Salman Al Farsi (ra): The Truth Seeker | The Firsts | Dr. Omar Suleiman

so tonight dear brothers and sisters we go into the story of a sahabi who subhanallah it's very hard to condense the story because there's so much history that comes through this one companion of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the way i want to set the stage for you is like abdullah when he describes coming across this man of course was a young man and we will one day unpack his biography in full insha'allah soon he was a young man when he finally got to be with the prophet salallahu between the age of 10 and 13. so you have to kind of see the world through his eyes he comes into madina and he's seeing this new reality that he's only heard about in mecca about his cousin and he wants to soak it all up and there is a very peculiar person that walks around madinah with such stature with such heba you know people are in such awe of him he goes inside the house of the prophet saw some frequently when people see him there's a clear distinction that this man has and he's a persian and the persians and the arabs had a cultural dislike for each other and so abdullah is very curious about salman who is this man and what is his story and subhanallah we have in the book of the virtues of the assad in sahih bukhari the hadith that is narrated from abdullah ibn abbas the story of the islam of salman al-pharasi imagine this 13 year old sitting with a 63 year old because he was the same age as the prophet salallahu saying how did you end up here and who are you and what is your story who gives him this long story of how he ends up in the presence of the prophet salallahu with such distinction and with such greatness so imagine yourself in a medina a young man sitting with his elder and saying tell me your story and he starts to unload this entire history of the roman and the persian empire of versions of christianity that they did not even know exists and of the multiple languages that he knew and the multiple hurdles that he had to jump through to get to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in al-madinah so let's start just briefly and of course i've taught a much much much longer course on salman so i'm going to condense into two parts inshallah this week and next week just briefly what is the history of the persian and the roman empire as it relates to the story of salman al-farrah number one the persian empire followed what religion what was the religion of the persian empire a religion called zoroastrianism al majus when you read it within our books okay and they are marked by the adoration and worship surrounding fire and subhanallah when you look at the romans and their attachment to christianity at the time a very particular type of christianity back then when you say the medus or you say the persians or you say the christians or you say the romans those things are interchangeable because religion is heavily associated with those two empires if you are a roman the assumption is you belong to the christian empire if you are a persian or if you are a zoroastrian you belong to the persian empire these two empires had the longest war in history over 700 years that only ended in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and was predicted in its collapse in sura rum you imagine 720 plus years to give you some perspective that times two is the time between us and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam imagine two empires fighting for that long with no pause between them and it's going to end in the time of islam in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam with both empires being defeated by the muslims so it's it's it's an interesting world religion and politics are very much so intertwined and this is the state religion if you will of the persian empire zoroastrianism and the state religion of the roman empire being a very particular type of christianity that was formalized under constantine and these two empires are at war and everybody else is an observer everyone else is an observer with their loyalties to one of the two empires is growing up in the home of the high priest of his religion okay he's growing up in the home of the high priest of his religion to give you some context of how important this role was if you look up the currencies of the persian empire at the time you'll find that some of the coins did not have the picture of kisrah of the ruler of the persian empire but instead of the priests around the fire and so people used to come around this fire they used to worship and said man of the allah is going to grow up in the home of the high priest and the leader of his people around this fire and somehow find himself in medina next to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam so you talk about an unlikely journey this is the most unlikely journey from all of the companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that we have covered now it's also important to understand that the christianity that existed in persia at the time because there was a christianity in persia at the time was a smaller form of christianity but definitely one that was closer closer to the way of isa to the way of jesus peace be upon him it was a more orthodox less politicized form of christianity a small pocket of christian worshipers and in fact if you if you look up uh in persia the assyrian church of maryam of saint mary is considered by some historians to be the second church in the history of christianity after bethlehem you read about the persian followers of christ the early persian followers of christianity so they maintain their presence but they don't have any political power but they're also not subjected to the formalized christianity of the western church under the roman empire and so without getting too deep into history the council of nicaea which is which takes place in the year 325 after isa the council of nicaea is where the nicene creed the roman church formalizes the trinity and formalizes many new dictates in christianity and essentially outlaws all other forms of christianity so the debates over isaiah and who he was and whether it's three in one or one or whether it is father and son or whether jesus is fully human or both fully human and fully god all of these debates are supposed to end and many practices are instituted in the council of nicaea that are supposed to become mainstream and the only acceptable version and understanding of isa islam of christianity at that point the persian christians maintaining their small worship outside of the rule of the roman empire they worship in peace they worship quietly and they maintain many of the early forms of al-qaeda the early creed of christianity at the time and many of the early forms of worship that you would not find except underground and hidden in the roman empire so we go to the story of salman and how he enters into this particular type of agreement and arrangement that sees him to where he is the name of salman according to most of the books was rusbay the son of marzban rusbay the son of marzban now there is a debate over whether his name was salman before after islam and some of the scholars they say it was salman which denotes being easygoing and obedient because he submitted himself to allah subhanahu ta'ala some of them say this actually is a description of the type of child that he was with his father his father was the leader of his people in asbahan in modern day iran in persia and he is the high priest the fire is literally in his home so he lives in a palace the fire is in his home and salman is growing up blinded to the world around him literally does not leave home taking care of this fire and being raised to essentially be the successor of his father now the premise of zoroastrianism is that the fire can never go out so this has to go on and on and on and on and they didn't have fire alarms at the time okay so it's in his house all the time 24 7 you have to watch the fire and cater to it and salman allah was growing up around this fire rusbay the son of marsban now he says that my father was not just the leader of our people and the chief of our people but my father loved me deeply so salman was loved by his father and he said he loved me so much algeria that he held me like a slave girl in the home never lets me go i was like one who was enslaved i could never leave my house and you talk about another level of sheltering my father kept me right there next to the fire throughout and i was provided for we had servants in the house we had everything that we possibly needed and i went with it i became learned in the way of zoroastrianism he learned the philosophies of it he learned the practices of it he learned the scriptures of it at the time it's one of the world's oldest religions he learned everything that there was to learn about zoroastrianism and so he became respectable as a teenager in that faith so he's growing up to be a zoroastrian priest and the home was called darimar which which is the name of the place in which the fire is kept so he says that my father was very wealthy he was very affectionate he spent on me i never had any reason to leave my home we had multiple properties that were owned by him he had guardians that he had servants to tend to he had palaces and properties that he had servants to tend to and then one day one day he said my father got too busy with his properties and he needed an extra hand and so he comes to me and at this point he trusts me because i've never left the house i've never done anything wrong and i'm you know growing up in this religion as a priest in this religion he comes to me one day and he says to me oh my son i'm too busy with the building today and i need help with the garden so i need you to go take care of this garden so salman allahu ta'ala so he finally allowed me to leave the house and it's not like salman allah disobeyed his father he said i got lost so i left the house and i got lost which shows you how sheltered he was he didn't even know how to get to the garden of his father so subhanallah while he got lost what does he come across he says i came across a church and he said i was intrigued because i could hear the voices of their of their recitation were reciting their scripture from inside the church so i was compelled the only thing salman would breathe growing up was religion and it was one particular religion it was zoroastrianism so he said this was compelling to me i was drawn by the recitation of their scriptures so he said i remembered that my father you know kept me inside the house and never exposed me to anything so i just wanted to see what it was so salman allah entered into their church and subhanallah i want you to imagine a person entering into the masjid for the very first time when they sit in the back and they look around this is entering into the church at the time and he said i was amazed by their recitation by their rukur and by their sujud by their bowing and by their prostration this is one of the most important historical elements of persian christianity versus roman christianity the council of nicaea eliminated sujood prostration which is very odd because peace be upon him till now is described in the bible as praying how the way you just prayed falling on his face in prayer the persian church maintained sajdah they still used to prostrate so they still looked a lot like the way that muslims pray so salman allah said i was drawn by their salah they were in salah they were reciting their scripture they were kneeling they were prostrating and he said i sat there and i watched and time passed an hour passes two hour passes two hours pass and then he said i come to this realization i said their religion is better than ours like i've been doing this whole thing my whole life i'm a trained priest in my way and i said that religion is better than our religion you know sometimes you can see it in this message often when someone comes in and they see the salah and they see the quran even if they don't understand it they just you see that realization clicks like wow there's something so pure that's transcending through this salah so he said i said their religion is better than ours so he said i forgot myself and i lost track of time and he said and it reached the time of sunset so what would have been the equivalent of maghrib at the time right so they prayed again at sunset and it was their last prayer and he said and their leader came to me the priest of the church came to me and i said to him where did this religion come from where is this religion from and he said asham which is greater syria palestine lebanon jordan and what am i missing palestine lebanon jordan and syria of course itself so greater syria so it's from asham so he said i went back home after that and his world was rocked the only question he had in that conversation was where's this religion from and he said hashem so he said by the time i got home i mean his father had set off panic throughout the entire city throughout asbahan he was sending people to look for salman everywhere he thought that maybe he was kidnapped he thought that maybe he died he thought the worst right and so he said my father finds me and my father embraces me and he says oh my son where were you i sent you to the garden where did you end up going what happened why didn't you do what i asked you to do is everything okay all these questions so i said to him o my father i went looking for the garden and i got lost but i passed by this place and it was a place of worship and i heard recitation so i got drawn into it so i went inside and it was a church and i watched them pray and recite his father his whole life had been trying to stop him from hearing about anything but the way that he taught him i mean zoroastrianism in persia you're here you're being trained you're being groomed for this one position and so his father panics and what does he say he says there's no hair there's no good in that religion of theirs he says i've got to be honest dad dino medina i think the religion is better than our religion his father loses his mind and reacts not in an intelligent way he doesn't sit there and sit with him and try to prove to him his own deen his father instead takes his son and he chains his hands and his legs and he imprisons him in his own home he says you're not leaving this house shames him so salman allah and who goes from being the high priest in the home that everyone knows to come to every single week when they gather for their worship the beloved son of his father to now being the worst child the curse of his father humiliated the people come into the house they look at him they see him chained up and salman has been disgraced and subhanallah all that does is it makes him want the truth more the fact that his father responded that way only increased him in a desire for the truth even more so was not discouraged in fact that i was able to send a letter to the christians and i said to them the people of that church so the implication is that he basically had one servant that was cooperating with him the letter said that you told me that your religion originated from syria the next time the merchants come from asham because remember there were trade routes and there were seasons where you went from persia to yemen yemen to asham mecca to the different places the the trade journey in the winter the trade journey in the summer so he said the next time the next season when the merchants come from asham let me know that they have arrived and i'm going to go back to hashem with them so gets the message to them and some time passes and there are some merchants that come from asham and they go about their business and they finish their business and the letter is snuck back to salman the merchants of asham the christian merchants of hasham have finished their business and now they're ready to head back and salman allah so i escaped from the imprisonment of my father and i joined these people and i made my way back to hashem so subhanallah you have this young man now who got lost on the way to his father's garden and ended up in a church and now he's being called by his fitrah being called by his origin to go to a sham with a group of people that don't speak the same language as him that are not like him putting himself in a very vulnerable situation all because he wants the truth and in the midst of a heated war between the romans and the persians he's going he's going as a persian entering into roman territory even as a civilian where things at any moment could turn hostile to him but salman wants to go to the source he was so drawn by this religion that he wanted to learn from the most knowledgeable person in the religion so he said we got to asham and salman allah who didn't get distracted now he got to damascus and in damascus he could have looked around and said you know what now that i think about it i'm a young man i've never had a chance to explore life i'm free let me go check this place out and check that place out salman says as soon as we got to damascus i said who is the most knowledgeable person in this place in this religion who knows the religion best so they took him to this priest in the church in damascus and salman said i went to him and i said to him oh so and so i like this religion of yours allow me to stay with you and to serve you in the church and in return i will learn from you and i will pray with you so basically take me as a servant here i'm not coming to ask you anything i don't want any money from you i don't expect anything in return let me just be a servant i'll clean up i'll take care of anything that you need i'll basically be your assistant whatever you want from me but let me learn from you and let me pray with you i need mentorships he understands the value of mentorship very early on and so this man says come on in he accepts him now this story could be very beautiful at this point right i mean salman high priest in persia leaves his father's home to study this new religion the way of christ he wants to understand christianity in the fullest sense he found these righteous people in persia this man is supposed to be very righteous and also be a learned scholar this man turned out to be the most corrupt and evil human being i ever met in my life think about the fitna the test of that he was a complete crook now salman allah described his father in favorable terms right so if you're attaching just religion to people and people experiences the head of our my people the father right who was appointing me as the head priest was affectionate with me he was someone who was good yes we had a fallout because i started to stray away from the religion but he was a good man this man who they they say is the most knowledgeable christian is a complete crook son of the allah could have said forget this religion i'm sneaking my way back to persia i'm going to apologize to my dad and i'm going to go back and be a high priest once again and forget this experiment of christianity and seeking the truth stuck he says that this man was such a crook he said he would go out there and he'd give these emotional sermons about charity about giving sadaqa and then all he'd do people would come with their most valuable possessions their most valuable charity is he'd take it and he'd store it in a place in the church and he wouldn't give any of it to the poor just a few coins to be able to satisfy them to say that he's giving the charity that's coming into the church so he's stealing their money everything that he told them to do he did the opposite the man would commit all sorts of all the shameless deeds no private worship i was looking for someone i could worship with all day the guy had no interest in worship whatsoever i hated this man with every fiber in my body i couldn't stand this man what a horrible human being and he said he had these chests of these treasure chests of all the gold and silver of the people and only i knew where they were and i was thinking to myself how do i expose this man and think about how vulnerable he is if salman allah who comes out and says o people i want you to know that your high priest is corrupt he's a young persian man no one knows who he is they'll just say that he's here to cause some sort of trouble and they'll all kill him it's not gonna work right so salman allah was stuck i don't know what to do how do i show the people who this man really is he says so as i was trying to figure out what to do about this man suddenly he died and when he died i mean they put on the most elaborate ceremonies and funeral about him he was their precious leader their beloved leader so he said they started to do all these plans in the church and they started to gather from all over and the people cried and they were emotional and he said at that moment when they gathered i stood up and i said wallahi this man was an evil man everything he used to command you to do he did the opposite of it and everything he used to take from you for charity he used to keep for himself and the people were full of anger like you better prove what you're saying or else you are going to die salman's risking his life by saying who this man actually is and so as they are about to pounce on him standing in the church in damascus he says i'll prove to you what i'm saying follow me takes them into his room in the church the quarter of the priest and he pulls out the treasure chests and you imagine the scene he starts pulling out your mom's bracelet and all the gold and silver that you work so hard for your precious belongings and he says here is the charity that you thought you were giving to the poor he was storing it all in his room so said man of the allah said that by the time i finished showing them all of his hiding spots and explaining the type of corruption that the man used to wreak he said at that point they said wallahi we will never bury him they took the body of their priest and they crucified him and they pelted him with stones i mean out of anger they just took their anger out on his corpse in front of everyone so they made a public display of their anger of him and pelted him with stones and he says they left him up there until his corpse rotted and became so filthy that they took it down and threw it in the dumpster this was the ending of this man subhanallah i mean it was complete hatred towards him because of what he did to the people and salman was in a predicament now you talk about being let down when the person who taught you religion ends up being corrupt when you attach your faith to a human being think about the fitna force this isn't just his shaykh this is the only sheikh that he knew this is the only person who he was taught was a representation of this new religion that he embraced right you think about the fitna of that subhanallah when you you read the story of malcolm x of hajj medical as his mind was just boggled right when you ex when you find the corruption of someone that you dedicate yourself to i dedicated myself to this man and this is what he became forget about this religion right was wise he was smart he was sincere he refused to judge the religion by the actions of that man so the religion itself still has some value there's something here that's divine that i need to learn if this man is a failure he is his own he is his own failure that's not the failure of the religion that's the failure of this man alone that's the wisdom and the sincerity of salman allah so sad so they brought another man and they appointed him in his place what do you think was the situation of this man corrupt righteous i've never seen anyone more righteous than this man who wasn't a follower of muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam the most righteous man i ever saw that wasn't a follower of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he said this was a man and the way he describes me i never saw a man who doesn't offer the five daily prayers that was better than him he said this was a man that would strive day and night to worship allah that would cry when he would recite the scripture that would exhort the people to give charity and would give everything that he had this was a man who was dedicated to the church and salman allah said i love this man like i never loved anyone before subhanallah look at the extreme um right taqwa and allah made a way out for him salman who was sincere allah tested him with a roadblock in his journey and now he's tasting the sweetest moments in his journey of christianity which at that time is the closest manifestation of the truth this is this is the time of jahalia before the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam trying to find the pure message of isa islam the pure message of jesus peace be upon him and he said i dedicated myself to him and i worshiped alongside him and he would advise me and i would take his advice and he would seek advice for me and i would advise him i mean this was the best relationship that you could have between a scholar and a student and then he said the man got sick and he was about to die who went from the worst to the best is finally immersed in this new religion is drawn to what he heard in the church in persia is tasting the sweetness and of course you know the prophet saws said allah was pleased with baqayam and al-kitab there were these gems from the people of the book in the seas of people that had gone astray this was clearly one of them salman allah was with a righteous man and now he says i'm at his bedside and as he's dying i'm talking to him and i say to him oh my teacher he said wallahi i love you like i've never loved anyone before. it's an emotional party from his teacher salman never saw his father die he's watching this man die salman the decree of allah has come to you as it has been promised what do you advise me to do what do i do after you die i don't know who they're going to bring after you i don't know what what type of character he's going to be i don't know if his religion is going to be pure what do i do and he says the man says to me o my son wallahi i do not know of a single person who follows what i followed because the people are doomed and they have changed the religion of jesus peace be upon him except for a scholar in mosul in iraq go back to him tell him i sent you follow him and learn from him as he used to learn from me so say is being sent back to the persian empire back to iraq there are no flights direct flights from damascus to mosul at the time just think about this for a moment seriously perceive it like these are journeys across the world across hostile warring empires and salman doesn't have travel experience he doesn't have anyone to protect him and salman allah was being told go make this journey and find this man in mosul iraq tell him i sent you so sad so i waited for him until he died we washed him we prayed janaz on him we buried him he said i took the little belongings that i had and i make my way from damascus to muslim and iraq now mostly by the way prior to the council of nicaea was one of the centers of uh eastern christianity it was actually an episcopal seat in the assyrian church of the east in the 6th century so this is a place that has a rich history and he's going to find this the small group of people in this teacher that they have so he said i found the man i made my way to most of iraq i found him and i said to him oh so and so my teacher in damascus advised me after he died to come to you and told me that you follow the same religion the same way that he follows and that i should stay with you so he said he told me to come with me and to stay with me so he said i stayed with this man and i found him to be upon the way of my previous teacher a righteous man worshipping allah subhanahu wa ta'ala i learned from him i studied with him and i was pleased because there was continuity in the journey right one shape to another shaykh basically right scholar to scholar righteousness continues and again another gem from the people of the book in the sea of misguidance then he said he starts to die too just my luck and that tells you by the way this hadith tells you that when the prophet saws talks about these few gems left of al-kitab that this was a dying generation and the prophet saw some talked about maute even in this ummah right the death of the scholars that when you see the death of scholars in succession but it's a dangerous sign of the well-being of the umma may allah make it easy for us so this man's dying and salman allah came to his side and i said to him o my teacher i went from persia to damascus i went through this journey with with with a person who was astray and then i accompanied a righteous man and then he passed away he sent me to you and now you're passing away what do i do where are you gonna send me i mean can i at least go to baghdad or can i go to you know another place in iraq he says to him oh my son he said wallahi the only person i know who practices the religion the way that we practice it is a man in nusabin okay so go to new sabine and stay in sabine so now we're getting on the turkish side okay and and follow this person close to them still within iraq follow this person tell him that i that i sent you and do with him which he did with me so he said i stayed with him buried him went to nusaibin nu sabine was the center of what was known as nestorian christianity prior to its collapse so the nestorians which were some sort of the outlawed christians went into hiding in in nusabin and you know he's finding this teacher here that he was directed to so salman allah said i make my way to new sabine i get to know sabine i find this man and i tell him that so and so sent me to you and he said you're on the religion of isa islam you're on the religion of christ can i stay with you he says come on in so i stayed with him in the church i found him to be upon the way of my previous two teachers and then he started to die too so says to him oh so and so i was advised to go from damascus to mosul and then from mosul to new sabine and now i have found that you two are passing away what do you advise me he says no one follows this religion that i know of except for this one scholar in amoria amorium which is in a part of anatolia in turkey so go to amuria and tell him that i sent you your mind is already spinning imagine actually having to live this journey subhanallah like where am i going from place to place to place so he said i went to amuria and i stayed with this man and i found him to be upon the way of his companions righteous i learned from him and keep in mind that every sheikh is giving him a you know a different perspective but within the same corrupt creed right and he's learning from their from their character so think about the growth and the accumulation of knowledge and perspective and mentorship the refinement of salman's faith and character then he said this guy starts to die too so he said i said to him oh so and so i was sent from damascus to muslim to nu sabine to amurya and now you're dying to where do i go he said to him listen i only know a man back in hashem go back to damascus where you started and look for this person and stay with him until you learn from him and until the decree of allah comes so he said i went back to hashem i stayed with this man i learned from him and he said then this man started to die too so he says i went to him and i said and this is by the way the explanation salman says i took him by the hand on his deathbed i said may allah have mercy on you i went from this place to this place damascus to mosul to nusabeen to amurya now back to damascus what am i supposed to do at this point and this man gives him the news he says to him listen ya bune o my son i do not know anyone upon this religion upon this way in its purest manifestation that exists in the world today that's it i'm your last one your journey comes back full circle you're back in damascus and i don't know anyone that still practices this religion the way that we practice it the pure way of jesus peace be upon him but he says there has come the time where allah will surely send the next prophet a descendant of ibrahim so he gave him the name he said a messenger whose name is ahmad where will he appear he will appear in the land of the arabs and he will migrate he will make hijrah to a land between two haras two lava fields madina is between these two haras right if you look at the geography of medina land with black rocks it's situated right there and he said the land will be known by its palm trees the land will be known by its palm trees so it gives them a very descriptive you know understanding of what he should be looking for in terms of the location he says about the prophet salla he says as for him there are three characteristics that you should look for number one he has a seal on his back of prophethood and it is unmistakable right between his shoulder blades there is a distinct birthmark that does not belong or exist on any other human being number two if you give him charity he won't eat from it number three if you give him a gift he will eat from it so i'm giving you the location and i'm giving you the description of the prophet but that's it i don't know anyone else that follows this way so now at least before salman allah is being told go from this city to that city to this city that city now he's got this the land of the arabs palm trees you know a man with a seal on his back is he going to go start searching people's backs giving people gifts in charity what do i do where do i go and what's the timeline we don't know at least abdullah salaam he spoke about was waiting in madina they already knew he was coming there salman was in damascus and he's completely lost he said the man died i buried him and he said and then i stayed in hasham as long as allah subhanahu ta'ala will that i should stay so i purchased some things i got into the sukh i got into the marketplace i sold and i bought here and there and i basically waited for someone to take me to the land of the arabs now when they say the land of the arabs at the time they mean jesus they mean the gulf because this is now within the territory of the roman empire so they said i basically waited for the caravans that would come from the er the arabian gulf to ask them to take me to this place and i'd basically find my way from there so salman he says that i'm in hashem and then there was this group of merchants that came from a tribe known as banu kelp now benue kelp this was the tribe of zaid zaid the adopted son of the prophet saws this tribe by the way it's it's ironic subhanallah because end up in the house of the prophet sallam he was kidnapped and sold into slavery he was out on a journey with his mother and he was kidnapped and sold into slavery and eventually you know sold to the cousin of khadija gifted to the prophet saws adopted by the prophet saisam his journey started off with what though a kidnapping and then being sold into slavery said i said to these people where are you from they described mecca so i said will you take me back with you they said what are you going to give us he said here take everything that i own here are the cows here are the sheep you can take all of my possessions i just want you to get me back to that place i need to travel with the caravan take me to that place and help me understand the geography help me understand the lay of the land a bit so salman allah so they agreed and they took me and then we got to wadikura outside medina's the outskirts the land of the arab and he said we took a break and on this pit stop they suddenly jumped on me and they tied me up and they taped my mouth and they went and they sold me into slavery subhanallah fitna again another test of your faith this is in al-bukhari by the way in a separate hadith and this hadith broke my heart subhanallah sad that i was sold from slave owner to slave owner over 13 times between 13 and 19 times in the arabic language i went from slave owner to slave owner to slave owner to slave owner every one of them has a different mood a different mindset a different temper i have to deal with this person and that person at least i was a free man on a journey of looking for my faith and now i'm spending years in captivity and subhanallah he says from he says salman did not know that the prophet saws forbade us from calling people master lord to lord he didn't know so he's narrating this narration because they used to call the slave owner he's narrating the narration and he didn't know at the time that the prophet saws from using that word to describe the uh the the slave owners so here he is now over 30 years went through this journey for over three decades trying to find the truth and every single time a difficulty comes to him it doesn't deter him but instead he finds a new connection to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here you have a zoroastrian high priest who is the son of a leader in persia who is a christian scholar a biblical scholar who spoke persian hebrew knew all of the scriptures of the zoroastrians and the torah and the bible the injeed and he's being passed around with no protection whatsoever amongst the arabs it's weird right what's going on with this man and says and then finally i was sold to this jewish man from benue so he said this man lived in yathrib so i mean wouldn't you have given up hope at this point is in his 50s by the way because he's the same age as the prophet saws he's not a young man anymore the youth is gone salman allah said the slave owner takes me and he takes me to his garden in yathrib and he explains to me what i need to do in the palm trees and then salman goes land of palm trees okay this is interesting and as starts to ask about the land and go out and explore the land yathrib sits between these two lava-like fields black rocks to haras so he says it might be it this might be it so salman said i stayed there and for a long time i didn't hear anything just worked as a slave i just continued on my way working and waiting for some sign from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala salman says and one day i'm in the tree and i'm high up in the tree and i'm i'm picking the dates from the palm trees and he said my master is sitting in the garden you know enjoying his nice cup of water hanging out and i'm up there and he says his cousin comes to him and he says is the mother of the ansar the maternal link between the ocean al-hazraz the two tribes from yemen is a woman named qila and back then when they want to insult you they call you by the name of your mother instead of the name of your father so he said this man is talking to the master of salman he says may allah destroy the children of krila so he said why what happened why are you saying this and he said in one breath there they are in quba gather round this man from mecca who migrated from mecca and claims to be a prophet that's a lot in one sentence for so like chills went down my spine he said i almost fell out of the tree i almost fell out of the tree and i had to grab once again onto the branches and he said i came down and i was shivering and he said i went up to the man that came to my master the cousin of my master and i said to him what did you say what did you say what did you say and he said then my master grabbed me by my shoulder and he punched me in the face he knocked me out and he said to him what business do you have back to work collected himself got back to work and he said the next day i went to the woman in the household meaning the wife of the man and i said to her hebli yeoman can i have a day off so she said go ahead you can have the day off so salman allah said i quickly went i collected some firewood and i sold it and then i purchased some dates with that firewood so when the evening came he spent the day basically going and collecting wood sold the wood got some dates he said i immediately rushed to kobat and i started to look for this man that claims to be a prophet now salman is not going to get his hopes all the way up he needs to test the man right i've already heard and when you saw the prophet saw salaam i mean what did abdullah the chief rabbi of medina when he saw the prophet saw i saw him i saw his face and i already knew this was him so of course who sees the prophet saws something is going to hit him but at the same time he needs to make sure he's been disappointed many many many times in this journey i need to make sure this is the prophet of allah so he said i got to pull that i saw the sahaba gathered around the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam i said where is this man they said this is him i went to him and i brought some dates i said to him i hear that you're a good man and that you're in need that your people who have migrated to this land and that you're in need she said i brought you some dates sadaqah so charity so that you can benefit from it so the prophet saws he smiled he thanked me and rasulallah he took off his burt he had a green garment from yemen took it off he spread it on the ground he put the dates he called the sahaba he said go ahead and eat and salman allah was sitting there watching him he said he didn't touch the dates the prophet saws didn't eat so he said that's one he's talking to himself he said that's one sign he doesn't eat sadaqa the prophet saws did not touch the sadaqa so he said some time went by and a few days later i asked once again the woman of the house heavily yeoman can i have another day she said go ahead so he said i went gathered some wood got some date sold the wood got some dates went back to quebec i went to the prophet salallahu and i said listen last time i came i realized that you didn't eat from the food that i brought you so he said here are some dates and he said hadiya tunnek it's a gift for you so he said the prophet saws took off his garment he spread it on the ground put the dates and the prophet saws called the sahaba and the prophet saws and the companions ate from the dates salman is struggling now to hold his excitement he says ha the ithania that's two two out of three signs so now i've got the geography right i've got two of three signs but how am i gonna ask the man to see his back because the third sign is a seal on the back of the prophet saws and i'm a persian guy that's from nowhere and you know it's kind of deeply suspicious if i just walk up hey you mind if i see your back he said so i started to watch the back of the prophet saws when i could whenever i could pull away from the house of my master so i'd go and i'd search and i'd look and i'd follow the back of the prophet saws and see maybe if his garment came down if his shirt came down so i could just see his back subhan allah he says the first time i get to see his back is that the janazah of one of his companions and it was the first sahabi buried in al-baqir next to the masjid of the prophet saws who was that sahabi according to the most correct opinion i'll give you a clue he's the first person we spoke about in this season of the first the first muslim from madina is also the first burial in madinah who is he assad so salman is watching the prophet saw islam bury us with his companions imagine al-baqir with all of its glory tens of thousands of companions buried there now and all of the righteous scholars and tabiri may allah subhanahu ta'ala grant us watching the prophet saw some of the companions bury the very first man there it's so i watched from behind the funeral and i watched the prophet salla sallam lead the prayer on him and then i watched the prophet saws and he was wearing two shawls sitting between his sahabah and then when it came time to put him into the grave to put the body of the allah in one narration in the grave he said that the prophet saw some shall started to move so he said so i started to go and kept looking at the back of the prophet salla sallam and after they did the burial he said rasool allah noticed what i was trying to do prophesy some caught on to what salman was trying to do so he said the prophet saws lowered his garment salman with the allah on the back of the prophet saws that birth marked that seal that he'd been looking for for over 30 years in the middle of the janazah of the first muslim in madinah salman i could not contain myself i threw myself on the prophet saws and i was kissing the back of the prophet saws kissing the seal of the prophet saws and crying and crying and while i'm weeping what's happening the sahaba just looking like this is a really strange sight right like what's happening here this persian man just jumps on the prophet's life some of the prophet saws is letting him and he's hugging the prophet sasam and he's kissing the back of the prophet sallallahu and he said after i calmed down i mean it took a while for me to contain myself and the prophet salallahu said can i turn around and i said yes he said i started to wipe my eyes and after i calmed down i mean he was weeping loudly he said i said to the prophet saws rather he said to me mahabrook what's your story subhanallah after traveling the world and going from over 13 slave owners and the beatings and the confusion and the corruption and all of the fitan all the trials and tribulation everything we go through in this journey of islam we will not face the trials and tribulations that this man faced in his journey before even meeting the prophet slice of them and he finally is right in front of the prophet saws and the prophet salla says tell me your story so he said i told the prophet salla son my entire life story in the graveyard subhanallah and he said and i'm telling you just as i told him that day remember as he's narrating the story so he goes from persia to damascus to iraq to turkey to syria all over the place with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and then he says to the prophet saws and i was looking for you and he broke down crying again may allah give us that meeting with the prophet saws like you think about that subhanallah that journey to the prophet saws and that's our journey of life right that journey of being upon this way to just finally find ourselves with the prophet saw some in his companions not in jannatul but jannatul around the held of the prophet saw salman rasool allah says i'm looking at you and giving you his attention and saying tell me your story this is a moment of jannah subhanallah after a difficult difficult life that salman allah and was living and he said that i told the prophet saws i'm everything and i was and now here i am before you imagine the validation that salman felt imagine the way that all the stress and all the trials and all the tribulation melt away when he realizes that he's now arrived at the prophet sallallahu alaihi and he's right in front of him yet his test is not over has a problem the man who owns him now hates the prophet salla sallam and refuses to let him free so now subhanallah another test in tribulation he's in al-madinah and all this glory is unfolding around the prophet salla sallam and he said my master wouldn't let me go. the prophet saws would say to me yes just how can we get you free how can we get you out and the master of salman would not set a price wouldn't let him go and he said that in slavery i missed what did he say he said the man made me miss better like he didn't say i missed like praying in the masjid i missed eating with the prophet saws i missed all those days with the prophet saw i saw him he said i missed bedro like i hated that man for making me miss the battles with the prophet saws and being with the prophet sasam in his difficult times and he said in the prophet sawsan said to me yes free yourself what is it that he what is it that he needs i don't have anything to free myself so he said just go to your master and tell him anything he wants the prophet saws saying anything that he wants will free you but get a price so he said i went to the my master and he said to me fine you want freedom he said to him i want 300 palm trees you get the land you get the trees you plant them and the trees have to come to life so you got to see the trees through make sure they actually come to life oh and by the way i want forty opias of gold by the way over a thousand grams of gold salmon of the allah said i was so disappointed i didn't even go back and tell the prophet saws on what he said and the prophet saws came to me he said yes did you do what i said and he said ya rasulullah he sut an impossible price he said what did he say he said 300 palm trees the land the trees and you got to see them come to life take care of them until they come to life and 40 ukiyas of gold ya rasulullah it's an impossible thing the prophet's lies in them without hesitating he calls the sahabah he says everyone help your brother let's get on it allah talk about convert care what is that person worth after the shahada moment this is like undoubtedly the greatest jihad the story of all time right i mean like talk about a journey and the sahaba heard it in but what is salman worth he doesn't have a powerful tribal collection or connection in a worldly sense he doesn't have anyone to take care of him he doesn't have anything to offer in the worldly sense he's a persian man what's he worth in the dunya we sense right in the worldly sense the prophet saws didn't sit there and think and say you know what to allah be patient have sabbath i'll see you in jannatul france with all the other ones like i'll catch you later you'll be okay inshallah make dura brother he didn't say that to him everyone help your brother so she then watches and all of the sahaba start to come forth carrying their palm trees one of them brings one the other one brings two the other one brings 10. who brings the land and is 20. of course uthman was never outdone in karum in generosity until they collected 300 palm trees to plant salman says the prophet saw islam said to me yes go dig up the land for thee for the trees to be planted and then call me when you're done so salman i went and i dug the holes three hundred holes for the trees and then i came back to the prophet's lifetime i said ya rasulallah i'm done and he said the prophet saws came with his companions and he said rasulullah sallam got in every single one of those holes and said give me the tree and he planted it himself making dua and nourishing it subhanallah in one narration of the allah planted one tree and it was the only tree that died it's actually in one of it it's a hassan it's not the one not because something's wrong with um but because the prophet's life had a special connection here right planted all 299 trees and then planted one in the place where um planted the tree according to one narration so 300 trees from the hands of the prophet salla talk about convert care didn't pass it off to someone else and he said all 300 of the trees came to life now there's one problem salman's like well where do i get all this gold from 40 okays of gold he said while this is all happening a man came to the prophet saws and he handed the prophet son of a block of gold as a gift to the prophet salla islam from the medan so he said that the prophet saws immediately took it he said to me go take this to your master. and he said i looked at it and i said ya rasulullah um this is nice what's this going to do the prophet's license said take it to him he said allah made it so that when i took that gold to him that block of gold he said that it was exactly 40 ups exactly what he demanded so he said he finally let me go and he said i never missed a mashhad i never missed an event alongside the prophet sallam after that day i'm going to give you one more story subhanallah and then we'll continue insha'allah next week with salman allah and how he now settles in madina alongside the prophet salallahu sallam and i want you to just appreciate for a moment in this situation that salman of the allahu ta'ala is as called him he's the father of the two books salman is the only man possibly in the world that is a scholar of the bible a scholar of the quran and a scholar of the zoroastrian scriptures speaks arabic persian hebrew and aramaic all fluently and knows all of the books and all of the scriptures and all of the arguments and as according to imam and now rahim allah the first mutation the first person to translate the quran translated parts of the quran into persian on behalf of the prophet salallahu a unique man a very strange person subhanallah who ends up in medina with this aura that surrounds him and has been through what no other companion has been through to be alongside the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and he's never been in a battle alongside the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and then the first battle he's going to witness is handak is where the largest army the arabs have ever accumulated has now gathered around madinah to wipe out the prophet salla sam and his companions like i missed bedroom and now here i am and i'm with the prophet saws and his companions what are we doing by the way the largest army in the world in the arab world that we've ever seen they've all gathered and they're going to wipe us out now they've decided to surround us from every direction and wipe us up we're done and the prophet saws is asking the companions give me your opinion give me your opinion give me your opinion what do we do the main discussion is do we fight them inside the city do we plant trash within madinah hide within our homes and try to fight that way or do we go out the way that we did in uh uh considered the outskirts of the city and fight them out there and keep them away keep the women and the children on the inside and fight them out there what do we do what do we do what do we do i have an idea it says what's the idea he said we in persia either when the romans gather against us what we would do is we build the trench a hunduc and the word khandak is an arabi ananthasi the same word i guess with a little bit of variation because i know someone's going to check me after this but we would build this trench so he said ya rasulullah madina is situated perfectly between two haras remember what the teacher told him in a show you have these two lava fields on each side of medina so they won't be able to come with their horses over those all you have to do is build one trench across the two haras and then there is natural vegetation on the other side so as a result of that you are covered from all four directions ya rasulullah and it will slow down their army and all you have to do at that point is fight off the army from the khandak subhanallah salman says this all the sahabah look at salman and they see the pleasure of the prophet salla sallam how the prophet saw islam was pleased with the opinion of salvation and the ansar and the muhajin they start to walk up and they say this is our guy because salman is an unclaimed man he doesn't have a tribe so the different tribes they start to say salman's one of us salman is one of us this this idea came from us the ansah this idea came from us this is benue so and so and the prophet saws looks at him and he says [Music] he said no no salman is mine he's from the people of my household salman is family so a journey of truth that took him from the son of the leader in asbahan in persia around the fire through the entire world to the household of the prophet salaam to rasulallah i'm looking at him and saying and his strategy of how to build the trench being the means by which allah protected the people of madinah from being wiped out because from a numbers perspective that army was so much smaller than what was coming from the outskirts on the heels of ahud we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be pleased with salman to be pleased with the companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to send his peace and blessings on the messenger to gather us with our beloved messengers we ask from far away in persia to be right in front of the messenger and to be pleased with the sight of the prophet saws and we ask allah to please us with the sight of our beloved prophet salallahu sallam while he is pleased with us we ask allah to grant us the sincerity in the jud in the struggle and to grant us hidayah and guidance and sabbath and firmness upon the right path throughout our journey allah next week we will continue with the other side of salman allah and his story which is rarely told which is his way back to persia so inshallah next week please do join us [Music]

Channel: Yaqeen Institute

Views: 656,040

Keywords:

Id: n6tIhFyq_mI

Length: 68min 33sec (4113 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 07 2022