ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām's Three Questions

The most knowledgeable rabbi in Madīnah was ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām (may Allah be pleased with him). When he heard of the coming of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), he decided to go and meet him — so he went to meet Muḥammad (peace be upon him). In the narration of Imam Aḥmad, ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām says: "When I saw the face of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), I knew this was not the face of a liar" — truth shines out of the face of Muḥammad (peace be upon him). In the narration in al-Bukhārī, also narrated by al-Bayhaqī, ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām wanted to test Muḥammad (peace be upon him) — the rabbis, the scholars, had signs for the coming prophet — so he said: "I am going to ask you about three things that only a prophet knows about. Number one, what is the first sign of the Day of Judgement? Number two, what is the finest food that the people of Paradise would eat? And number three, what causes a child to resemble its father or its mother?"

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "Jibrīl told me the answers to your questions a short while ago." ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām said, "Jibrīl is our enemy among the angels" — so they had some angels who were considered friends and some angels who were considered enemies. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) recited the ayah in Sūrat al-Baqarah that whoever takes Jibrīl or the angels as an enemy, then Allah (swt) is an enemy of the disbelievers. No one can pick and choose among the angels; all of the angels are created by Allah (swt), loyal to Allah (swt), and there is no angel that should be considered an enemy and an angel that is considered a friend. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was correcting this mistaken ʿaqīdah that ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām had, and then proceeded to answer the questions.

He said: "Regarding the signs of the Day of Judgement, the first will be a fire that comes at people from the east and leads them to the west." As for the finest food of Paradise, eaten by those who are there, that is a whale's liver. A whale's liver might not be a favourite dish in this world; however, things in Jannah are different, so what one might not be fascinated by in this world could be a special treat on the Day of Judgement. The answer to the third question: if the male's fluid precedes that of the female, the child will resemble the father, while if the female's fluid precedes that of the male, the child will resemble the mother — and this is scientifically proven now, that the child resembles the father if the father's genes are dominant, while the child will resemble the mother if the mother's genes are the dominant ones. This is what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was saying by the fluid of the father and the fluid of the mother, because these genes are carried through a fluid on both sides: the sperm of the man carries the genes of the father, and the egg of the mother is also carried through a fluid.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām said, "I testify that there is no god but Allah, and that you are the Messenger of Allah" — he believed. He said, "These are the answers, and no one would know this except if he is a messenger of Allah," and so he became a Muslim. But then, and this is in the narration of al-Bukhārī, he said: "The Jews are a people of liars. If they learn of my acceptance of Islam before you ask them about me, they will lie to you." So ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām went into hiding, while Muḥammad (peace be upon him) invited the leaders of the Jews to come and visit him. So they came in, and Muḥammad (peace be upon him) asked them about ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām, "What do you say about ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām?" They said, "He is our leader, and the son of our leader — he is the most learned man among us, and the son of our most learned man." So that was their opinion of him: he was the most learned, and his father was the most learned, and he was their leader, and his father had been their leader.

Before this, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had heard them say this is our leader and the son of our leader, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had asked them, "What would you say if he accepts Islam?" and they had said, "God forbid — he will never become a Muslim." So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām to come out of hiding. He came, and he said: "O Jews, fear Allah — by Allah, other than whom there is none, you certainly know that he is the Messenger of Allah and that he brings you the truth." So when he came out of hiding and told them that they needed to become Muslims, they said, "You are the worst of us, and the son of the worst of us" — on the spot, they changed their opinion about ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām (may Allah be pleased with him). He had known them well, and that is why he had said what he said needed to be heard before they knew he had become a Muslim. This shows why the relationship between the Muslims and the Jews was deteriorating: the refusal of the Jews to accept the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), to accept the religion of truth, and the plotting that was happening behind the scenes against the newly formed Islamic state.

Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) says, and this narration is authentic, that when ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām, Thaʿlabah ibn Saʿyah, Usayd ibn Saʿyah, Asad ibn ʿUbayd and some other Jews became Muslim, and were sincere in their Islam, the other rabbis and the disbelievers said: "These people who have followed the religion of Muḥammad (peace be upon him) are the most evil among us, because if they were righteous they would not have left the religion of their forefathers." So Allah (swt) revealed the āyāt from Sūrat Āl ʿImrān:

Allah (swt) is saying that the People of the Book are not all the same: some of them did accept Islam, such as ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām and those with him, and Allah (swt) praises these as people who enjoin good, forbid evil, and hasten to do good deeds. These āyāt were revealed in praise of the People of the Book who became Muslim, and they apply to any Christian or Jew who becomes Muslim — such believers are credited even for their earlier years of believing in the earlier scripture.