organized dances and other rituals. Those four were very unhappy about what they saw of their people’s practices. They said to one another: “Let us be frank about it. Our people do not follow any proper religion. They have distorted the faith of Abraham, their father. What is this stone which neither hears nor sees, and we are here celebrating its festival with offerings and dances? It certainly cannot cause us any benefit or harm.”
When each of them was sure that the others were not happy with idolatrous worship either, they began to think what they should do to ensure that they followed a proper religion. They eventually decided to travel separately to meet priests and other scholars in the hope of learning the original version of the faith of Abraham.4
Waraqah ibn Nawfal soon adopted Christianity and studied the Bible thoroughly. He became a fully-fledged Christian scholar. ʿUbaydillāh ibn Jaḥsh could not make up his mind to follow Christianity or any other religion. When the Prophet began to convey his message, he accepted Islam. He was later to travel with those Muslims who emigrated to Abyssinia. There, however, he became a Christian convert and lived as a Christian until he died. ʿUthmān ibn al-Ḥuwayrith was able to meet the Byzantine Emperor and became a Christian. He apparently enjoyed a good position with the Byzantine Emperor, who wanted to make him King of Makkah. The Quraysh would not stand for that. He was nicknamed ‘the Cardinal’. ʿAmr ibn Jafnah, King of Ghassān, the Arabian tribe which lived in Syria under the domination of the Byzantine Empire, apparently poisoned him. Zayd ibn ʿAmr, the last of the four, travelled widely in Syria and Iraq. He considered becoming a Jew or a Christian. An aged Christian priest, however, told him that the time was ripe for the appearance of a new Prophet in the land of the Arabs. Zayd therefore went back to Makkah to wait for this new Prophet. He took no part in idol worship and refused to partake of any animal which was slaughtered as an offering to idols. He tried to save every young girl who was about to be buried alive by her father, as the Arabs used to do. He told his people that he was the only one who followed the faith of Abraham. He used to address God, saying: “Had I known which way of worship is acceptable to You, I would have followed it. But I am ignorant of that.” He would then prostrate himself, putting his forehead over his palm in a gesture of submission to God.5
Zayd was perhaps the most outspoken of the four. He criticized idolatrous worship, urging his people to abandon it. That prompted some of his relatives, notably his uncle, al-Khaṭṭāb, to try to bring him back to the fold. Al-Khaṭṭāb counselled him repeatedly against abandoning the faith of his people. He also tried to prevent him going abroad in pursuit of religious learning. Al-Khaṭṭāb asked a woman in their household to keep an eye on Zayd, and to report to him Zayd’s intentions. Whenever she felt that Zayd was planning to travel abroad, she would tell al-Khaṭṭāb, who took measures to prevent him from leaving. When Zayd grew more outspoken in his criticism of idolatrous worship, al-Khaṭṭāb managed to banish him to an area outside Makkah in order that he should keep his ideas to himself. Al-Khaṭṭāb further assigned a number of young men from the Quraysh to report Zayd’s movements to him. If Zayd came into the city, which he always tried to do in secret, they would report that to al-Khaṭṭāb and he would make sure he was turned out again. Zayd was made to suffer very bad treatment in the process. What al-Khaṭṭāb feared was that Zayd might be able to win over other people to his way of thinking; this might lead to division within Arabian society.
Zayd, however, managed to travel in secret, and he went again to Syria. Apparently, it was on this trip, and after he had travelled extensively in Syria and Iraq, that he was told by a learned Christian priest of the imminent appearance in Arabia of a new Prophet. When he learned that, he immediately decided to go back to Makkah. Unfortunately, he was murdered on his way home.6
It was noteworthy that his son, Saʿīd, was one of the first people to accept the message of Islam when the Prophet started preaching it in secret. Al-Khaṭṭāb’s son, ʿUmar, was to become one of the strongest advocates of Islam, and the second ruler of the Muslim state after the Prophet. Saʿīd and ʿUmar once asked the Prophet whether it was permissible to pray God to grant mercy and forgiveness to Zayd. The Prophet answered in the affirmative and told them that on the Day of Resurrection, Zayd would be in a class of his own. What we understand from the Prophet’s statement is that Zayd had no equal as a person who genuinely and conscientiously sought the truth with the determination to follow it once he learnt it.7
It is noteworthy that Zayd was told by a learned Christian priest of the message of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and that it was imminent. Indeed, learned theologians of both Christianity and Judaism were aware of the fact.8 Salmān, the Prophet’s Persian companion, was also informed of the message of Islam by one such Christian theologian. His story will be reported in detail later in this book. On the other hand, the Jews in Madinah used to tell the polytheist Arabs there that a Prophet would soon be appearing in Arabia and that they would be the first to follow him. Every time trouble arose between the Jewish and Arab communities in Madinah, the Jews would make threatening noises to the effect that the new Prophet, whose appearance they asserted to be imminent, would not hesitate to fight and inflict heavy defeats on his opponents. Indeed, the Arabs of Madinah were quick to embrace Islam when they first learnt of it, because of those threats the Jews used to make. They did not want the Jews to be allied with the Prophet against them.9
A more detailed story is reported by Salāmah ibn Waqsh, a companion of the Prophet from the Anṣār, who attended the Battle of Badr with him:
We had a Jewish neighbour who one day came to speak to the men of our clan when I was still a young boy. He mentioned the Day of Resurrection and that all people would have to face the reckoning and that they would be taken either to heaven or to hell. Our people were polytheists who did not believe in resurrection or a second life. They asked him whether he genuinely believed that people would come to life again after they had died, and whether he genuinely believed in heaven and hell. He answered: “Yes indeed, I swear to the truth of that. I would even be prepared to barter my share of that hell with the largest furnace you have in your community. I am willing that you should light up that furnace and put me inside it and close it on me, if that would ensure that I would be spared the torment of hell in the life to come.” They asked him what evidence he had in support of his claim. He said: “There will come to you a prophet from those parts” (pointing with his hand towards Makkah and Yemen). They asked how long it would take before he actually appeared. He looked at me, as I was one of the youngest in the group, and said: “If this boy lives until he reaches old age, he will be sure to see him.”
It was not long before God sent His messenger, Muhammad (peace be upon him). The Jew was still alive among us. We believed in the Prophet and he denied the truth of his message. When we rebuked him for his attitude and reminded him of what he told us, he said: “What I told you is true, but your man is not the one I meant.”10
Another story involves the arrival of a Jewish scholar from Syria in Madinah a few years before the advent of Islam. This man, who was called Ibn al-Hayyabān, was a very devout person. When rain was scarce, the Jews would ask him to pray for rain. He would refuse unless they paid something for charity. They would join him in his prayer outside the town. He would hardly finish before the sky would be cloudy and rain would pour down. He did that many times.
Not long after his arrival, he fell ill and was certain to die. He spoke to his fellow Jews and started by asking them what they felt was his reason for emigrating from a land of prosperity to one of poverty and hardship. He then explained that he came to Madinah only because it was time for a new Prophet to appear and that Madinah would be the place to which he would emigrate. “I hoped”, he said, “that he would appear before I died so that I could follow him. His appearance is very imminent, so let no one follow him ahead of you. He will be given power to shed blood and take the women and children of his opponents prisoner, but that should not deter you from following him, fellow Jews.”
When the Prophet emigrated to Madinah and had his battle with the Jews of Qurayẓah (which
