Part 83

Even though the caliph knew about the abundance of *Amr's wealth, he did not remove him but sent Muhammad Ibn Maslamah to him and ordered ~Amr to split with him, all of his wealth and possessions. So, he left him one half of it and carried the other half to the treasury in Al-Madiinah. However, if the Commander of the Faithful had known that ~Amr's love for wealth would lead him to carelessness in his responibility, it is conceivable that his reasonable conscience would not have allowed him to stay in power for even one moment.

“Amr (May Allah be pleased with him) was sharp-witted with strong intuitive understanding and deep vision, so much so that whenever the Commander of the Faithful saw a person incapable of artifice, he clapped his palms in astonishment and said, "Glory be to Allah ! Indeed, the Creator of this and the Creator of “Amr Ibn Al- *Aas is one God!"

Amr was also very daring and unhesitant. He used to combine his daring with his wits in some instances so that he would be thought to be cowardly or hesitant. However, it was the capacity to trick which “Amr perfected with great skill to get himself out of a destructive crisis.

The Commander of the Faithful ~Umar knew these talents of his and appreciated their true value. For that reason, when he sent him to Syria, before his going to Egypt, it was said to the Commander of the Faithful, "At the head of the armies of Rome in Syria is Artubun,

a_ shrewd and brave leader and a prince." ‘Umar's response was, “We have hurled at Artubun of Rome Artubun of the Arabs, so let us

see how the matter unfolds."

Matters unfolded in a massive victory for the Artubun of the Arabs, their dangerous, sly old fox, “Amr Ibn Al-‘Aas, over the Artubun of Rome, who left his army to defeat and fled to Egypt. “Amr would catch him shortly thereafter to raise the standard of Islam above its secure lands.

What are the situations in which the intelligence and wits of “Amr excelled? We do not count among them his position with Abu Muusaa Al-Ash‘ariy in the incident of arbitration when the two of them agreed to depose “Aliy and Mu‘aawiyah to refer the matter back to consultation between the Muslims. Abu Muusaa implemented the agreement and “Amr relented from carrying out his part of the agreement.

If we want to witness a picture of his wits and the skill of his intuitive insight, we find it in his position with respect to the commander of the Citadel of Babylon (near present day Cairo) during his war with Rome in Egypt, and, in another historical narration, in the battle we shall mention which took place in Yarmuuk with Artubun of Rome.

When Artubun and the commander invited ~Amr to talk, they gave an order to some of their men to throw a rock at him immediately upon his departure from the Citadel and to prepare everything so that the killing of “Amr would be an inevitable matter.

“Amr met the commander, not suspecting anything from him, and their meeting ended. While “Amr was on his way out of the Citadel, he glimpsed over the walls something suspicious that aroused in hima strong sense of danger, and immediately he behaved in an

outstanding manner. He returned back to the commander of the Citadel, in safe, secure, slow steps, with confident, happy feelings, as if nothing had scared him at all or had aroused his suspicion. He met the commander and said to him, "An idea came across my mind I wanted you to know. I have with me, where my companions are camped, a group from among the first Companions of the Messenger to enter into Islam. The Commander of the Faithful would not decide anything without consulting them and would not send an army unless he put them at the head of its fighters and soldiers. I will bring them to you so that they hear from you that which J heard, so they will become as clear in the matter as I am."

The Roman commander realized that Amr, by his naivete, had granted him the opportunity of a lifetime. Therefore, he thought, Let us agree with him, and when he returns with this number of Muslim commanders and the best of their men and their leaders, we will deliver the coup de grace and finish off all of them at once, instead of finishing off Amr alone.

Secretly he gave his order to put off the plan that was devised to assasinate “Amr, and he saw “Amr off cordially and shook his hand with enthusiasm and fervor. “Amr smiled the most intelligent of Arab smiles as he was leaving the Citadel.

In the morning “Amr returned to the Citadel at the head of an army , mounted on his horse that whinnied in a loud burst of laughter, behaving proudly and haughtily and making fun. Yes, for it, too, knew a lot of things about the shrewdness of its owner.

In A.H. 43, death caught up with “Amr Ibn Al--Aas in Egypt, where he was ruling. He recaptured his life in the moments of departure, saying, "In the first part of my life I was a disbeliever, and I was one of the fiercest people against the Messenger of Allah, so if I had died on that day, the fire would have been my fate. Then, I swore allegiance to the Messenger of Allah, and there was no person more dear to me than he and more glorious in my eyes than he. If I wanted to describe him, I could not, because I was not able to fill my

eyes with him on account of being in awe of him. If I had died back then, I would have wished to be of the inhabitants of Paradise. Then

after that I was tested with command and with material things. I do not know if they were for me or against me."

Then he raised his sight to the sky in awe, calling upon his Lord,

the Merciful, the Magnificent, saying, "O Allah, I am not innocent, so

- forgive me. I am not mighty, so help me. And if Your mercy does not come to me, | will surely be of those destroyed."

And he continued in his yearning and his prayers until his spirit ascended to Allah and his last words were, "There is no god but Allah."

Under the ground of Egypt, which “Amr acquainted with the path of Islam, where his corpse was finally placed, and above its hard earth, his seat is still standing throughout the centuries. Here he used to teach, judge, and rule, beneath the ceiling of his ancient mosque, the Mosque of ~Amr, the first mosque in Egypt, in which the name of Allah, the One and Only is mentioned and declared between its walls and from its pulpit, the words of Allah and the principles of Islam.

(60) SAALIM MAWLAA ABIHUDHAIFAH Blessed Be the Carrier of the Qur’aan

The Messenger of Allah(PBUH) advised his Companions one day, "Take the Qur'aan from four people: “Abd Allah Ibn Mas*uud, Saalim Mawlaa Abi Hudhaifah, Ubai Ibn Ka*b and Mu‘aadh Ibn Jabal."

We have met before with Ibn Mas‘uud and Ubai and Mu‘aadh. So, who was this fourth Companion whom the Messenger made as an authority for the teaching of the Qur'aan and a source of reference?

Verily, he was Saalim Mawlaa Abi Hudhaifah. He was a kind servant. Islam was exalted on account of him until it made him a son of one of the great Muslims who, before his Islam, was honored to be one of the most noble of the Quraish and one of their leaders. When Islam cancelled the practice of adoption, he became a brother, a friend, a protector of those whom he had adopted. Such was the glorious Companion, Abu Hudhaifah Ibn “Utbah. By the grace of Allah and His favor upon Saalim, he reached an elevated lofty position which his spiritual virtues, along with his behavior and his piety, had prepared him for.

Saalim Mawlaa Abi Hudhaifah was known by that name because he had been a slave and emancipated. He believed in Allah and His Messenger early, and took his place among the first

Abu Hudhaifah Ibn “Utbah became Muslim at an early age and hastened to Islam, leaving his father, ‘Utbah Ibn Rabii‘ah, swallowing his anger and his concerns which disturbed the purity of his life, due to the Islam of his son, who was noble among his people. His father had been preparing him for leadership among the Quraish.

Abu Hudhaifah adopted Saalim and emancipated him, and he became known as Saalim Ibn Abi Hudhaifah. Both of them continuously worshiped their Lord in awe and fear and were extremely patient under the hardship of the Quraish and their

One day, verses of the Qur'aan were revealed which outlawed the practice of adoption and every adopted person returned to carrying the name of his real father who had begotten him. So, Zaid Ibn Haarithah, for example, whom the Prophet had adopted andwho had been known among the Muslims as Zaid Ibn Muhammad, returned to carrying the name of his father, Haarithah and became Zaid Ibn Haarithah. But Saalim's father was not known to him, so Abu Hudhaifah became his guardian and he was called Saalim Mawlaa Abi Hudhaifah.

Perhaps when it cancelled the practice of adoption Islam wanted to say to the Muslims, Do not take kinship nor relationship, nor the bond by which you affirm your brotherhood as greater and stronger than Islam itself and the religious faith by which you are really made brothers. The early Muslims understood this very well. So, nothing was more loved to any one of them after Allah and His Messenger than their brethren in faith and in Islam.

We have seen how the Ansaar welcomed their brethren, the Muhaajiruun. They shared with them their wealth, their homes, and all they owned. This is what we saw happening between Abu Hudhaifah, the noble of the Quraish, and Saalim, who was an emancipated slave and did not know his father.

They remained more than brothers up to the last moment of their lives, even until death: they died together spirit with spirit and body close to body. This is the unique, incomparable greatnesses of Islam, but this is only one of its greatnesses and its superiorities.

Saalim believed with a sincere faith and took his path to Allah by adopting the behavior of the devout and pious. Neither his genealogy nor his position in society had any consideration for him. He was elevated by his piety and sincerity to the highest degree of the new society which Islam came to establish and caused to rise on a new, great and just foundation, a foundation summarized in the following glorious verse < Surely, the most honourable of you in the sight of GOD is the most pious of you> (49:13) and in the noble hadiiths: “Arabs have no superiority over non-Arabs except in piety” and "The son of a white woman has no superiority over the son ofa black woman except in piety."