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

322 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
""'I swear by God," I told him, I too am headed for Muhammad and am
accepting Islam." Then Wthman h. Talha emerged and welcomed me. We all
three lodged together.
"'We then reached an agreement and went to Medina. I'll never forget what
a man said whom we met at the Aha Wtha well who shouted out, " YLZ rub&!
YE rubah! YE rabah!"" We were much cheered by this and proceeded further.
Then the man looked closely at us and I heard him say, "After (losing) these two,
Mecca has given up the leadership!" I assumed he was referring to myself and to
Khalid h. al-Walid. He then turned and hurried off into the mosque; I assumed
that he was going in to tell the Messenger of God (SAAS) of our arrival and it
was as I thought.
"'We dismounted at al-Harra and dressed in our best clothes. Then the call
was made for the 'as7 prayer and we went off to see him. His face was exultant,
and the Muslims around him were delighted at our acceptance of Islam.
-lid b. al-Walid went forward and gave his allegiance. Then Wthman h.
Talb advanced and gave his. I then went forward hut, I swear by God, no sooner
had I sat down before him than I could not raise my gaze towards him, I felt so
ashamed. I then expressed my allegiance to him, provided that I be forgiven my
prior sins and that he would not bring up the past. He said, "Islam cuts off what
preceded it and the hijra cuts off what preceded it."
"'And I swear by God, the Messenger of God (SAAS) gave to none of his
Companions consideration equal to that he gave myself and Khalid h. al-Walid
after we had accepted Islam. We had the same status with Aba Bakr and I
enjoyed the same with Wmar; Wmar was somewhat critical towards Kh~d."'
'Ahd al-Hamid b. Ja'far, al-Wsqidi's sheikh, teacher, stated, "I narrated
this had& to Yazid b. Habib, and he said, 'Bshid, the freed-man of Habib b.
Aws al-Thaqafi, quoted his master Hahih as relating much the same from 'Am
b. al-'AS."'
I note that Muhammad b. IshZq related it similarly, from Yazid h. Aha Hahih,
from RBhid, from his freed-man Hahih, who said, "'Amr b. alLCAs in person
related to me." And he then narrated the above as occurring in 5 AH, after the
killing of Abii &tic. The text of al-W?iaqidi is more simple and better.
Al-Waqidi quoted his sheikh 'Ahd al-Hamid as saying, "I asked Yazid h. Aba
Habib, 'Did he say when 'Amr and Khalid accepted Islam?' 'No', he replied,
'except that he did say it was before the conquest of Mecca.' I then said, 'My
father told me that 'Amr, Khalid and Talha came forward at the beginning of
Safar in 8 AH."'
In the sahih collection of Muslim there is material testifying to the course of
his acceptance of Islam, his fine companionship with the Messenger of God
(SAAS) during his life, and how he died repenting his conduct during the period
of his leadership after that of the Messenger of God (SAAS), along with a
description of his death. May God he pleased with him.
83. A cty of surpnse and delight.