Thumamah ibn Uthal

ProfileThumamah ibn Uthal

Thumamah (may Allah be pleased with him) was the son of Uthal, of the Banu Hanifah, and the chief of the people of Yamamah, in the middle of Arabia (Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, Yamamah was a land of farms from which Makkah got much of its grain, and its chief was among the most powerful men in Arabia. According to the early biographies, he was an enemy of the Prophet ﷺ and had killed Muslims, and was wanted for it.

Abu Hurayrah told that the Prophet ﷺ sent some horsemen towards Najd, and they brought a man of the Banu Hanifah called Thumamah ibn Uthal, and tied him to one of the pillars of the mosque (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim). According to the early biographies, the horsemen were led by Muhammad ibn Maslamah, and did not know whom they had taken. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ told his Companions to treat him well, and to bring him good food and milk while he was tied there.

The Prophet ﷺ came out to him and asked what he had, and Thumamah said that he had good in mind, that if the Prophet ﷺ killed him, he would kill a man who had shed blood, and if he showed him favour, he would show favour to one who was grateful, and if he wanted wealth, he should ask for it and have whatever he asked. The Prophet ﷺ left him, and the next day asked again and heard the same answer, and the day after, again the same. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, "Release Thumamah." He went to a grove of date palms near the mosque, bathed, and came back into the mosque and said that he bore witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. He said that no face on the earth had been more hateful to him than the Prophet's ﷺ face, and now it was the most beloved of faces to him, and that no religion had been more hateful to him than this religion, and now it was the most beloved, and no town more hateful than his town, and now it was the most beloved. He said that the horsemen had taken him as he was on his way to perform Umrah, and asked what the Prophet ﷺ thought he should do. The Prophet ﷺ gave him good news and told him to go on to perform Umrah. When he came to Makkah, someone asked whether he had become a Sabian, one who has changed his religion. He said no, that he had accepted Islam with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and that by Allah not a grain of wheat would come to them from Yamamah unless the Prophet ﷺ allowed it (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

According to the early biographies, he kept his word, and Makkah went hungry. According to the early biographies, Abu Sufyan then appealed to the Prophet ﷺ, for Quraysh, in the name of kinship, saying that he claimed to be sent as a mercy. According to the early biographies, the Prophet ﷺ wrote to Thumamah to let the grain go through, and he did.

According to the early biographies, when Musaylimah rose among the Banu Hanifah and claimed to be a prophet, Thumamah warned his people against him and told them that there is no prophet with Muhammad ﷺ or after him. According to the early biographies, they would not listen, and he left with the Muslims who were with him and joined al-Ala ibn al-Hadrami, the Prophet's ﷺ governor of Bahrain, against them.

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