Letters to Kings

Part oneRiders leave Madinah

The truce of Hudaybiyyah changed what the Muslims could do. For the first time the roads out of Madinah were safe enough to send messengers a long way. The Prophet ﷺ gathered his Companions and told them that he had been sent to all people, and that he wished to write to the rulers of the lands around Arabia.

The Prophet ﷺ was told that rulers did not read letters that came without a seal, so a silver ring was made for him. It was engraved in three lines with his name, his title as messenger, and the name of Allah. From then on he sealed his letters with it. Each envoy was chosen with care and set out for a different court.

The letters were short and respectful. Each one greeted the ruler with peace, invited him to worship Allah alone, and asked him to accept Islam. Each said that the ruler would carry the responsibility for his people if he refused. The letter to Heraclius ended with a verse of the Quran, which invites the People of the Book to come to a word common to both sides, that they worship none but Allah.

From the Quran

قُلْ يَـٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ تَعَالَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ كَلِمَةٍ سَوَآءٍۭ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلَّا نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهَ وَلَا نُشْرِكَ بِهِۦ شَيْـًٔا وَلَا يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا۟ فَقُولُوا۟ ٱشْهَدُوا۟ بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ ۝٦٤

Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “O People of the Book! Let us come to common terms: that we will worship none but Allah, associate none with Him, nor take one another as lords instead of Allah.” But if they turn away, then say, “Bear witness that we have submitted ˹to Allah alone˺.”

The envoys, all of them Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), and their destinations were these.

The envoys and their destinations

• Dihyah al-Kalbi to Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, in the Levant.
• Abdullah ibn Hudhafah as-Sahmi to Khosrow II, the emperor of Persia.
• Amr ibn Umayyah ad-Damri to the Negus of Abyssinia.
• Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah to the ruler of Egypt, whom the Arabs called al-Muqawqis.
• Envoys also went to the rulers of Bahrain and Oman, and to Arab chiefs on the Byzantine border.

Part twoHow the rulers replied

Heraclius received his letter while he was in the Levant. By chance, a group of Qurayshi traders was in the region at that time, led by Abu Sufyan, who was still an opponent of Islam and later became a Muslim (may Allah be pleased with him). Heraclius summoned them and asked about the man who had sent the letter. He asked about his family and whether any of his ancestors had been a king. He asked whether the followers were nobles or the poor, whether they were growing in number, and whether any had left in anger. He asked whether the man had ever been known to lie. Abu Sufyan, who wished to speak against him, could find nothing false to say.

Heraclius then asked what the man commanded, and Abu Sufyan answered that he told them to worship Allah alone, to pray, to speak the truth, to keep themselves clean and to be good to their relatives. Heraclius replied that if all this was true, the man would one day own the ground under the emperor's feet. He treated the letter with respect and kept it, but he did not accept Islam publicly. Abu Sufyan said afterwards that this was the first time he had begun to think that the matter might be serious.

From the hadith

Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Abbas:

[…] Heraclius then asked for the letter addressed by Allah's Apostle

which was delivered by Dihya to the Governor of Busra, who forwarded it to Heraclius to read. The contents of the letter were as follows: "In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful (This letter is) from Muhammad the slave of Allah and His Apostle to Heraclius the ruler of Byzantine. Peace be upon him, who follows the right path. Furthermore I invite you to Islam, and if you become a Muslim you will be safe, and Allah will double your reward, and if you reject this invitation of Islam you will be committing a sin of Arisiyin (tillers, farmers i.e. your people). And (Allah's Statement:)

'O people of the scripture! Come to a word common to you and us that we worship none but Allah and that we associate nothing in worship with Him, and that none of us shall take others as Lords beside Allah. Then, if they turn away, say: Bear witness that we are Muslims (those who have surrendered to Allah).' (3:64) […]

Khosrow II reacted very differently. He is said to have been angered that the letter placed the name of Muhammad ﷺ beside his own, and he tore it up. When the Prophet ﷺ heard of this, he said that the Persian king had torn up his kingdom. Within a few years the Persian empire had fallen into civil strife, and it did not recover.

The ruler of Egypt answered politely. He did not accept Islam, but he treated the envoy well and sent gifts to Madinah, which included two women of a Coptic family and a white mule. One of the women, Maria (may Allah be pleased with her), later became the mother of the Prophet's ﷺ son Ibrahim. The other, her sister Sirin, married the poet Hassan ibn Thabit. Ibrahim died as a small child. The Prophet ﷺ wept for him and said that the eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, but he would say only what pleased his Lord. The sun was eclipsed that day, and people said it was because of Ibrahim's death. The Prophet ﷺ corrected them at once: the sun and the moon are signs of Allah and are not eclipsed for anyone's death or life.

The reply from Abyssinia was the warmest. The Negus was the same king who had sheltered the early Muslims years before, when they fled there to escape persecution. Accounts say that he accepted the letter with great respect and became a Muslim. When he died, the Prophet ﷺ announced his death to the Companions in Madinah and led them in a funeral prayer for him, though his body lay far away.

Other letters met a warmer welcome. The ruler of Bahrain accepted Islam, and many of his people with him. The rulers of Oman received Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) and in time accepted Islam too. In the north the news was worse. Al-Harith ibn Umayr (may Allah be pleased with him), carrying a letter to the ruler of Busra, was stopped by Shurahbil, a chief of the Ghassanids, the Christian Arab allies of Byzantium, and killed. Envoys were protected by the custom of every nation, and his death led to the expedition of Mu'tah in 8 AH.

The Prophet ﷺ sent an army of about three thousand and named its commanders in order: Zayd ibn Harithah, then Ja'far ibn Abi Talib if Zayd fell, then Abdullah ibn Rawahah (may Allah be pleased with them). At Mu'tah, east of the Dead Sea, they met a far larger force of Byzantines and their Arab allies. All three commanders were killed one after another, each holding the banner, and Ja'far lost both arms before he fell. In Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ told the Companions what was happening as it happened, naming each man as he fell, with tears in his eyes. Then he said that the banner had been taken by one of the swords of Allah, and that Allah had given them an opening.

The sword was Khalid ibn al-Walid (may Allah be pleased with him), who had become a Muslim only months before and was chosen by the men on the field. He held the army together and brought it home. When some in Madinah called the returning soldiers runaways, the Prophet ﷺ said they were not runaways but men who would return to the fight. A Byzantine chronicler, Theophanes, also recorded the battle and the deaths of the three commanders.

The answers mattered less than the fact that the message had gone out at all. A man who a few years earlier had fled Makkah by night was now writing to the powers of the age as a messenger of Allah. Every one of them had to decide what to do with his letter.

A man who a few years earlier had fled Makkah by night was now writing to the powers of the age as a messenger of Allah.

More on How to Muslim

• guide.howtomuslim.orgHow to pray the eclipse prayerThe prayer for an eclipse, like the one on the day Ibrahim died.
• children.howtomuslim.orgThe Prophet ﷺ and childrenHis tenderness with children, from little Amanah.

WatchThe lecture for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 9: Letters, Hudaybiyyah and Khaybar (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Madinah
• Constantinople
• Ctesiphon
• Axum
• Alexandria
• Bahrain
• Oman

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter