- Click here to read the first part of Salman al-Farsis (ra) story to Islam (toward

the last third of the post)

Salman al-Farsi met the Prophet, but he still remained a slave
1.
2.

He missed the Battle of Badr & Battle of Uhud, since he had no free will of his
own
He was very close to the Prophet, who missed Salman at both battles
The Prophet said to Salman, Buy your freedom.
Kitabah al Muqataba was a contract between slave & owner owner set a price,
slave would pay it off to buy his freedom
Salman: O Messenger of Allah, I have no money. How would I pay it off?
Muhammad: Dont worry, you got this.
Salman goes to his owner, who agreed to set Salman free on several conditions
His owner said, You will plant me 150 (some narrations say 300) date plants
(palm trees) AND I want 40 grams of gold.
Salman tried to negotiate it down to silver, but the owner wanted gold
Salman told the terms to the Prophet

Prophet makes an announcement to his Sahaba, Help your brother, Salman.

Prophet instilled this attitude of brotherhood
Youre all Arabs. Hes Persian. Youre all free. Hes a slave. But help your
brother. Hes one of you.
The Sahaba helped Salman by bringing in date trees. They dug up their own
date palms/trees & people would bring in 1, 5, 15 and 20 date palms

Eventually it totaled to 300 date seeds

Prophet told them, Once youve gathered all the date trees together, prepare the
soil, but dont plant them. Call for me when youre done.
Sahaba prepared the field. The Prophet was called

The Prophet would make a row & plant all the date trees all by himself, one by
one
Salman: This way, the Prophet planted all 300 date trees for me with his own
blessed hands.
Salmans owner specifically asked for this payment because to uproot a tree &
planting it in a different place was a risky project the tree would die in majority
of cases

So the Prophet personally planted the trees because of his blessed status as a
Messenger
Because of the Prophet planting the trees personally, all 300 trees flourished
none died
Deal was still not done to free Salman

This tree-planting was a major project. The entire community took part in
Salmans freedom
Where am I going to get 40 grams of gold?
Prophet had just recently, out of nowhere (but divinely), received a gift from
someone
Someone had found a gold mine. They chipped out a big block of gold
The person wrapped it & brought it to Prophet as a gift
Prophet gives the gift to Salman
Salman: But how much more can I afford to owe people? How do I repay you?
I already owe the whole community.

The Prophet said, Dont worry about it. Allah will pay me back
Salman weighed it the big block of gold. He didnt know how much it was; he
just took it to his owner & handed it to him.

The owner weighed the gold. Salman narrated, Wallahi, it was exactly 40 grams
of gold.
From that day on, Salman was a free man.
The first battle Salman took part in is Ghazwah al-Khandaq (Battle of the
Trench, aka Battle of the Confederates)

Salman offered the strategy of the battle digging of the trench

The Prophet agreed to this strategy, & the Sahaba dug the trench
The Prophet split his warriors into groups (by tribe & family) of ten to dig the
40 meters of trench. The Prophet split them into groups by family because that
group will have cohesiveness & familiarity; they know each others strengths &
weaknesses

The odd man out is Salman, since he belongs to no family or tribe with the Arabs
(Hes from Persia)
The Muhajeroon & the Ansar start to argue. They both want the man on their
own team.
The Muhajeroon (The Emigrants) were the Makkan Muslims who followed the
Prophet on his Hijra
The Ansar (The Helpers) were the Medinan Muslims; they belonged to two main
tribes, Banu Khazraj and Banu Aus
Both groups want Salman on their own team
The Muhajeroon argue, Salman belongs to us, the Muhajeroon! Hes not
originally from here. He migrated for the sake of the truth, like we did. Hes from
us!
The Ansar argue, No, Salman is from us! He came to Medina long before the
Prophet & Islam. He has lived here, worked here, and accepted Islam here in
Medina, so hes a naturalized Ansari.
This matter got heated enough to take it to Prophet

The Sahaba had a lot of adaab and aqlakh, so they wouldnt take every little

dispute to the Prophet

Shaykh Abdul: I want roti (bread). No, I want chawaal (rice). Lets go to the
Prophet sallilahu alyhi wa salaam. Hes going to settle the matter.
This matter on whose team Salman will join to dig the trench was serious enough
to take to the Prophet
The Prophet said, Hes not with you (the Muhajeroon). Hes not with you (the
Ansar) either. Salman is going to dig the trench with my family.
Amr Bin Murrah al-Juhani was a very respected member of his
community. He was among the Jahiliyah (the idol-worshippers).
It was the season of hajj (pre-Islamic times, so it was a perverse form of hajj)
1 I was sleeping at night and we were in Makkah. All of a sudden I
woke up and I saw this noor shooting out of the Kabah and it was
going to the mountains. I became startled when I heard a voice
from that noor, Darknesses are about to be removed. The light is
about to illuminate the earth. The final seal of the Prophet is about
to be sent.
2 A few nights later, the light was shining again. A voice said, Islam
has become apparent. Idols have been broken. Relationships have
been rejoined.
Amr went to tell his people of what hed seen, but nobody believed him
He came across a monk. Amr told the monk what hed seen. The monk said,
This is a man who will be named Ahmad. He will be sent as a Prophet.
Years later, Amr came to Makkah and heard people talking about a man who
claimed to be a Prophet
Amr sought out that man & sat down with the Prophet & told him everything hed
seen.
1 The Prophet said, O Amr, I am that same man youre talking about.
I am a Prophet of Allah. Ive been sent to the people. I call them to
Islam. I ordered them to respect the sanctity of peoples blood. I tell
them to join relationships. I tell them to worship God alone. I tell
them to leave all the idols that they worship. I tell them to respect
the Bayt of Allah. I tell them to fast in the month of Ramadan.
Whoever will accept this call, for him will be Paradise. Whoever will
disagree with it, for him will be Hellfire. Believe in Allah, & he will
protect you from the Fire.
Amr right then and there took the Shahadah
Amr went back to his people, who were very attached to their idols. His own
father used to look after these idols
Amr broke those idols; as he was breaking them, he was reciting Shahadah &
reaffirming his faith in Allah
1 I bear witness that Allah is the Truth while I am the first one to
leave these idols made of stone. I am lifting off my clothes, and
running towards Allah, and answering the call of Allah even if it
means that I will be in poverty or adversity. I want to go and keep

company of the Prophet personally. I want him to be my mentor

and teach me everything he knows, because he is the messenger of
all humanity. I have chosen this path over all other paths in life.
Amr returns to the Prophet & tells him, O Messenger of Allah, teach me about
my deen & send me back to my people because I would like to preach & deliver
the message that I have gotten from you to them. Like Allah illuminated my life
through you, I want to be the means of that illumination to the hearts of my
people.

The Prophet advises to Amr, Be very soft & gentle. Be very straightforward &
respectful & honest when speaking to your people. Dont be harsh & arrogant to
them. Dont be jealous of them. Practice dignity & respect when you preach to
your people.
So Amr went back & preached to his people. All of his people accepted Islam
except for one man

Amr doesnt recall anything specific about that one man; he just sticks out as
that one guy
1 Shaykh Abdul: That one guy, usually, his name is humble pie.
Just so theres somebody there to kind of bring you back down to
earth, so you dont drink any of your own Kool-Aid. Theres usually
that one guy that tells you, No, I think youre crazy, even when hes
obviously wrong.
Amr then gathered all of his people & took them to meet the Prophet, who met
each & every single one of them individually
Umar ibn al-Khattab was the 2nd khalifah at the time. A man from Banu
Dhuray walked into the masjid & saw Umar. The man said salaam to Umar, &
asked, Are you Muslim now?

Umar confirms yes, & then asks the man, Did you use to be a soothsayer back in
the day?
The man got offended. He said, O Amir, since Ive accepted Islam, nobody has
ever brought that up. Why would you bring that up? Im not proud of it.
Umar says, No, wallahi, my intention was not to expose you or make you feel
bad. I apologize. Im asking for a reason. I remember you, because I remember
seeing you back in the jahiliya days.
I was just drunk & walking around, doing what I used to do. I laid down on a
place where they worship idols & I just passed out there. I had just woken up &
had a huge headache. I was just laying there in the corner, & I saw some of you
congregating near the idol. You had brought in a goat to sacrifice to the idol.
You sacrificed the goat, & you were about to do your whole procedure staining
the idol with the blood of the goat, then ripping the goat open & taking its innards
& internal organs & putting it on the feet of the idol. The goat was dead, its body
was split open. You were just about to take its heart out when a voice started to
come out of that dead goat you had just killed. It was terrifying.
The dead goat started to say, Ya Bani Dhuray. O people of Dhuray. The man has
started to call (something serious has happened). A new word has come. La ilaha

illallah.
When I saw that, I was like, Oh my God. So I just went back to sleep. I thought
it was a terrible nightmare so I went back to sleep.
Thats why I asked you if you were a soothsayer. Do you remember that day?
The man said, Umar, I remember that. It was the most unbelievable thing that
happened to me. I lived with that memory until the day came that I heard about
Muhammad (saw). I came to Muhammad & I accepted Islam.
A man approached the Prophet. They talked with each other a bit. The man
came very close to the Prophet & whispered in his ear, until the Prophet got very
excited at something the man had said.
The Prophet told the man, Tell everyone what you just told me.
The man said, I am a soothsayer. The way we do business is by interacting with
the jinn, who tell us bits of information from the heavens. We use that
information to corrupt the faith of the people. I had been waiting for a shayatin to
come & speak to me. When the shaytan came to me yesterday, he said to me,
Have you seen the jinn & how hopeless they have become? How their world has
turned upside down? The people are abandoning them. The jinn have become
hopeless in continuing this business. I asked the shaytan what he is talking
about. The jinn told me, The times are changing, & we can no longer get the same
information that we used to get.
The world was starting to change, because the doors of revelation were opening
after 600 years