The Last Words of Ḥarām ibn Milḥān

Now, Ḥarām ibn Milḥān, who was the Emir of the group: when he was talking to ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl, ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl gave a signal to one of his men to go and kill him. This man, whose name is Jabbār, sneaks from behind Ḥarām, and he stabs him with his spear in his back, and the blade comes out from the chest of Ḥarām. One can imagine Ḥarām standing there, and staring down, and seeing this blade sticking out from his chest. What does he say? "Oh my God, I am dead"? "Oh no, look what happened to me"? "I am worried about my kids"? What does he say? His response was shocking to those present. He said, "Allāhu akbar, fuztu wa Rabb al-Kaʿbah": "Allah is great. I have won. I have succeeded, by the Lord of the Kaʿbah. I have succeeded." That is what he said before he falls down as a shahīd.

Now, this was a shocking statement to make: here is a man suffering all of that pain, and his blood is gushing out of his wound. It says in another narration that his hands were soaked in blood, and he takes that blood and he wipes it on his head and his face, and he says, "I have succeeded, in the name of Allah."

The man who killed him would later on say, when he is telling the story of how he became Muslim: "I stabbed the man from behind, and the spear came out from his chest, and he said, 'Allah is great. I have succeeded, by the name of the Lord of the Kaʿbah.' So I went around asking, 'What is he talking about? What do you mean, you succeeded? I killed you.'" He is dead; how can one say that he succeeded? They told him: he is talking about shahādah; he is talking about becoming a martyr. He has succeeded; he has succeeded in becoming a shahīd. And then they explained to him what shahīd means. He said, "And that is when I became Muslim. I said: he has truly won. Yes, he did: naʿam, laqad aflaḥ." When he understood where this Muslim was coming from, when he understood what the concept of shahādah is, he said, "Yes, that makes sense now. He did succeed." And he became Muslim.

SubḥānAllāh, Ḥarām ibn Milḥān dies as a shahīd, and he also is giving daʿwah in his shahādah, and somebody becomes Muslim because of that. His own killer becomes Muslim because of those last words of Ḥarām ibn Milḥān. Not only is he a shahīd, but he is also a dāʿiyah, even in his last moments. That is the barakah that Allah (swt) has given to Ḥarām (may Allah be pleased with him). One never knows what is going to bring people closer to Islam. Who would have imagined that this statement made by Ḥarām would actually be the reason for somebody becoming Muslim?