Hayatus Sahabah - The Lives of the Sahabah - Part 3

THE LIVES OF THE SAHABAH @,a@&2 (Vol-3) 561
asked us to speak.
I then addressed him and invited him to accept Islaam. When I asked him what
were the black garments he was wearing, he replied, 'When wearing them, I
vowed never to remove them until I dispelled you people from Shaam.' I
responded by saying, 'In this very gathering of yours do I swear by Allaah that we
shall definitely be taking control of Shaam from you. In fact, we shall also be
taking over all the lands of your Emperor, Inshaa Allaah. Our Nabi Muhammad
&%@ informed us of this.' To this, he said, You are not the ones who will be
doing this because they will be people who fast during the day and stand in
prayer during the nights. How do you people fast?' When we informed him
about it, his face darkened and he bade us to leave. He then sent a messenger
with us to the Emperor (Heraclius).
We then left and when we drew near to the city, the person accompanying us
said, 'These animals of yours cannot enter the Emperor's city. If you wish, we can
give you Turkish horses or mules to ride.' 'By Allaah!' we said, 'We shall enter with
nothing other than these animals.' The people then sent a message to the
Emperor, informing him of our refusal. He communicated back to them the
instruction to allow us in on our animals. With our swords hanging around our
necks, we then entered the city and reached the Emperor's palace. As he watched
us from above, we seated our animals beneath and called out, &I J! a!