The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

18 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
In Najran there were still some remnants of followers of the religion of Jesus,
son of Mary, on whom be peace. They were people of goodness and virtue and
their leader's name was 'Ahd Allah b. al-Thanir.
Ibn Ishiiq then related how the people of Najr%n adopted Christianity due to
the influence of a man named Faymi*, a Christian from Syria. He was a man
whose prayers were answered and was accompanied by a man named Salii.
They spent each Sunday in prayer, while FaymiyCin worked the rest of the week
as a builder. He said prayers for the sick, the crippled, and the disabled, and
their ills would be cured. Eventually he and his friend were taken prisoner by
bedouins and were sold in Najrm. The man who bought Faymiyiin was astonished
to see that when he began his prayers in the house at night it would fill with
light.
The people of Najrm worshipped a tall palm tree, bowing down before it and
festooning it with their wives' jewellery. Faymiym said to his master, "If I were
to say a prayer to God against this tree and it were destroyed, would you recognize
that your religion is false?" His master agreed that he would, and gathered
all the people from Naira together. Faymiyiin then went into his prayer-room
and asked God to destroy the tree. So God sent a storm that tore it up by the
roots and threw it flat on the ground. Thereupon the people of Najran adopted
Christianity and he encouraged them to follow the Gospel until they were overtaken
by the same events that affected the Christians all over the world.
That was how Christianity came to Najrzn in the Arab lands.
Then Ibn Ishaq related the story of 'Abd All& b. al-Thmir when he adopted
Christianity at the hands of Faymiycin and how Dha Nuw% killed him and his
companions and dug the ukhdtid, the trench, for them. According to Ibn Hishiim
that ukhdtid was a long trench in the ground like a ditch. Dha Nuwas kindled
fires in it and burned these people with them; he also killed many others, to the
total of almost 20,000, as is examined at length in the study of stirat al-Bu~j
(LXXXV) in our Tafsir (Exegesis) of the Qur'm? And all praise be to God!
An Account of how rule in Yemen passedfrom Himyar and was
transferred to the black Abyssinians.
The aforementioned events support the predictions of the two soothsayers,
Shiqq and Saph. Only one of the people of Najrzn survived; his name was Daws
Dhii Tha'labm and he escaped on his horse in the desert and could not be
caught. He continued travelling until he reached Caesar, the emperor of
Byzantium. Since the emperor was also a Christian, as he was, he told hi what
Dhii Nuwas and his troops had done and asked his aid. The emperor replied
9. Ibn Kathir, Tafev. . . ,Val. 4, pp491-7.