His acceptance of Islam
His virtues
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His Acceptance of Islam
Salmaan al-Faarisi was born to a very wealthy family and enjoyed a luxurious life. His father was governor of a province in the great Empire of Persia. In spite of his family riches, Salmaan was a young man in search of a true way of life. At that time in his life, he was following the religion of his father as a Magian (fire-worshipper). The first change in his life occurred when he was on a trip, and he passed by a group of Christians, who were engaged in worship. Their worship caught his attention and he became interested. One day after returning home late, his father questioned him about his whereabouts and Salmaan informed him about Christianity. His father became angry with him and decided that the only way to keep him away from Christianity was to lock him up.
However, when Salmaan leamt that the origin of Christianity was in Syria, he escaped to that place. There he met an old priest who taught him Christianity. Salmaan asked the priest, who by then was already nearing the end of his life, where he could find another teacher. The priest informed him about a prophet who was to come with certain signs and who would settle in a town with a lot of date-palm trees.
Upon hearing this, Salmaan travelled to Arabia in search of that prophet. However, a Jew took him and enslaved him. It was his fate that he was later bought by another Jew who was from Madinah. Salmaan later bought his freedom via a term known in Islam as “mukaatabah” (when a slave pays his master a certain amount for his freedom). Upon hearing of the arrival of the Prophet ﷺ in Madinah, he rushed to see him. He first checked for the signs which the priest had told him about. When he found the signs, he knew that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the true Prophet and through genuine striving, hardships, patience and sacrifice he found the only true way of life; i.e. Islam.
His virtues
One of the things that made him such a great figure in Islam, was that he was instrumental in the Muslims’ victory during the Battle of al-Khandaq. He initiated the idea of digging a trench. The valley wherein Madinah exists, where the battle was to take place was surrounded in three directions by mountains and the trench would cover the fourth, ultimately protecting the Muslims against an attack by the pagans from the outside. It was the first time in Islamic warfare that a trench technique was used and it proved to be most successful.
Another reason for Salmaan being such a great personality was that the Prophet ﷺ himself named Salmaan as one of the family of the Prophet. Salmaan was also the first person to translate parts of the Qur’aan into a foreign language. He translated its meanings into Persian during the time of the Prophet ﷺ . In spite of all his great virtues, Salmaan still remained a totally humble person. This was evident when wealth was flowing into Madinah and he was allocated about four to six thousand dirhams as wages, he refused. He preferred to spend it all in charity.
