ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim

And then there is the story of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim. ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim (may Allah be pleased with him) heard about the prophethood of Muḥammad (peace be upon him). He was a Christian, and he did not like it; he was not happy with it. And he was hearing about the expansion of the Islamic state, and that it was reaching closer and closer to his people, the tribe of Ṭayyiʾ, in north-east Arabia. So he went to the Roman Empire; and he said: when I reached there, I found it to be worse than my situation back home. He hated staying at home because of the Muslims coming closer and closer; but when he went to the Roman Empire, he found it even worse. So he came back.

And it says in one narration that he told one of his servants to prepare some very strong camels, and then he said: whenever you see the banners of the Muslims approaching, tell me. So his servant did see the banners coming; he told him about it; so he took his fast camels and ran away. So the Muslims came, and they took his aunt — and in one narration his sister — as prisoners of war, and they were brought to Madīnah. So his aunt asked the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to free her, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asked her: who are you? So she told him, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told her: you are free. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib told her: ask the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to provide you with transport. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did so; he was very kind to her. And she left, and she went to ʿAdī, and she told him: what you have done is shameful — you ran away and left your family. And then she told him: I have come from a man who is a messenger of Allah, and he is telling the truth. And she praised the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

So he decided to go and visit him, because now he felt safe about it; he felt that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was somebody one could approach. And this is a very important thing. The mushrikūn of Arabia would hear false rumours about the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); but when they heard from people who knew him personally, they would see a man who was merciful and kind and approachable. And this encouraged many people to come and meet the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and see him. But if he had been a man whom they would fear, or by whom they would feel terrorised, this would have made them very reluctant to go and visit him.

So ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim went. There are different narrations of what happened. One narration says that when he came in, he had a cross hanging on his chest — the custom of the Christians. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) recited to him: ittakhadhū aḥbārahum wa ruhbānahum arbāban min dūni Allāh — they have taken their priests as gods besides Allah (9:31) (al-Tirmidhī 3095). ʿAdī, assuming that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not understand Christianity, and that he was the expert, since it was his religion, said: we do not take them as gods besides Allah. The Messenger of Allah asked him: did they not make what was ḥalāl ḥarām, and what was ḥarām ḥalāl? He said: yes. He said: then you have worshipped them. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) taught him a meaning of taking them as gods: when you give them the authority to make the ḥalāl ḥarām and the ḥarām ḥalāl, then you have taken them as gods, because this is something within the authority of Allah alone.

In another narration, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him: I understand your religion better than you do. So ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim questioned that. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: a-lasta min al-Rakūsiyyah? — do you not belong to the sect of al-Rakūsiyyah? He said: yes. He said: and do you not charge your people al-mirbāʿ? — this is what he would take from them, from their spoils. He said: yes. He said: that is not allowed in your religion. And ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim knew that that was the case. He said: as soon as the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said that, I was humbled — fa-tawāḍaʿtu lahā.

In al-Bukhārī (4394), ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim said: we came to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb in a delegation, fa-jaʿala yadʿū rajulan rajulan yusammīhim — ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb would call them one by one, and he would name them; meaning that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb knew them all by name. Fa-qultu: a-mā taʿrifunī yā Amīra al-Muʾminīn? — I asked him: do you not know me, O Amīr al-Muʾminīn? — because ʿUmar had not called him. He said: balā; aslamta idh kafarū, wa aqbalta idh adbarū, wa wafayta idh ghadarū, wa ʿarafta idh ankarū. Fa-qāla ʿAdī: fa-lā ubālī idhan. He said: yes, I know you. You are the one who became Muslim when they were disbelievers; and you are the one who came forward when they turned away; and you are the one who kept faith when they betrayed; and you are the one who recognised the truth when they rejected it — you accepted when they rejected. ʿAdī said: then I do not care. As long as you know that about me, then I do not care — meaning he was pleased that the Amīr al-Muʾminīn knew about him and recognised him. By the way, ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim was the son of the man who was the most famous Arab for generosity: Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, his father. There are many tales and legends about the generosity of Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, and ʿAdī is his son.

In al-Bukhārī (3595), ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim said: baynā ana ʿinda al-nabiyyi idh atāhu rajulun fa-shakā ilayhi al-fāqah, thumma atāhu ākharu fa-shakā ilayhi qaṭʿa al-sabīl. ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim was a nobleman in his society, and he saw the situation there. He was with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and a man came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) complaining of poverty; and then another man came and complained of bandits who were preventing travellers from passing. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), knowing what ʿAdī was seeing of the situation of Madīnah, said to him: yā ʿAdī, hal raʾayta al-Ḥīrah? — have you seen al-Ḥīrah? Al-Ḥīrah is a city in Iraq. Qultu: lam arahā, wa qad unbiʾtu ʿanhā — I have not seen it, but I have heard about it. Qāla: fa-in ṭālat bika ḥayātun la-tarayanna al-ẓaʿīnata tartaḥilu min al-Ḥīrati ḥattā taṭūfa bi-al-Kaʿbah — if you live long enough, you will see a woman travelling from al-Ḥīrah until she makes ṭawāf of the Kaʿbah, fearing no one but Allah.

Qultu fīmā baynī wa bayna nafsī: fa-ayna duʿʿāru Ṭayyiʾ alladhīna qad saʿʿarū al-bilād? — I said to myself: where are the bandits of Ṭayyiʾ, who have set the land ablaze? Because travelling from al-Ḥīrah to Makkah, one has to pass through the land of ʿAdī, and there were many armed robbers and bandits there, which made it impossible for a woman to travel. And now the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was saying that she would travel fearing no one but Allah (ʿazza wa jall). And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: wa la-in ṭālat bika ḥayātun la-tuftaḥanna kunūzu Kisrā. Qultu: Kisrā bnu Hurmuz? Qāla: Kisrā bnu Hurmuz — and if you live long enough, the treasures of Kisrā will be opened up as spoils for us. I said: Kisrā, the son of Hurmuz? — and this is the Persian emperor. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: Kisrā, the son of Hurmuz. Wa la-in ṭālat bika ḥayātun la-tarayanna al-rajula yukhriju milʾa kaffihi min dhahabin aw fiḍḍatin yaṭlubu man yaqbaluhu minhu fa-lā yajidu aḥadan yaqbaluhu minh — and if you live long enough, you will see a man coming out with a handful of gold or silver, looking for somebody to accept it from him as ṣadaqah, and he will find no one.

Wa la-yalqayanna Allāha aḥadukum yawma yalqāhu wa laysa baynahu wa baynahu tarjumānun yutarjimu lah, fa-la-yaqūlanna lahu: a-lam abʿath ilayka rasūlan fa-yuballighak? Fa-yaqūlu: balā — to the end of the hadith: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was telling him about what will happen on the Day of Judgement. Anyway, ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim said: two of the three things the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told me I have seen with my own eyes, and I am sure that the third will happen, because it was said by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

In another narration, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was telling ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim: perhaps the reason you do not want to follow me is that you see that we are poor. Many people go by what they see, by what is apparent, and they are affected by the material side of things: if they see people wealthy, if they see them successful in the dunyā, they are impressed by that. And this is false, and this is wrong. One should look at the spirit; one should look at the essence of the message, and not at material things. Because ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim admitted that this was what was turning him away from Islam: he saw that the Muslims were poor people — they did not have nice houses; they did not have beautiful roads; they did not have advanced cities, as we have back home — and this was turning him away from Islam. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was telling him that the time would come when these things happened: that a woman would travel peacefully, fearing no one but Allah, and that the treasures of Kisrā would be spent in the path of Allah.