Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr Encounters Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr

One day, Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr (may Allah be pleased with him) was with Asʿad ibn Zurārah, his host, and they went to visit some of the Muslims. They went into a garden, sitting there while Muslims came to learn from Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr, who would hold gatherings, halaqāt, for them in this place. On this occasion they went to a neighbourhood of Madīnah that was part of al-Aws's territory. The majority of the Muslims at this point were from al-Khazraj rather than al-Aws — Islam was spreading with speed among al-Khazraj, but had not yet caught on among al-Aws — so Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr was trying to make inroads there.

The leaders of al-Aws were close by: Saʿd ibn Muʿādh and Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr. Saʿd ibn Muʿādh spotted Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr and Asʿad ibn Zurārah, and told Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr: "I want you to go to those two men and tell them we do not want them around, misguiding the weak and foolish among us. If it were not for the fact that Asʿad ibn Zurārah is my relative, I would have done that myself." Asʿad ibn Zurārah was, Subḥānallāh, in a position prepared for him to carry this role of hosting Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr: he was from al-Khazraj, but he was a cousin of the chief of al-Aws — on his mother's side he was a relative of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh — so he had ties to both tribes, both al-Aws and al-Khazraj.

Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr went up carrying his spear toward Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr and Asʿad ibn Zurārah. Asʿad ibn Zurārah, seeing him coming, told Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr: "This is a leader of his people — be sincere with him, do your best, because if he becomes Muslim many will follow him." Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr said he would, if the man would listen. Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr came and stood above them carrying his spear, speaking in a harsh tone: "We do not want you around here misleading the weak and ignorant among us. And if you care about your lives, you had better get out of here — otherwise, this is my spear; you could be killed." One of those attending the gathering answered back, saying it was Usayd who was misleading them, and an argument began. Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr responded calmly: "Why not sit down and hear what I have to say? If you like it, you may accept it; if you do not, you may reject it." Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr said, "Fair enough," stuck his spear in the ground, and sat down.

Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr recited āyāt of the Qurʾān to him, giving him daʿwah, explaining Islam. Asʿad ibn Zurārah said that even before he spoke a word, Islam could be seen entering his heart, in the calmness of his face and the radiance of light coming out of it. When Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr finished this exchange with him, Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr asked: "What does one have to do to join your religion?" Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr told him: "Wash yourself, and come and pray." He did so, and on returning said: "Now I am going to send you a man — if he becomes Muslim, all his people will follow him" — and went to Saʿd ibn Muʿādh.

Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, seeing Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr approach, said: "I swear by Allah, he is coming to us with a different face than the one he left us with." The Arabs had this art of firāsah, reading the face — it is reported that al-Shāfiʿī went to Yemen to learn this art, and one Chinese Muslim has said that in China too, some people practise this art: looking at a person's face to read what is in their heart, what they are thinking, what is going on with them. There is an account of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, when he was Khalīfah, seeing a man pass by and saying, "This man is either a sorcerer, or he has been one in the past." They went and asked the man, and he said: "Yes, I used to be a kāhin" — not a sorcerer, but a fortune-teller, a soothsayer. "Yes," he said, "I was a soothsayer." ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb had known it simply by looking at his face. So when Saʿd ibn Muʿādh looked at the face of Usayd ibn Ḥuḍayr, he said he was coming back to them with a different face than the one he had left with.