehoods,
and enticing the elite with wealth, status, and positions of power.
He would never appear to the people except while veiled,
to surround himself with an aura of mystery and awe.
At that time, influence in Yemen lay with the Abna',
led by Fayruz al-Daylami,
a Companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.
"The Abna'" is a name given to a group of people
whose fathers were Persians who had migrated from their lands to Yemen,
and whose mothers were Arabs.
Their leader, Badhan, at the time of the emergence of Islam,
was the ruler of Yemen on behalf of Kisra, the Great King of Persia.
When the truth of the Prophet and the nobility of his message became clear to him,
he renounced his allegiance to Kisra and entered the religion of Allah along with his people.
The Prophet confirmed him in his rule,
and he remained in that position until he died
shortly before the emergence of al-Aswad al-'Ansi.
The first to respond to the call of al-Aswad al-'Ansi
were his own people, the Madhhij.
With them, he launched an assault on Sana'a,
and killed its governor, Shahr ibn Badhan,
and married his wife, Azad.
Then he struck from Sana'a at other regions,
which began to fall under his blows with astonishing speed,
until the lands stretching from Hadramawt to Ta'if submitted to him,
as well as those between Bahrain, al-Ahsa', and Aden.
Among the factors that helped al-Aswad al-'Ansi deceive the people
and win them over was his boundless cunning.
He claimed to his followers that he had an angel who brought him revelation,
and informed him of the unseen.
He would reinforce this claim through his spies, whom he had scattered everywhere
to keep track of people's news, penetrate their secrets,
learn their problems, and uncover the hopes and aspirations stirring in their hearts.
Then they would bring this to him in secret,
so he would confront every person in need with their specific need,
and address every person with a problem by mentioning the problem itself.
He would present to his followers such wonders and strange feats
that it stunned their minds and bewildered their understanding,
until his influence grew great,
and his movement spread like a raging fire in dry brushwood.
No sooner had the news of the apostasy of al-Aswad al-'Ansi
and his assault on Yemen
reached the Prophet, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him,
than he dispatched about ten of his Companions with letters to those he deemed righteous
among the early believers in Yemen,
urging them to confront this blind tribulation with faith and resolve,
and commanding them to get rid of al-Aswad al-'Ansi by any means necessary.
There was no one who received the Prophet's letter
who did not answer his call and hasten to carry out his command.
The swiftest of all to respond to his call
was the hero of our story, Fayruz al-Daylami,
and those with him from the Abna'.
Let us leave the speech to him to narrate to us his unique and wonderful story.
Fayruz said:
"I and those with me from the Abna' did not doubt for a moment in the religion of Allah,
nor did any of us harbor any belief in the enemy of Allah.
We were waiting for the opportunity to strike at him
and get rid of him by any means.
When the letters of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, reached us
and the early believers,
we strengthened one another,
and each of us began working in his own sphere.
Al-Aswad al-'Ansi had become filled with arrogance and pride due to the success he had achieved,
so he acted haughtily toward his army commander, Qays ibn 'Abd Yaghuth,
and became tyrannical,
and changed his treatment of him,
until Qays no longer felt safe from his brutality.
So I went to him with my cousin, Dadhwayh,
and we conveyed to him the message of the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
and invited him to 'eat the man before he eats him.'
His heart opened to our invitation,
and he revealed his secret to us,
and he looked at us as if we had descended upon him from the sky.
So the three of us made a pact
to confront the apostate liar from within,
while our other brothers confronted him from the outside.
We decided to involve the cousin of Azad,
whom al-Aswad al-'Ansi had married
after killing her husband, Shahr ibn Badhan.
I went to the palace of al-Aswad al-'Ansi,
met with the cousin of Azad,
and said to her, 'O cousin,
you know the evil and harm this man has brought upon you and us.
He killed your husband, disgraced the women of your people,
destroyed many of their men,
and seized power from their hands.
This is the letter of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
to us specifically,
and to the people of Yemen generally,
calling upon us to put an end to this tribulation.
Will you help us against him?'
She said,
'Help you with what?'
I said, 'To remove him.'
She said, 'Rather, to kill him.'
I said, 'By Allah, I intended nothing else,
but I feared to confront you with it.'
She said, 'By the One who sent Muhammad with the truth as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner,
I have not doubted my religion for the blinking of an eye,
and Allah has not created a man more hateful to me than this devil.
By Allah, I have known him since I saw him
only as a wicked sinner,
who respects no right and does not refrain from any evil.'
I said, 'And how can we kill him?'
She said, 'He is extremely cautious for his own safety,
and there is no place in the palace
that is not surrounded by guards,
except for this remote, abandoned room,
for its back faces such-and-such a place on the wilderness.
When evening comes, dig through it in the darkness of the night,
and you will find inside it weapons and a lamp,
and you will find me waiting for you.'
Then they entered upon him and killed him.
I said, 'But digging a hole in a room in a palace like this
is not an easy matter,
for someone might pass by us, shout, and call for the guards,
and then the consequences would be dire.'
She said, 'You speak the truth,
and I have a suggestion for you.'
I said, 'What is it?'
She said, 'Tomorrow, send a man you trust disguised as a worker,
and I will order him to dig the room from the inside
until only a small amount remains of the hole,
then you can finish it at night from the outside with minimal effort.'
I said, 'What a great suggestion you have.'
Then I left and informed my companions of what we had agreed upon,
and they blessed it.
We set out immediately to prepare for the matter,
then we shared the password with the elite believers among our supporters,
and called them to be ready.
We set our meeting with them for the dawn of the following day.
When night fell upon us,
and the appointed time approached,
I went with my companions to the site of the hole,
and we uncovered it.
We entered the room,
took the weapons, and lit the lamp,
and proceeded toward the private quarters of the enemy of Allah.
My cousin was standing at his door,
so she signaled to me, and I entered upon him.
He was asleep, snoring in his sleep,
so I struck his neck with the blade.
He let out a sound like the bellowing of a bull,
and the sound of a slaughtered camel.
When the guards heard his bellowing,
they came to the quarters and said,
'What is this?'
My cousin said to them,
'Go away in peace,
for the Prophet of Allah is receiving revelation.'
So they left.
We remained in the palace until dawn broke,
then I stood on one of its walls and called out,
'Allah is the Greatest,
Allah is the Greatest.'
I continued the call to prayer until I said,
'I bear witness that there is no god but Allah,
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,
and I bear witness that al-Aswad al-'Ansi is a liar.'
This was the password.
The Muslims rushed to the palace from every side,
and the guards were terrified when they heard the call to prayer.
The two parties clashed with one another,
and I threw the head of al-Aswad to them
from over the palace walls.
When his supporters saw it,
they became weak and their spirit was broken.
And when the believers saw it,
they shouted 'Allahu Akbar' and charged at their enemy.
The matter was settled before sunrise.
When the day broke,
we sent a letter to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
bringing him the good news of the death of the enemy of Allah.
When the messengers reached Medina,
they found the Prophet, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him,
had passed away that very night.
However, they soon learned
that the revelation had informed him of the killing of al-Aswad al-'Ansi
on the very night he was killed.
For the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had said to his Companions,
'Al-Aswad al-'Ansi was killed last night;
He was killed by a blessed man,
from a blessed household.
It was said to him,
"Who is he, O Messenger of Allah?"
He replied, "Fairuz."
"Fairuz has succeeded."
Fairuz,
a blessed man,
from a blessed household.
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
O poetry, compose a tribute to them,
and let the virtuous be praised,
for in their praise, is there any greater merit?