Abdullah ibn Salam

Abdullah ibn Salam (d. 43 AH / 663 CE) was a highly respected Jewish rabbi in Medina before the Prophet's emigration and one of the most knowledgeable scholars of the Torah among the Israelites of his time. His conversion to Islam is one of the most significant religious transitions in Islamic history. When the Prophet ﷺ first arrived in Medina (the Hijra), Abdullah hurried to see him. After his first look at the Prophet's face, he said: 'This face is not the face of a liar.' He asked three questions — about the first sign of the Day of Judgment, about the first meal the people of Paradise will eat, and about what determines whether a child resembles the father or the mother. The Prophet answered all three correctly and thoroughly. Abdullah ibn Salam declared his shahada immediately and asked the Prophet to keep his conversion secret temporarily so he could reveal the truth to the Jewish community in a strategic way. He then went to the Jewish leaders and told them that he had verified the Prophet ﷺ and that they should embrace him. They praised Ibn Salam as their most learned scholar. He then revealed that he himself had just converted — and they immediately turned on him, saying he was the worst of them. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ explicitly named him as one of the people of Paradise — a distinction accorded to very few named individuals by the Prophet during his lifetime. He is mentioned in the Quran obliquely in Surah al-Ahqaf (46:10): 'And a witness from among the Children of Israel has witnessed to something similar and believed.' He narrated many hadith and died in Medina.