A King Who Does Not Oppress Anyone

How come the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) chose Abyssinia to start with? Why not Syria? Why not Iraq? Why not Egypt? How come Abyssinia? Why not the Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire? There could have been many other choices. How come the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) chose al-Ḥabashah? Well, the number one reason, which is stated in the hadith, is the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): fa-inna bihā malikan lā yuẓlamu ʿindahu aḥad — go to Abyssinia, because therein is a king who doesn't oppress anyone. Justice was the primary reason for the Muslims going to al-Ḥabashah. They were in search of justice, because they were fleeing persecution, so they needed to go to a place where they would get justice, and that was Abyssinia.

The second reason, which is a secondary reason, is the fact that the Arabs were familiar with al-Ḥabashah. Number one, Quraysh used to have business with Abyssinia — that was one of the areas that they would do business with in winter. The people of Quraysh had two journeys, one in summer and one in winter; the one in winter, one branch of it would go to al-Ḥabashah, Abyssinia. So they already had an established commercial relationship. Number two, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) very early on was exposed to Abyssinian culture. His first nurse was from al-Ḥabashah — Umm Ayman, who took care of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and breastfed him. She was from al-Ḥabashah; according to Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, she was from Abyssinia. And Umm Ayman wasn't just Abyssinian, but her culture, her language, was Abyssinian. In one narration it states that she presented the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with this food, so the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "What is this?" She said, "This is a dish that we make in Abyssinia, and I wanted you to try it." So she was even cooking some Abyssinian dishes in Arabia.

Her accent — she couldn't get rid of her Abyssinian accent. E.g., when she, according to Ibn Saʿd, would say salāmun ʿalaykum, which means peace be upon you, she would say it in a way that meant no peace on you. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would tell her, "Just say salām, don't go beyond that, just say salām." Or, in the Battle of Ḥunayn, she was making duʿāʾ for the Muslims. She wanted to say, thabbata Allāhu aqdāmakum — thabbata Allāhu aqdāmakum means, may Allah make your feet firm. But rather than saying "firm," she was saying "Saturday," which means the whole sentence doesn't mean anything. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told her, "Stay quiet, because you have a difficult tongue." So she wasn't even able to get rid of her accent. And this was a person very close to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) remained close to her for all of his life, and he married her to his adopted son, Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. So that was the familiarity of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with the people of Abyssinia, especially which started very early on.