Hadith #259

Arabic Text

English Translation

ʿAbdullāh narrated to us, he said: Surayj ibn Yūnus narrated to me from his book, he said: ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād, meaning al-Muhallabī, narrated to us, from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Rāshid, a freed slave of the family of Muʿāwiyah, who said: I came to Shām, and it was said to me, 'In this church is the messenger of Caesar to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ.' So I entered the church, and there was an elderly man. I said to him, 'Are you the messenger of Caesar to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Tell me about that.' He said: When he ﷺ was campaigning at Tabūk, he wrote a letter to Caesar and sent it with a man called Diḥyah ibn Khalīfah. When Caesar read his letter, he placed it with him on his couch and sent for his patricians and the heads of his companions. He said, 'This man has sent you a messenger and written you a letter offering you one of three choices: either you follow him in his religion, or you pay him a tribute that he levies upon you while he leaves you in your state in your lands, or you wage war against him.' They snorted so fiercely that some of them nearly burst from their cloaks, and they said, 'We will not follow him in his religion and abandon our religion and the religion of our fathers, and we will not pay him a tribute levied upon us. Rather, we will wage war against him.' He said, 'That was indeed so, but I disliked acting on a matter without consulting you.' ʿAbbād said: I said to Ibn Khuthaym, 'Had he not come close and intended to accept Islam, as has reached us?' He said, 'Yes, were it not for what he saw from them.' He then said, 'Find me a man from the Arabs so that I may write with him a reply to his letter.' He said: So I was brought, being a young man, and taken to him. He wrote his reply and said to me, 'Whatever else you may forget, remember three things from me: Look when he reads my letter, does he mention the night and the day? Does he mention his letter to me? And look whether you see on his back a mark.' He said: So I set out until I came to him at Tabūk, in a circle of his Companions sitting with their knees drawn up. I asked and was directed to him, and I handed him the letter. He called Muʿāwiyah, who read the letter to him. When he reached the part where he said, 'You invite me to a Paradise whose width is the heavens and the earth, so where is the Fire?' The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: 'When the night comes, where is the day?' Then he said: 'I wrote to al-Najāshī and he tore it up, so Allāh tore him up with a tearing of his kingdom.' ʿAbbād said: I said to Ibn Khuthaym, 'But had not al-Najāshī accepted Islam, and the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ announced his death in Madīnah to his Companions and prayed over him?' He said, 'Yes, that was so-and-so the son of so-and-so, and this was so-and-so the son of so-and-so,' and Ibn Khuthaym named them all, but I forgot them. 'And I wrote to Kisrā (Chosroes) a letter and he tore it to pieces, so Allāh tore him to pieces with a tearing of his kingdom. And I wrote to Caesar a letter and he replied to me, and the people continued to fear might from them as long as there was good in life.' Then he said to me, 'Who are you?' I said, 'From Tanūkh.' He said, 'O brother of Tanūkh, would you like to accept Islam?' I said, 'No. I came from a people and I am among them upon a religion, and I will not exchange their religion until I return to them.' He said: The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ laughed, or smiled. When I had concluded my business, I stood up, and when I turned to leave, he called me back and said, 'O brother of Tanūkh, come, go and carry out what you were commanded.' He said: I had forgotten it. So I went around behind the circle, and he cast off a cloak that was on his back, and I saw the cartilage of his shoulder blade like a large cupping mark. ʿAbdullāh said: Abū ʿĀmir Ḥawthara ibn Ashras narrated to me by dictation, he said: Ḥammād ibn Salama informed me, from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Rāshid, who said: Caesar's messenger was my neighbor during the time of Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiyah. I said to him, 'Tell me about the letter of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ to Caesar.' He said: The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ sent Diḥyah al-Kalbī to Caesar and wrote a letter with him to him. Then he mentioned the like of the ḥadīth of ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād, and the ḥadīth of ʿAbbād is more complete and better in its narration of the account. He added: The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ laughed when he invited him to Islam and he refused, and he recited this verse: {Indeed, you do not guide whom you like, but Allāh guides whom He wills} [28:56]. Then the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said: 'You are the messenger of a people, and you have a right, but you have come to us while we are in hardship.' ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān said, 'I will clothe him with a Ṣafūrī suit,' and a man from the Anṣār said, 'I will host him.'