The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 3 of 4

192 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
I comment that his full name was 'Abd Allah b. Unays h. Haran, Ahii Yaf~ya
al-Juhani; he was a famous and highly-regarded ~ahabl, "Companion". He
was present at the alLCAqaba pledge, and participated in the battles of Uhud,
al-khandaq and later ones. His death occurred late in life, while he was in Syria,
at age 80, as is well known. It is also said that he died in the year 54 AH. But God
knows best.
'Ali h. al-Zubayr and Khalifa b. Khayyat differentiated him from 'Ahd Allah
b. Unays Ahii 'Is%, the anjari; it was he who related that the Messenger of God
(SAAS) prayed at Uhud over a vessel containing water and its spout opened and
he drank from it. This was what Aha Dit'iid and al-Tirmidhi related through 'Abd
All& al-Wmari, from 'isa b. 'Abd Allith b. Unays, from his father. Al-Tirmidhi
then stated, "But its chain of authorities is not reliable; and 'Abd Allah al-'Umari
is a weak source with regard to his memory."
The Story of 'Amr h. al-'As and the Negus, after the battle
of al-khandaq, and how 'Amr accepted Islam.
Ibn Ishaq related the following after his account of the killing of Abii MI'.
"Yazid b. Aba Hahih related to me, from Rashid, freed-man of Habib b. Aws
al-Thaqafi, from Habib h. Aws, as follows, ''Amr b. al-'AS related to me directly,
saying, "When we left with the ahziib, the clans, after the battle of al-khandaq, I
gathered some Quraysh who thought as I did and respected my opinion and told
them, 'You know how I think that the Muhammad affair is escalating badly. You
know my opinion; what is yours?'
"'"'How do you mean?' they asked.
"'"'Well,' I went on, 'I think we should join the Negus and stay with him. If
Mnhammad defeats our people, we'll be there with the Negus, and we'd prefer
to be under his authority than that of Mnhammad. If our people prevail, they
already know us, and we'll experience nothing hut good from them.'
""'They responded, 'That's a (good) opinion.'
""'I then said, 'Let's gather something to present to him.' The gift he liked
most from our country was leather, so we collected a large quantity of it for him.
"'"After that we left and joined him. While we were there with him, 'Amr b.
Umayya al-Damri arrived; the Messenger of God (SAAS) had sent him to the
Negus concerning Ja'far and his companions. He went in to see the Negus and
then came out again. I told my friends, 'That's 'Amr b. Umayya; if I were to go
in to the Negus and asked him to give him over to me, he would do so and I could
kill him. And if I did that Quraysh would know that I was acting for them in
killing Muhammad's envoy."'
"'He went on, "So I went in and bowed as was my custom. He greeted me,
saying, 'Welcome to my friend! Did you bring me a gift from your country?' I
replied, 'Yes, 0 king. I've brought you a lot of leather.' I then gave it to him and