Ashama ibn Abjar

ProfileAshama ibn Abjar

Ashama (may Allah be pleased with him) was the king of Abyssinia, called the Najashi, a title, as Caesar is a title in Rome. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ told the Muslims who were being persecuted in Makkah to go to Abyssinia, because it had a Christian king in whose land no one would be wronged. According to the early biographies, he did not choose Syria or Yemen, though they were nearer, for the sake of the safety the Muslims would find in the king's land. According to the early biographies, the first party was about twelve men and four women, among them Uthman and Ruqayyah, who stayed about three months, and came back on the report that Makkah had accepted Islam, which was false. According to the early biographies, they went back to Abyssinia in a much larger group of about a hundred.

According to the early biographies, Quraysh sent two envoys, one of them Amr ibn al-As, with gifts of the finest Makkan leather for the king and his bishops, and told him that these people were rebels who had left the religion of their fathers. The Najashi sent for the Muslims, and Ja'far ibn Abi Talib spoke for them. According to the early biographies, he said that they had been an ignorant people who worshipped idols, ate dead meat and did shameful things, and the strong ate the weak, until Allah sent a man among them whose truthfulness, honesty and nobility they knew, and who called them to worship Allah alone and leave the stones, to speak the truth, to keep faith, to be good to relatives and neighbours, to hold back from bloodshed and shameful acts and not to slander chaste women, and to pray, fast and give in charity. They followed him, and their people turned on them, and they came to his land. According to the early biographies, the Najashi said that they were safe in his land.

According to the early biographies, Amr came back the next day and told the king that they said terrible things about Jesus. The Najashi sent for them again, and Ja'far said that he would say what the Prophet ﷺ taught them, that Jesus is the servant of Allah and His messenger and His word that He cast to Maryam and a spirit from Him. According to the early biographies, the king asked if he had anything of what the Prophet ﷺ brought, and Ja'far recited the opening of Surah Maryam. According to the early biographies, the Najashi wept until his beard was wet, and so did his bishops. He said that what the Prophet ﷺ brought and what Jesus brought came from the same source, and that the Muslims could live in safety in his land. According to the early biographies, he said that anyone who harmed them would be punished, and he sent Quraysh's gifts back. According to the early biographies, the Muslims lived there in security for years, and some were not able to leave until Ja'far and the others came to the Prophet ﷺ in the year of Khaybar.

According to the early biographies, when some rivals rose against him in a war on the bank of the Nile, Umm Salamah said that the Muslims were more afraid than they had ever been, because they loved him so much, and they sent az-Zubayr to watch, and he came back with his face shining and said that the Najashi had won. She said that it was the happiest day they had known since the revelation.

Abu Hurayrah told that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave the news of the death of the Najashi, the king of Abyssinia, on the day he died, and said, "Ask forgiveness for your brother." He took them out to the place of prayer, and set them in rows, and said four takbirs (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim). Anas told that the Prophet ﷺ wrote to Chosroes, to Caesar, to the Najashi, and to every other tyrant, inviting them to Allah, and that this Najashi was not the one for whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had prayed (Sahih Muslim). The early biographies do not give the day he accepted Islam, and the sources differ on when it was.

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