Sulayman’s Stories

World Briefing - Europe - Vatican City - Focus on Islam Criticized

Vatican City: Focus on Islam Criticized

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: June 11, 2008

A senior Vatican official said that the West had become “obsessed by Islam,” to the detriment of other religions involved in interfaith dialogue. The Roman Catholic Church “has to have regard for all religions,” said the official, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, in an interview posted on a Web site of The Holy Land Review, which is published by an American church organization.

Is this a joke? When the Pope visits America and Europe, all the headlines are about the fact that he visited…a synagogue. When he was chosen, all the news chatter was how he would handle Catholic-Jewish relations, and practically zero mention of how he would relate to Muslims. While the issue of how an ex-Hitler-Youth German Pope would relate to Jews is an important and highly relevant issue, the Muslim community is 10714.3% bigger (at least) and bridges need to be built with it, let alone improved. Of course little attention was paid to that realm, outside of the Pope visiting a (single?) mosque. Followed by that tone-deaf speech he gave that bashed Muslims; the equivalent of using David Duke as a citation source in a speech on Jews. Considering that pre-papacy, the man formerly known as Ratzinger was known for some anti- (Muslim) immigrant sentiments in the press, you would think it obvious he needs a lot of work to even catch up to John Paul II, let alone surpass him in this aspect.

I feel that Islam is given a disproportionately small amount of attention by the Vatican. I’ve actually read into the Vatican’s recent edition of the Catechism to find…about 2 paragraphs. De Jure, they’re pretty indifferent to their 1400-year-old neighbor, but maybe that’s a good thing if you consider the alternatives in the past. When Ahmed Deedat was growing up in South Africa, he said that he lived across the street from a seminary where priests-in-training would practice their conversion strategies on him once they left the building and found it a one-way dialogue.

My ranting aside, let’s try to look at the facts objectively. Look at the world religions pie chart.

Ignoring Islam’s position in a strong second place, after that is Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 Billion. Pope Benedict has been very active in reaching out to them, which is how he stepped on Muslim toes in his Regensburg speech (he was talking about reason and religion existing when he dropped the Muslim comment to make a different point). He’s made numerous speeches on the matter, and his PR staff have indicated it’s an important cornerstone of his papacy (my words and not his). After that is Hinduism, but that’s very heterogeneous and hard to dialogue with on account of its seeming henotheism. After that, the rest go into single-digit percentages. I can’t see the Vatican all that concerned about Buddhism and Sikhism and Baha’i. Judaism is 12th place in that list , but as I said before, it seems either over-represented in Vatican dialogue or over-scrutinized.

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Our Lord! Impose not on us that which we have not the strength to bear, grant us forgiveness and have mercy on us. You are our Protector. Help us against those who deny the truth. (2:286)

Our Lord! Bestow on us mercy from Your presence and dispose of our affairs for us in the right way. (18:10)

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From Tasawwuf.org: a true shaykh of tasawwuf (sufism) never breaks even the smallest tenets of the shariah or the sunnah. Rather, he sees them as the means of his progress towards his Lord. In fact, he prefers death over falling into even a minute sin.

I saw a holy man on the seashore wounded by a tiger.
No medicine could relieve his pain; He suffered much, 
but he nevertheless constantly thanked God, the most high, saying,
”Praise be to Allah that I have fallen into a calamity and not into sin.”

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People keep asking me what led me to study Islam. I keep telling the story a bit differently, depending on what memory or part of the story comes to mind first. What I never got to mention was this; I had read a passage in a novel that made me reconsider what I had accepted as facts in the world:

…
“But the thing is, boys don’t like girls who are too smart.”
Sarah’s eyebrows went up. “Is that so?”
“Well, that’s what everybody says…”
“Like who?”
“Like my mom.”
“Uh-huh. And she probably knows what she’s talking about.”
“I don’t know, Kelly admitted. “My mom only dates jerks, actually.”
“So she could be wrong?” Sarah asked, glancing up at Kelly as she tied her laces.
“I guess.”
“Well, in my experience, some men like smart women, and some don’t. It’s like everything else in the world.” She stood up. “You know about George Schaller?”
“Sure. He studied pandas.”
“Right. Pandas, and before that, snow leopards and lions and gorillas. He’s the most important animal researcher in the twentieth century-and you know how he works?”
Kelly shook her head.
“Before he goes into the field, George reads everything that’s ever been written about the animal he’s going to study. Popular books, newspaper accounts, scientific papers, everything. Then he goes out and observes the animal for himself. And you know what he usually finds?”
She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.
“That nearly everything that’s been written or said is wrong. Like the gorilla. George studied mountain gorillas ten years before Dian Fossey ever thought of it. And he found that what was believed about gorillas was exaggerated, or misunderstood, or just plain fantasy-like the idea that you couldn’t take women on gorilla expeditions, because the gorillas would rape them. Wrong. Everything… just… wrong.”
Sarah finished tying her boots and stood.
“So, Kelly, even at your young age, there’s something you might as well learn now. All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they tell you will be wrong.”
Kelly said nothing. She felt oddly disheartened to hear this.
“It’s a fact of life,” Sarah said. “Human beings are just stuffed full of misinformation. So it’s hard to know who to believe. I know how you feel.”
…

That’s a passage from The Lost World, by Michael Crichton. I read it when I was 11, and this lesson stayed in my mind for years. Eventually, with Americans going berserk with panic over Muslims, I somehow remembered this moral out of nowhere. I actually went to the library and tried finding books about Islam. In retrospect, nearly everything I learned about Islam and Muslims was exaggerated, or misunderstood, or just plain fantasy. It made it all the more frustrating to explain to people, since they refused to part with those notions.

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Ammar bin Yasir
عمان بن ياسر

Ammar ibn Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) was a sahabi. That means he was a companion, or disciple, of Muhammad (peace be upon him). He was one of the earliest converts to Islam and a close follower of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and later on he swore allegiance to Muhammad’s cousin Ali ibn Abu Talib. Muhammad (pbuh) was once quoted to have said “Ammar is that who Allah put the faith in each drop of his blood and each one of his bones.”

Ammar’s family was of Yemeni origin. His full name and lineage was Ammar ibn (”son of”) Yasir ibn Amir al-Ansi al-Makhzumi (from the Banu Makhzum tribe). His father Yasir bin Malik had made his way to Mecca in the hope of finding his missing brother. He never found him but decided to make Mecca his home. His wife Samiya, a black slave woman, bore him two children; Abdullah and Ammar.

Ammar was born in Mecca. While he was lucky to be free from childhood onwards, his parents had to endure the hardship of slavery. Their first owner was a man named Abu Huzaifah, but upon his death they were later handed over to Abu Jahl, who was a leader of Mecca, but known to be cruel and a pagan idol-worshipper. He is notable in Islamic history for being a real enemy to the nascent Muslim group.

Although Ammar and his parents were brought up in the time of pagan idolatry, Ammar was one of the first people of Mecca to accept Muhammad’s (pbuh) message of monotheism, known as Islam. He became extremely devoted to Muhammad and was steadfast in trying to spread the message, at great cost to himself.

The day Ammar accepted Islam, his father Yasir had a dream. He later told Ammar’s mother that he saw himself in a valley. On one side of the mountain it was split and fire ran accross the divide. On the other side of the fire was a garden where he saw Ammar and Samiya. They were calling to him, and in his dream, he crossed it. Samiya interpreted it as extremely signifigant because Ammar had returned home that very day telling them the words of Muhammad (pbuh) and quoting parts of the Qur’an. Yassir and his wife decided to accept Muhammad’s message of Islam, saying it was a fulfillment of that dream. Ammar’s brother Abdullah also accepted Islam, which made them the first family of Mecca to do so.

When the Meccans heard that they all accepted Islam, they were furious. Especially the tribe of Banu Makhzoum, the tribe that helped Yasir move into Mecca. The reason was because Islam was a threat to the entire way of life in Mecca. The Ka’aba was a place of over 300 idols, one for every day of the year. People from all over the Arab world came to worship there, turning Mecca into a major trading center, and the money flowing through it made the families there rich. Abandoning all these idols and worshipping just One God in a class-less religion would shake their economy and whole way of life.

Abu Jahl was a cousin of the tribe, and he gathered the young people together to do something about this outrage. In spite of the refusal of the tribe’s elder, they plundered Yasir’s house, set fire to all their goods, and chained the whole family up. They were taken outside of Mecca to where slaves were punished and were beaten. They were stretched accross the burning sun of the desert, and heavy blocks of stone were put on top of them. Their howls of pain could be heard in Mecca, to discourage anyone else from becoming Muslim or following Muhammad.

Muhammad’s heart went out to Ammar and his family when he saw the pain that the idolatorous Meccans were inflicting on them. To ease this pain the Prophet would continuously say to them, “Patience oh family of Yassir, for you are destined for Paradise.” (Sahih al-Tirmidhi, v5, p233)

To be a slave and a Muslim at the same time was the most difficult thing in the world. A master such as Abu Jahl would torture the slaves over their beliefs. Yassir and his wife Samiya were Muslims who had given up the idolatry of their people, and for that reason alone Abu Jahl tortured them. Ammar grew up into a man watching his parents in misery. This naturally caused him a great deal of sorrow.

There were times when Ammar would weep at the suffering of his parents. The Prophet (pbuh) would console him and pray for the family. One fateful day, Abu Jahl struck Samiya a cruel blow and stabbed her to death, in front of her husband Yasir and her son Ammar. It was in this fashion that she became the first martyr of Islam, known as a “shaheed.” Ammar himself did not escape punishment; he witnessed her die while he himself was being tortured and was once branded on the back.

Yasir declared to Muhammad (pbuh) that he could no longer support this situation more any more. Muhammad and his companions buried Samiya. Abu Jahl returned and killed Yasir and Abdullah. Then Abu Jahl turned to Ammar, with his family dead, and tortured him until he forced Ammar under pain and duress to say horrible curses upon Muhammad (pbuh) and deny his faith in Islam.

Full of regret, he ran to Muhammad (pbuh) crying, telling him of what had happened and what he had said. Muhammad asked him if in his heart he meant anything they made him say. He said never, that in his heart he still believed in Allah even though they forced him to say otherwise.

Muhammad (pbuh) comforted Ammar, and not only told him that God forgave him, but he told Ammar that if the disbelievers were to torture him again, he should again deny his faith in public. It is said that another verse from the Qur’an was immediately revealed in response to this:

Any one who, after accepting faith in God, utters Unbelief,- except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in Faith - but such as open their breast to Unbelief, on them is Wrath from God, and theirs will be a dreadful Penalty.(16:106)

When other Muslims criticized Ammar, calling him a disbeliever, Muhammad replied “No, indeed Ammar is full of faith from head to toe.” ¹ Other sayings include “Ammar is with the truth and truth is with Ammar. He turns wherever the truth turns”, and “Ammar is all faith”. ²

Ammar was among those who immigrated to Abyssinia as well as one of the first immigrants(muhajirun) to flee from Mecca to Medina. He was also the first Muslim to build a mosque within his own house.³ He used to accompany Muhammad to all his places of assembly and was present at all the battles to defend the Muslims, including the Battle of Badr. When Abu Jahl was killed in that battle, Muhammad turned to Ammar and said “The Murderer of your mother was killed.”

Numerous hadith have been attributed to him, most notably his quotations of Muhammad concerning a practice called “Tayammum” which is a way to make ablution when water isn’t present. He also used to always keep his beard at least one fist-length, along with many other sahabas. All Muslims consider him to be one of the most pious Sahabas and very near to Muhammad (pbuh) himself. Sunnis and Shias both have great respect for him, and follow his example because of his proximity to the Prophet (pbuh).

There are multiple hadith where Muhammad predicted Ammar’s death. “Ammar is as near to me as an eye is near to the nose. Alas! a rebellious group will kill him.”² The Prophet (s) also told him “Ammar be cheerful, the aggressor party shall kill you.”⁴ “His killer will be in hell.” Several authentic hadith sources quote Muhammad also saying: “Alas! a rebellious group which swerves from the truth will murder Ammar. Ammar will be calling them towards Paradise and they will be calling him towards Hell. His killer and those who strip him of arms and clothing will be in Hell.” ⁵

Two prominent hadith scholars, Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani and as-Suyuti certify the above quotation: “The narration of this (above mentioned) tradition is mutawatir (i.e. narrated successively by so many people that no doubt can be entertained about its authenticity).” The fact that Muhammad correctly foretold of Ammar’s death is considered by some to be an additional sign (of many) of Muhammad being a prophet and having knowledge given to him by God and the angel Gabriel, due to the fact that many credible witnesses had narrated this hadith.

Ammar ibn Yasir was also depicted in The Message, a 1970’s film that tells the story of Islam. Personally, I’d strongly recommend seeing it, as when you see the struggle he had to endure for his faith, you cant help but feel empathy for him.

(Note: Following from here on, the rest of this information was taken from a Shia source. Trust of it what you will.)

After Muhammad’s death, Shia sources say that he became a close adherent and supporter of Ali (RA). Shia sources claim that Ammar fought with the caliphs that preceded Ali, with one source saying Caliph Uthman and his suppporters beat Ammar unconscious. Naturally, Sunni sources dispute this.

When Ali ibn Abu Talib became Caliph, Ammar was one of his most sincere supporters. He participated fully in all social, political and military activities during this period, especially in the battle of the Camel and the battle of Siffin. Ammar was martyred on 9th Safar 37 A.H. in the battle of Siffin when he was over ninety years of age. On the day Ammar ibn Yasir became a shaheed, he turned his face to the sky and said:

O’ Allah ! surely Thou art aware that if I know that Thy wish is that I should plunge myself into this River (the Euphrates) and be drowned, I will do it.

O’ Allah ! surely Thou knowest that if I knew that Thou would be pleased if I put my scimitar on my chest (to hit my heart) and pressed it so hard that it came out of my back, I would do it.

O’ Allah ! I do not think there is anything more pleasant to Thee than fighting with this sinful group, and if knew that any action were more pleasant to Thee I would do it.

Abu Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami narrates: “We were present with The Commander of the Faithful (Ali) at Siffin where I saw Ammar ibn Yasir was not turning his face towards any side, nor valleys of Siffin but the companions of the Holy Prophet (s) were following him as if he was a sign for them. Then I heard Ammar say to Hashim ibn ‘Utbah (al-Mirqal): “O’ Hashim! rush into enemy’s ranks, paradise is under sword!. Today I meet beloved one, Muhammad and his party.”

Then he said: “By Allah , if they put us to flight (and pursue us) to the date-palms of Hajar (a town in Bahrain) we know surely that we are right and they are wrong.”

Then Ammar continued (addressing the enemies): “We struck you to (believe in) its (Quran) revelation; And today we strike you to (believe in) its interpretation; Such strike as to remove heads from their resting places; And to make the friend forget his sincere friend; Until the truth returns to its (right) path.” The narrator says: I did not see the Holy Prophet’s companions killed at any time as many as they were killed on this day.

Then Ammar spurred his horse, entered the battlefield and began fighting. He persistently chased the enemy, made attack after attack, and raised challenging slogans till at last a group of mean-spirited Syrians surrounded him on all sides, and a man named Abu al-Ghadiyah al-Juhari (al-Fazari) inflicted such a wound upon him that he could not bear it, and returned to his camp. He asked for water. A tumbler of milk was brought to him. When Ammar looked at the tumbler he said: “The Messenger of Allah had said the right thing.” People asked him what he meant by these words. He said “The Messenger of Allah informed me that my last provision in this world would be milk.” Then he took that tumbler of milk in his hands, drank the milk and soon died. When Ali came to know of his death, he came to Ammar’s side, put his (Ammar’s) head on his own lap, and recited the following eulogy to mourn his death:

“We belong to God and to Him shall be our return. Whoever does not feel grief over the death of Ammar is not a Muslim. Oh Allah , be merciful to Ammar during that time when the Angels will question him in the grave. I did not witness with the Prophet a group of three, without Ammar being the fourth, or a group of four, without Ammar being the fifth. Ammar was not deserving of paradise only once; he deserved it on many occasions. The everlasting gardens that await him are countless because he was with the truth and the truth was with him and as the Messenger of Allah said, “It (the truth) accompanies him every which way he turns.”

Ali recited funeral prayers for him, and buried him with his clothes as a shaheed. He was ninety-one years old. Among the companions of the Holy Prophet (Pbuh) Ammar was held in high esteem, respected for his knowledge of Islam and praised for his undoubted sacrifice to the cause. He, along with everyone who fought at the Battle of Badr, was promised entry into heaven.

Ammar (may Allah be pleased with him) died a martyr, with all the benefits of a Shaheed, a fitting end to a glorious life of sacrifice and patience against all odds.

References:
1. (Ibn Majah, as-Sunan, vol. 1, p. 65; Abu NuAym, Hilyah al-Awliya, vol. 1, p. 139; al-Haytami, Majma az-zawaid, vol. 9, p. 295; al-Isti`ab, vol. 3, p. 1137; al-Isabah, vol. 2, p. 512)

2. (at-Tabaqat, vol. 3, part 1, p. 187; al-Mustadrak, vol. 3, p. 392; Ibn Hisham, as-Sirah, vol. 2, p. 143; Ibn Kathir, at-Tarikh, vol. 7, pp. 268-270)

3. (at-Tabaqat, vol. 3, Part 1, p. 178; Usd al-ghabah, vol. 4, p. 46; Ibn Kathir, at-Tarikh, vol. 7, p. 311).

4. (al-Mustadrak, by al-Hakim, v3, p383, and Sahih Muslim, English version, v4, chapter MCCV, Traditions #6968& #6970)

5. (al-Bukhari, Sahih, vol. 8, pp. 185-186; at-Tirmidhi, al-Jami` as-Sahih, vol. 5, p. 669; Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Musnad, vol. 2, pp. 161,164,206; vol. 3, pp.5, 22, 28, 91; vol. 4, pp.197, 199, vol. 5 pp.215, 306, 307; vol. 6, pp.289, 300, 311, 315, and all the narrators of Islamic traditions and historians transmitted through twenty-five Companions)

www.islamicvoice.com/october.98/child.htm

www.al-shia.org/html/fre/librari/histoire/

www.aljaafaria.com/md1art05.htm

Last two paragraphs shamelessly stolen from www.geocities.com/islamroots/a/per/ammar.htm (which does an excellent overview that I’ve tried to enhance)

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Note: I strongly believe that a lot of this changed, especially post-9/11 when the community became much more unified in the aftermath. I’ve never experienced anything like this in New York in the 5+ years I’ve been in the communities. However, the story has a good moral to it, and should be read for that reason.

Mosques and Islamic centers in Europs and America bring together a vast array of peoples from all over the Muslim world. Very often a masjid will contain many small cultural clusters with no one of them in the majority. This is especially true of the masjids run by Muslim student groups at western universities. Such a diverse assemblage of cultures will produce many differences of opinions, which can evolve quite easily into bitter arguments and community rifts.

Such a quarrel arose one night in the mosque at the University of San Francisco. I do not remember the precise cause of the fray; it had something to do with a pile of anti-Shiite tracts that someone left in the mosque. This happened at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, and a great deal of politico-religious propaganda was being disseminated by both sides of the conflict and by their allies. I recall vividly how explosive the scene became.

The Saudis raged against the Kuwaitis and Iranians, the Pakistani students allied themselves with the Saudis, the white Americans defended the Iranians, the African Americans were against the white Americans, the North African and Palestinian students seemed to be fighting each other and everyone else, the Malaysian students looked terrified. All sorts of bitter, malicious, racial and personal attacks flew back and forth.

“You Shiah are Kaffirs!”
“You Saudis worship your king!”
“What do Americans know about Islam?!”
“Pakistanis are nothing but the lackeys of the Saudis!”
“Our people were Muslims long before you white boys ever were!”
“You’re proud of following Elijah Muhammad?!”
“Palestinians got what they deserved!”

Faces were red with rage. Shouts become threatening roars. The American students were clenching their fists and tensing their arms, readying themselves for a fight. This was definitely going to be the end of our community.

From over in the corrner of the room a desperate cry rang out:
“LA ilaha illa Allah ! Muhamadan rasulu Allah !”
It was Ilyas, the always quiet, skinny, short student from Indonesia. He hardly ever spoke a word. The room quieted.
“What did he say?” Several persons asked each other.
Ilyas shouted again at the top of his lungs:
“La ilaha illa Allah ! Muhamadan rasulu Allah !”
“Say it!” Ilyas yelled, “Say it!”
Most of us murmured confusedly: “La ilaha illa Allah - Muhamadan rasulu Allah ?”
“What does he want?” someone whispered.
“Say it like you mean it!” Ilyas screamed.

Maybe it was because he said it with so much authority or with so much passion, but for some reason we now felt the need to obey this normally meek and inconspicuous member of our mosque. Our voices rose in unison with Ilyas leading us:
“La ilaha illa Allah ! Muhamadan rasulu Allah !”

You could feel the hate and anger dissipating. All eyes were fixed on Ilyas. The faces of the brothers looked mesmerized. Some of them showed sadness, some remorse, and others excitement. The whole company now needed Ilyas to lead them again.
“Again!” Ilyas bellowed. “Again!”
This time we all rang out in one passionate, thundering cry:
“La ilaha illa Allah ! Muhamadan rasulu Allah !”
Then again we cried out, following Ilyas’s lead:
“La ilaha illa Allah ! Muhamadan rasulu Allah !”

Ilyas stopped, froze there for a moment with tears in his eyes. He looked at us in the way a child looks at his parents when he wants them to stop fighting.
“That’s what it is all about, brothers!” Ilyas pleaded, his voice cracking. “That’s what binds us!”
“Just look at us!” He shouted, stretching out his arms.

At that, the brothers began to slowly approach one another with looks of great embarrassment on their faces. What easily could have exploded into a spectacle of complete pandemonium, was now a scene of handshakes, brotherly hugs, and sincere apologies. The next day, the mosque was back to normal, and I never heard anyone discuss the argument again.

—–
Taken from Even Angels Ask, by Jeffrey Lang, p157-158

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Shaykh Hamza Yusuf made a very moving speech at ISNA 2007 where he pointed out that when rasoolullah SAW wanted to warn the people against one of the major aims, he would take an extreme example. All of the so-called 7 deadly sins can be explained in such a fashion;
instead of warning against anger, he warned against killing people, instead of warning against lust, he spoke against fornication, instead of focusing on greed he pointed out the evil of devouring the wealth of orphans.

That and the previous post can both be seen in the ISNA speech (Quicktime)

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Imam Zaid Shakir gave a speech at 2007 ISNA where be started off discussing the sad fact tha he discovered many deaf brothers and sisters were leaving islam because they had trouble connecting with the community or being accepted. I’ve heard that blind Muslims have difficulties of their own, such as the difficulty of getting around and using a seeing eye dog to get to a masjid. He made a great point of encouraging us all to help our disabled brothers and sisters, of any sort of disability. He even had a sign language interpreter translate his speech for the audience and asked people to consider learning it to help their fellow Muslim.

Also, he didn’t mention it, but there’s a serious problem with a lack of wheelchair accessable masajid, at least in New York city. I understand the cash crunches islamic centers have (if they only have a little money, I’m sure they’ll spend it on better Wudu areas or parking or child nurseries) but we should consider it. Can’t governments give grant money or something?

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Salman Al Farsi (may Allah be pleased with him) was known as a “sahaba” or ‘companion’ of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). His name translates to “Salman the Persian,” and he is considered one of the righteous Muslims in early Islamic History.

According to Arab historians and Salman’s own account, Salman grew up in the village of Jayyan in the land of Persia, which is now the present-day town of Isfahan in Iran. Historians say that he was born in or around the year 568 CE. His father was the chief of the village and a wealthy landlord, and was thus the richest man with the biggest house. Salman means “safe” in Arabic, and as his only son, he lavished all his love upon him, and was thus afraid to lose him and therefore kept him at home.

Most Persians (Iranians) in those days were Zoroastrians. He was raised to follow the religion; in his teens he became so devoted to it that he achieved the position of “Custodian of the Fire” which they worshipped. His duty was to see that the flames of the fire remained burning and didn’t go out, day or night. He became as knowledgable as the Zoroastrian priests, learning the complex doctrines and dogmas of the faith.

In those days in Persia, it was considered a great honor to be a priest in one of the fire-temples. Service in a fire-temple provided the priests with status, prestige and numerous perquisites. Since the priests in Persia could reach high position in local and “national” governments, Salman’s father managed to get him appointed as a priest in the local fire-temple while he was only sixteen years old. For three years, Salman played priest in the fire-temple of Jiyye but then he began to lose interest in his work; It had become too monotonous and wearisome for him. The priests were men of limited vision and limited knowledge and they were too dogmatic. If he posed any doctrinal question to them, they were, in most cases, unable to answer him; or, they spoke in a language of allusions and historical allegories.

His father had a vast estate and lots of crops. One day (around 586 CE), he asked his son to go look after the harvest for him. On the way there, he passed a Christian church. He was curious, and went in, whereupon he encountered a Christian service, and a choir singing a hymn in a foreign language. Salman had never met Christians before, nor any other religion for that matter, and their praying impressed him. “By God,” he said, “this is better than ours. I shall not leave them until the sun sets.” He stayed and listened to the Christians, who he said told him that the religion came from Syria. They told him about God and Judgement Day, and about the Messengers and Prophets of God. When he came home, he told his father what he had done, and how impressed he was by Christianity. This upset his father, who 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,” he insisted.

His father became worried that he would leave the religion of his family and locked him up in the house, in an attempt to make him swear that he did not and would not change his religion. Salman refused, and his father imprisoned him at home, even chaining his feet and keeping him hungry and thirsty. However, he managed to get a servant to send a message to the Christians asking when the next caravan left for Syria. Before long, they got in touch with him and told him that a caravan was leaving for Syria. He managed to escape and accompanied the caravan in disguise to Damascus. Once there, he immediately headed for the head of the church, which was a bishop. He went right up to him and said “I want to become a Christian and would like to attach myself to your service, learn from you and pray with you.” The Bishop agreed, and Salman converted to Christianity. He was 19.

Salman soon discovered that the Bishop was a corrupt man who ordered people to give money in charity in exchange for blessings. He stole their money and kept it all hidden for himself, with nothing to the poor. When the Bishop died, the Christian community gathered to bury him, but Salman showed them where the Bishop had been hiding all their donations. When they saw all the hoarded money, they instead nailed the body of the Bishop to a cross and stoned his corpse. The new bishop was an ascetic who longed for the Hereafter and engaged in worship day and night. Salman was greatly devoted to him and spent a long time in his company. After that Bishop’s death, Salman attached himself to various Christian religious figures, in Mosul (Iraq), Nisibis and elsewhere. The last one had told him about the future appearance of a Prophet in the land of the Arabs who would have a reputation for strict honesty; one who would accept a gift but would never consume sadaqah (charity) for himself.

Later, a group of Arab leaders from the Kalb tribe passed through Ammuriyah (in the Byzantine Empire, I think) and Salman asked them to take him with them to the land of the Arabs in return for whatever money he had. When they reached Wadi al-Qura (a place between Medina and Syria), they broke their agreement and sold Salman as a slave to a Jewish man. Salman worked as a servant for him but eventually he was sold to the slaveowner’s nephew belonging to the tribe of Banu Qurayzah. This nephew took Salman with him to Yathrib (now modern day Medina), the city of palm groves, which is how the Christian at Ammuriyah had described it. At that time, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was preaching Islam in the city of Mecca, but Salman did not hear anything about him because of his labor as a slave.

After the hegira, when Muhammad (pbuh) and his newly Muslim followers emigrated from Mecca to Yathrib, which thenceforth became known as Medina, Salman became aware of Muhammad (pbuh). He was at the top of a Palm tree of his master, doing some work, with his master sitting under the tree. The master’s nephew came up and said:

“May God declare war on the Aws and the 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.”

Upon hearing those words, Salman felt hot flushes and began to shiver so violently that he was afraid that he might fall out of the tree on his master. He quickly got down from the tree and spoke to his master’s nephew. “What did you say? Repeat the news for me.” His master became very angry and gave him a terrible blow. “What does this matter to you? Go back to what you were doing,” he shouted.

That evening, Salman took some dates that he had gathered and went to the place where the Prophet had alighted. He 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 sadaqah. 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. Salman gathered some more dates and when the Prophet left Quba for Medina he went to him and said: “I noticed that you did not eat of the sadaqah 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 as his religion.

Soon after, Salman was released from slavery by Muhammad (pbuh) who paid his Jewish slaveowner a stipulated price and who himself planted an agreed number of date palms to secure his manumission. Supposedly, when the 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 played an important role in the struggles of the growing Muslim state. The city of Medina was under threat of attack by the pagan Quraish, who sought to destroy the city and the new religion growing there. In a brilliant bit of military strategy, Salman suggested digging a ditch around Medina to keep the Quraysh army at bay. Within six days, a hastily dug moat surrounded the city. When Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Meccans, saw the ditch, he said, “This stratagem has not been employed by the Arabs before.” The ditch was wide enough that only one horse managed to jump the ditch, which was several feet across, but the rest of the army was held back. The army tried to lay siege to Medina, but time and a violent sandstorm broke them up.

Salman became known as “Salman the Good”. He was a scholar who lived a rough and ascetic life. He had one cloak which he wore and on 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 al-Madain (Ctesiphon) near Baghdad, Salman received a stipend of five thousand dirhams. This he would distribute as charity. He lived from the work of his own hands. When some people came to Madain and saw him working in the palm groves, they said, “You are the Emir (leader) here and your sustenance is guaranteed and you do this work!”

“I like to eat from the work of my own hands,” he replied. Salman however was not extreme in his asceticism. It is related that he once visited Abu ad-Dardaa with whom the Prophet had joined him in brotherhood. He found Abu ad-Dardaas wife in a miserable state and he asked, “What is the matter with you.” “Your brother has no need of anything in this world,” she replied. When Abu ad-Dardaa came, he welcomed Salman and gave him food. Salman told him to eat but Abu ad-Dardaa said, “I am fasting.” Salman replied, “I swear to you that I shall not eat until you eat also.” Salman spent the night there as well. During the night, Abu ad-Dardaa got up but Salman got hold of him and said: “O Abu ad-Dardaa, your Lord has a right over you. Your family has a right over you and your body has a right over you. Give to each its due.” In the morning, they prayed together and then went out to meet the Prophet, peace be upon him. The Prophet supported Salman in what he had said.

As a scholar, Salman was noted for his vast knowledge and wisdom. Ali’ ibn Abu Talib said of him that he was like Luqman the Wise. And Kab al-Ahbar said: “Salman is stuffed with knowledge and wisdom–an ocean that does not dry up.” Salman had a knowledge of both the Christian scriptures and the Quran in addition to his earlier knowledge of the Zoroastrian religion. Salman in fact translated parts of the Quran into Persian during the life-time of the Prophet. He was thus the first person to interpret the Quran into a foreign language. He was also a narrator for at least 10 hadith, due to being close to the Prophet (pbuh).

Muslims, both Sunni and Shia, have tremendous respect for Salman Al Farsi. He was a very close friend of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and Ali ibn Abu Talib. 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, even before the Prophet had appeared, to renounce a comfortable and affluent life and even to suffer the indignities of slavery. According to the most reliable account, he died in the year thirty five after the hijrah, during the caliphate of Uthman, at Ctesiphon. He was 88. The Shias claim he is buried in Madaen, Iraq, and there is now a shrine and mausoleum for him.
Muslims draw many comparisons between him and the Prophets. He defied his father who was a fire-worshipper like Abraham defied his father who was an idolator, and Muahmmad (pbuh) defied the polytheists of Mecca. They all did it for the same reason, faith in Oneness of God. They all emigrated from the lands of their birth due to their faith; Abraham migrated from Iraq to Palestine to Mecca, Salman migrated from Persia to Syria to Medina, and Muhammad (pbuh) migrated from Mecca to Medina. Salman was sold into slavery, just like Prophet Joseph. It was painful, but they persevered in faith, knowing that God was with them. Their suffering didn’t blot out their awareness in God. He was similar to Luqman, they were both wise, considered “philosophical allies” of one another.
Much of the information is taken from his autobiography, from “Companions of The Prophet”, Vol.1, by: Abdul Wahid Hamid is availible at: www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/history/biographies/sahaabah/bio.SALMAN_AL_FARSI.html

www.ezsoftech.com/islamic/salman.asp (a Shia oriented piece)

Salman al Farsi, Friend of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh&hf) By Sayed A. A. Razwy

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