1 of 3 · c. 615 CE · the first emigration to Abyssinia · The court of the Negus, Abyssinia
'Amr ibn al-'As رضي الله عنه
The Envoy Who Failed
'Amr was a sharp-witted man of Quraysh, and when the Muslims took refuge in Abyssinia, Quraysh sent him with 'Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah and rich gifts to ask the Negus to hand them over. 'Amr first distributed gifts to the bishops, so that they would back his request.
Before the Negus, he accused the Muslims of abandoning their people's religion and of following a faith unknown to either side. The Negus refused to decide without hearing them. Ja'far ibn Abi Talib spoke for the Muslims and recited the beginning of Surah Maryam, and the Negus wept until his beard was wet.
'Amr tried a second approach the next day, by asking what they said about Jesus, hoping to turn the king against them. Ja'far answered truthfully that he was a servant of Allah, His Messenger, His spirit and word cast to Mary. The Negus drew a line in the ground and said that the difference between them and what Ja'far said was no wider than that line. 'Amr and his companion left with their gifts rejected.
Cleverness is not the same as being right, and a skilled tongue cannot overturn a truth honestly spoken.
Have you ever won an argument that left you on the wrong side?
- Musnad Ahmad 1740 (Umm Salamah)Grade not recorded here
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (the migration to Abyssinia)Historical report
- Qur'an 19:16-36
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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