Three Stages: The Story of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, for example, was one of the staunchest enemies of Muhammad (peace be upon him); he was one of the top plotters against Islam. ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ later became a Muslim, and when he was passing away he started weeping — he was crying on his deathbed. So his son, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, told him, "O my father, didn't the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) give you the glad tidings of this? Didn't he give you the glad tidings of that?" It is reported in a hadith that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, āmana ʿAmr, that ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ has attained faith. So this is a witness from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) that ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ is a muʾmin, not only a Muslim, but at the higher level of muʾmin. So his son was trying to give his father these glad tidings: "You are a true believer. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) has given you all of these glad tidings — how come you are crying now before your death?"

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ turned around and said, "I have gone through three stages in my life. At the first stage, the most despised man to me was Muhammad (peace be upon him), and my desire was that I could get hold of him — I could get my hands on him and kill him. That was my desire, my wish, my aspiration: to kill Muhammad (peace be upon him). If I had died at that time, I would definitely have been in the Hellfire.

"And then Allah put the love of Islam in my heart, and I went to Muhammad (peace be upon him) and said, 'O Muhammad, I want to become Muslim — extend your hand so that I can pledge allegiance to you.' Muhammad (peace be upon him) extended his hand forward, and I pulled my hand away." So ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ had the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) extend his hand, and when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was ready to put his hand in his, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ pulled his hand away. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "What's wrong?" ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ said, "I have a condition I want to impose on myself." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him, "What is your condition?" He said, "My condition is that you pardon me" — that you give me clemency — because ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ knew that what he had done in the past, the great crimes he had committed against the Muslims, was sufficient for his execution. So he wanted to make sure that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wouldn't hold him accountable for it.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) smiled and said, Yā ʿAmr, a-mā tadrī anna al-Islāma yajubbu mā qablahu, wa anna al-hijrata tajubbu mā qablahā: O ʿAmr, don't you know that Islam erases everything before it, and Hijrah erases everything before it? And Hajj erases everything before it. ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ said, "So I became Muslim." He said that at that stage, Muhammad (peace be upon him), who had been my worst enemy, became the most beloved person to me in the world. "And I loved him so much, and I respected him so much, that I couldn't even get a full glimpse of his face — whenever I would see him, I would stare downwards. I have so much love and respect for him that I couldn't even get a full glimpse of his face, and if you were to ask me today to describe him to you, I couldn't." He said, "If I had died during that stage, I would have hoped to be in Jannah." And then he said, "And then later on came things, and we don't know where we stand." There are some other parts to the hadith, but the part that concerns us now is that ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, when he got to know Muhammad (peace be upon him), when he became close to him, Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was his worst enemy, became his most beloved friend.