He Would Not Keep His Faith Secret

Abū Dharr went out the next day, and rather than keeping his īmān secret, he went in front of the people of Quraysh and said, ashhadu an lā ilāha illā Allāh, wa ashhadu anna Muḥammadan rasūlu Allāh. He didn't care about the consequence. He said, "They gathered around me, and they beat me up so bad, I was going to die" — until al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib came in and said, "Do you know where this man is from? Just one question." "He is from Ghifār," Abū Dharr said, and immediately they just ran away — what you would see is them fleeing, running away from him.

But he did the same thing the next day, and he did the same thing the third day, and every day the same thing would happen — they would come and beat him up, until al-ʿAbbās comes and tells this new group of people who are hitting him that the man is from Ghifār. Al-ʿAbbās said, "And you know, if this man gets killed by you, none of your trade will make it safely to Syria — they're going to take revenge on you."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) then told Abū Dharr, "Go back to your people, and convey the message to them, and when you hear that I have prevailed, come to me." How long did Abū Dharr stay with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)? Quite a short time. How much did he learn from him? Probably not a lot — a few verses, a few aḥādīth here and there, and that was it.