This is a story of a seeker
of Truth, the story of Salman the Persian, gleaned, to begin with, from his own
words:
I grew up in the town of
Isfahan in Persia in the village of Jayyan. My father was the Dihqan or chief
of the village. He was the richest person there and had the biggest house.
Since I was a child my
father loved me, more than he loved any other. As time went by his love for me
became so strong and overpowering that he feared to lose me or have anything
happen to me. So he kept me at home, a veritable prisoner, in the same way that
young girls were kept.
I became devoted to the
Magian religion so much so that I attained the position of custodian of the
fire which we worshipped. My duty was to see that the flames of the fire
remained burning and that it did not go out for a single hour, day or night.
My father had a vast estate
which yielded an abundant supply of crops. He himself looked after the estate
and the harvest. One day he was very busy with his duties as dihqan in the
village and he said to me:
"My son, as you see, I
am too busy to go out to the estate now. Go and look after matters there for me
today."
On my way to the estate, I
passed a Christian church and the voices at prayer attracted my attention. I
did not know anything about Christianity or about the followers of any other
religion throughout the time my father kept me in the house away from people.
When I heard the voices of the Christians I entered the church to see what they
were doing. I was impressed by their manner of praying and felt drawn to their
religion. "By God," I said, "this is better than ours. I shall
not leave them until the sun sets."
I asked and was told that the
Christian religion originated in Ash-Sham (Greater Syria). I did not go to my
father's estate that day and at night, I returned home. My father met me and
asked what I had done. I told him about my meeting with the Christians and how
I was impressed by their religion. He was dismayed and 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," I insisted.
My father became upset and
afraid that I would leave our religion. So he kept me locked up in the house
and put a chain on my feet. I managed however to send a message to the
Christians asking them to inform me of any caravan going to Syria.
Before long they got in
touch with me and told me that a caravan was headed for Syria. I managed to
unfetter myself and in disguise accompanied the caravan to Syria. There, I
asked who was the leading person in the Christian religion and was directed to
the bishop of the church. I went 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 I
entered the church in his service. I soon found out, however, that the man was
corrupt. He would order his followers to give money in charity while holding
out the promise of blessings to them. When they gave anything to spend in the
way of God, however, he would hoard it for himself and not give anything to the
poor or needy. In this way he amassed a vast quantity of gold. When the bishop
died and the Christians gathered to bury him, I told them of his corrupt
practices and, at their request, showed them where he kept their donations.
When they saw the large jars filled with gold and silver they said.
"By God, we shall not
bury him." They nailed him on a cross and threw stones at him. I continued
in the service of the person who replaced him. The new bishop was an ascetic
who longed for the Hereafter and engaged in worship day and night. I was
greatly devoted to him and spent a long time in his company.
(After his death, Salman
attached himself to various Christian religious figures, in Mosul, Nisibis and
elsewhere. The last one had told him about the 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 charity (sadaqah) for himself. Salman
continues his story.)
A group of Arab leaders
from the Kalb tribe passed through Ammuriyah and I asked them to take me with
them to the land of the Arabs in return for whatever money I had. They agreed
and I paid them. When we reached Wadi al-Qura (a place between Madinah and
Syria), they broke their agreement and sold me to a Jew. I worked as a servant
for him but eventually he sold me to a nephew of his belonging to the tribe of
Banu Qurayzah. This nephew took me with him to Yathrib, the city of palm
groves, which is how the Christian at Ammuriyah had described it.
At that time the Prophet
was inviting his people in Makkah to Islam but I did not hear anything about
him then because of the harsh duties which slavery imposed upon me.
When the Prophet reached
Yathrib after his hijrah from Makkah, I was in fact at the top of a palm tree
belonging to my master doing some work. My master was sitting under the tree. A
nephew of his came up and said:
"May God declare war
on the Aws and the Khazraj (the two main Arab tribes of Yathrib). By God, they
are now gathering at Quba to meet a man who has today come from Makkah and who
claims he is a Prophet."
I felt hot flushes as soon
as I heard these words and I began to shiver so violently that I was afraid
that I might fall on my master. I quickly got down from the tree and spoke to
my master's nephew.
"What did you say?
Repeat the news for me."
My master was very angry
and gave me a terrible blow. "What does this matter to you'? Go back to
what you were doing," he shouted.
That evening, I took some
dates that I had gathered and went to the place where the Prophet had alighted.
I 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. I gathered some more dates
and when the Prophet left Quba for Madinah I 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 .
Salman was released from
slavery by the Prophet who paid his Jewish slave-owner a stipulated price and
who himself planted an agreed number of date palms to secure his manumission.
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 was to play an
important role in the struggles of the growing Muslim state. At the battle of
Khandaq, he proved to be an innovator in military strategy. He suggested
digging a ditch or khandaq around Madinah to keep the Quraysh army at bay. When
Abu Sufyan, the leader of the Makkans, saw the ditch, he said, "This
stratagem has not been employed by the Arabs before."
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 sadaqah. 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 amir 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."
"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 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
translate the Quran into a foreign language.
Salman, 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.
Edited- Abdul Matin Wasim
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