Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 15 - Torture to the Prophet & Abyssinia - Yasir Qadhi | November 2011
Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 15 - Torture to the Prophet & Abyssinia - Yasir Qadhi | November 2011
Last week, we mentioned the tortures of the sahaba, especially those who were not of the Quraysh. They were not protected by the society.
Torture to the Prophet PBUH
What happened with the Prophet PBUH himself? Did he undergo any physical pain and suffering? There is no question he had plenty of emotional torture from the opposition, but how about physically? Even though the Qureshi Muslims had protection, they were not completely unharmed. We have a number of incidents in which the Prophet PBUH was physically harmed. The Prophet PBUH sometimes was protected by Allah SWT, and sometimes he was not protected from physical torture - and this is from Allah's infinite wisdom.
Instances of the persecution that the Prophet PBUH underwent:
1. Abu Jahal was boasting to his peers and swore by al-Lat and al-Uzza that the next time he sees the Prophet PBUH, he will put his foot on his neck when he's in sajdah, and throw sand onto him. The Prophet PBUH was one of the few Muslims who would pray in front of the Ka'bah. Abu Hurairah narrated that the Prophet PBUH came that day, Abu Jahal came forward trying to put his foot on his neck, but before he got to the Prophet PBUH, Abu Jahal started walking backwards and started pushing with his hands away. The people asked Abu Jahal when he returned, "What happened?" Abu Jahal said he saw between him and the Prophet PBUH a pit of fire, and there were wings hovering above that fire. The Prophet PBUH told his companions later that the fire was brought by the angels. Had Abu Jahal took one more step closer, the angels would have shred him to bits. At this Allah revealed the conclusion of Surah al-Alaq:
أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يَنْهَىٰ
عَبْدًا إِذَا صَلَّىٰ
أَرَأَيْتَ إِن كَانَ عَلَى الْهُدَىٰ
أَوْ أَمَرَ بِالتَّقْوَىٰ
أَرَأَيْتَ إِن كَذَّبَ وَتَوَلَّىٰ
أَلَمْ يَعْلَم بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَرَىٰ
كَلَّا لَئِن لَّمْ يَنتَهِ لَنَسْفَعًا بِالنَّاصِيَةِ
نَاصِيَةٍ كَاذِبَةٍ خَاطِئَةٍ
فَلْيَدْعُ نَادِيَهُ
سَنَدْعُ الزَّبَانِيَةَ
كَلَّا لَا تُطِعْهُ وَاسْجُدْ وَاقْتَرِب
"Have you seen the one who forbids a servant when he prays? Have you seen if he is upon guidance or enjoins righteousness? Have you seen if he denies and turns away - Does he not know that Allah sees? No! If he does not desist, We will surely drag him by the forelock - A lying, sinning forelock. Then let him call his associates; We will call the angels of Hell. No! Do not obey him. But prostrate and draw near (to Allah)." [96:9~19]
In this instance Abu Jahal was unsuccessful.
2. Narrated in Bukhari - Abdullah ibn Amr ibn As was asked by others (Urwah ibn Zubayr) about what was the worst that he saw happen to the Prophet PBUH. He says once the Prophet PBUH was praying by the Ka'bah. Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt (1 of top 5 enemies of Islam, who stooped to lowly tactics, arguably even worse than Abu Jahal) came from behind, took off his thobe/garment, and threw it around the neck of the Prophet PBUH, and began to choke him. The Prophet PBUH was struggling, but the people did not intervene. Until finally Abu Bakr was told, "Your companion is being tortured," he rushed to the Ka'bah, and attacked Uqba, and said to Uqba:
أتقتلون رجلا أن يقول ربي الله
"Are you going to kill a person just because he says, 'My Lord is Allah'?!" And Allah SWT revealed verse in the Qur'an that we recite to this day, in Surah Ghafir, which has the exact same phrasing as what Abu Bakr said, "And a believing man from the family of Pharaoh who concealed his faith said, "Do you kill a man [merely] because he says, 'My Lord is Allah '? [40:28] This shows the status of Abu Bakr as a magnificent sahabi.
In this instance, Allah AWJ willed that Abu Bakr saved the Prophet PBUH.
3. Emotional harm. Ibn Mas'ud narrates in Bukhari. (Ibn Mas'ud was not able to do anything since he was of the slave class.) He said, "Once the Prophet PBUH was praying at the Ka'bah; Abu Jahal and his peers were sitting around. He asked his people, "Who will bring the entrails of the camel and throw it on the back of Muhammad [PBUH] when he is praying to his Lord?" The worst of them, Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt, goes to a dead carcass, pulls out the entrails etc. of the camel, and when the Prophet PBUH goes into sajdah, Uqba dumped all the intestine, entrails etc. on the Prophet PBUH. The weight of it was so heavy that the Prophet PBUH could not lift himself up! The people began to laugh and I was standing at the distance looking, but I had no way to help (I would have been killed). The Prophet PBUH remained in sajdah until someone went to tell Fatima, his daughter, that, 'You need to help your father.' She was around 8 years old, began crying and running toward the Prophet PBUH and helped him get the entrails off his back. When the Prophet PBUH got up, he faced them, raised his finger up to Allah SWT, and made du'a against them by name. When the Quraysh saw him in this fashion, their faces turned pale out of fear. The Prophet PBUH mentioned each of their names three times. The people mentioned in the du'a were:
i. Abu Jahal ibn Hisham
ii. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah
iii. Shayba ibn Rabi'ah
iv. Walid ibn Uqba
v. Umayyah ibn Khalaf
vi. Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt
vii. (Ibn Mas'ud said he forgot the seventh name.)"
Ibn Mas'ud then said, "I swear by the One who sent Muhammad PBUH with the Truth, that I myself saw every one of these seven DEAD in the Battle of Badr. I saw their bodies dragged into the well and thrown into the Well of Badr." - Allah took care of all of them in the very first engagement in Islam.
4. Assassination plots were being conjured up of the Prophet PBUH. These began in the 8-9th year of the dawah. Ibn Ishaq narrated that a lady neighbor told Fatima about the Quraysh's assassination plan. The Prophet PBUH was told by Fatima, and he said, "Fear not. Allah AWJ will take care of me. Bring me water." The Prophet PBUH did wudu, made du'a to Allah SWT, and walked into the Ka'bah area. The people were armed and ready to kill him; but not one of them could move - they have all became paralyzed. They could not stand up. The Prophet PBUH took some sand, threw it at their faces while they were sitting, and said, "May these faces be cursed." The sahabi who narrated this says, all these people were killed in the Battle of Badr.
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Why Were the Believers Tested?
Questions that come to people's minds: If Allah loves the prophets and the believers, why were they tested in this fashion and manner? What is the wisdom? Why not just protect the believers and give them immediate victory? What is the purpose the greatest man on earth being tortured?
There are many reasons:
1. Allah is reminding them and us that: He did not create us to live a comfortable life in this world. There is a purpose for Allah creating us - and that purpose is the next world. (see Qur'an [67:2], [53:43]). We live in this world to earn Allah's mercy that will get us to Paradise. We have to do something to gain that mercy from Allah. Paradise is too precious to be earned by a lifetime of good - no matter what you do it's too much to be earned. But Allah will magnify the small [good] that you do, and that will then give you Allah's blessings, and that will then give you Paradise.
Allah tests mankind - to see those who are pure, firmly believe in Him, worthy of being blessed in the akhira vs those who are not. Allah SWT says in Surah al-Ankabut:
أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا أَن يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ
وَلَقَدْ فَتَنَّا الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۖ فَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَلَيَعْلَمَنَّ الْكَاذِبِينَ
"Do the people think that they will be left to say, "We believe," and they will not be tried? But We have certainly tried those before them, and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evident the liars." [29:2-3]
And in Surah al-Baqarah:
أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِن قَبْلِكُم ۖ مَّسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ
"Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trial] has not yet come to you as it came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, "When is the help of Allah?" Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near." [2:214]
2. We learn that the blessings of Allah are earned through trial and struggle.
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
"With difficulty comes ease." [94:6] We learn this from the incident of Khabbab, when he came complaining to the Prophet PBUH (rightfully so), as he was tortured with fire, "For how long are we going to suffer like this?" and the Prophet PBUH said, "Indeed, the people before you were tortured worse than you, with hot iron combs that would strip his flesh, with a saw or knife that would cut him in half, and still that would not turn them away from the worship of Allah. Verily, I swear to you by the One who sent me, Allah will perfect this matter (religion), until a Muslim shepherdess will take her flock from Sana'a to Hadhramaut and she will fear none but Allah, or a wolf attacking her sheep. But you are being hasty." - Allah SWT will fulfill His promise, but there is going to be trials in the beginning. (Persecutions that the Prophet PBUH described above happened to the Christians under Roman rule [pagans]. Emperor Nero would use the Christians as light bulbs. Doused the Christians with petrol, and light them as light bulbs. They were persecuted very severely, YET they did not swerve away from the worship of Allah.) Allah is going to give you victory, but you need to be patient. Even the prophets of Allah are not handed the blessings on a silver platter. They needed to struggle to earn it.
3. Through these struggles, the sahaba clearly demonstrated their superiority over us. It's not just a speech of Allah that, "Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him" [9:100]; it's not just a speech of the Prophet PBUH that, "My sahaba are the best of all generations" - You see it in what they do and how they lived their lives.
4. So that we can have real examples - shining lights of guidance. Such that when we face trial and tribulation, we can take comfort/find solace/find role models. And Subhan'Allah, there is no society that has undergone the type of persecution that the early Muslims of Makkah did; and therefore every persecution that takes place, we can find some type of comfort when we look at what happened to the early sahaba.
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The House of al-Arqam
When the sahaba reached around 20~30, the Prophet PBUH realized he need a place to congregate. A lot of Muslims were secret Muslims - they hadn't informed their relatives and friends; especially some of the slaves who had converted, they hadn't told their masters. There was no 'mosque' they could pray in. Masjid al-Quba was the first mosque in Islam, built much later on (in Madani phase). So the Prophet PBUH decided to choose the house of al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam (al-Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza) to congregate. So Dar al-Arqam became the place where the sahaba met. This happened a few months after the dawah went public. Recall after 3 years, the dawah went public, and that's when the persecution began, so the Prophet PBUH shortly after this chooses a meeting place.
Question: Why the house of al-Arqam? What is the wisdom behind choosing the house of al-Arqam? The books of seerah do not mention this, so we need to study who is al-Arqam, where his house was - and then we try to derive some wisdom:
1. Al-Arqam was a nobleman from the tribe of Banu Makhzum (the tribe of Abu Jahal). So automatically no one suspects a Makhzumi would help a Hashimi, because there was huge rivalry. So the Prophet PBUH chose someone from a rival tribe as no one would have expected it.
2. Al-Arqam was of the first 10 people to accept Islam. So he can be completely trusted.
3. According to one report, al-Arqam was a young man that inherited this property from his father. This adds to the disguise that nobody would think an 18-19 year old would risk it all to help the Prophet PBUH.
4. He did not announce his Islam - so this was an added cover of secrecy.
5. The house of al-Arqam was located behind the Mountain of Safa. And this mountain was in the center of Makkah. And why would you want a secret meeting place smack in the middle of Makkah? TRAFFIC. Everybody has to go to Makkah in that area every single day. So people walking to and fro in this area is the most natural thing in the world. It's right under their noses - the house is right next to the Ka'bah. And so when they walk in, people will think they are walking into the Haram. When they walk out, people will think they are walking out of the Haram. It's a location that it would be very easy to explain why you are walking to and from that direction. They probably ensured they went to the Haram for a while and came back so no suspicion arose.
6. His house must have been large because we had at least 40 people congregating in the house. So this clearly means the house of al-Arqam must have been large. This is where Ammar ibn Yasir accepted Islam, Suhayb al-Rumi accepted Islam, Umar accepted Islam; where Khabbab brought Umar after Umar repented and changed his mind for trying to kill his own sister, Fatima. When Khabbab brought Umar, al-Arqam said, "Who have you brought? How can you bring Umar al-Khattab, have you lost your mind?!" But Khabbab explained, so Umar was let in, and he accepts Islam - [will be discussed in more detail in episode 18]. This was the central station for the Muslims.
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The First Emigration to Abyssinia
The next major incident was the first emigration to Abyssinia. When these tactics of torture and humiliation continued, the Prophet PBUH suggested to the sahaba, "This land has become too constricted for you - so for those of you who want to, why don't you emigrate to the neighboring land of Abyssinia? For there is a Christian king there, who is a just king, he shall allow you to worship without interference." And this was announced in Rajab in the 5th year of the dawah.
Recall the dawah went public in the 3rd year; and this announcement was made less than 1.5 year later - so we can imagine that all of the torture we talked about, they all happened in this 1.5 year. It got so difficult, the Prophet PBUH allows the sahaba to emigrate. Most of us will never understand the hardship involved with emigrating from land to land, as most of us have lived in multiple cities in our lives. But uprooting yourself in jahili Makkah was completely unheard of. As a Qureshi you HAD to be linked to Makkah, because of the concept of tribalism. If you went anywhere else, you have no honor or protection because there is no law or government or civilization. You become a 2nd/3rd class citizen. This is Arabia - imagine going to a foreign land. On top of that, there is no bank transfer; your property is your property - you can't sell it because you can't tell anyone you are leaving. (When they performed Hijrah to Madinah [in later seerah], the sahaba suffered immense financial loss. Even the rich sahaba. Because they couldn't take their money with them. It's too dangerous to carry your gold and silver with you.) And so, when you're making Hijrah, you are entering into a strange world with no honor, protection, and you are at the mercy of those around you. To make matters worse, it's a land in Africa where the people don't even speak Arabic. The culture is completely different. So this underscores how difficult Makkah was for them to prefer going to Abyssinia over staying in Makkah.
When the Prophet PBUH gave this command, 15 people migrated in total - 11 men and 4 women. Among them was Uthman ibn Affan and his wife Ruqayyah, the daughter of the Prophet PBUH. And he was followed by Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Uthman ibn Maz'oon, Zubayr ibn al-Awam, Mus'ab ibn Umayr, Abu Salama and his wife Ummi Salama. (She was left all alone without any support when Abu Salama died in Abyssinia later on. So out of mercy to her, the Prophet PBUH sent a proposal to Ummi Salama.) And a number of other sahaba.
It's unclear whether they all secretly emigrated or whether it was known. Some report seem to indicate that they left secretly. They made their way to Juddah (now Jeddah), and then took a ship to Abyssinia. Other reports seem to suggest that the news reached the Quraysh. This is also acceptable as at this time, there is no reason for the Quraysh to stop them. And there is one report in the Mu'jam of al-Tabarani (book of hadith) which suggests that the news was public. The story involves one of the couples. Note there was four couples who migrated. Amir ibn Rabi'ah and his wife Layla was one of them. It was narrated Layla packed her bags and loaded the camels. Umar (who was not yet a Muslim at the time) passes by and sees they are travelling. So he asks, "Where are you travelling to?" (as it was not the season of Rihlat al-Shita'i wa al-Sayf [Winter and Summer Trip]). Travelling was a massive deal for them. It's not a normal thing. Layla is understandably so irritated and said, "This is all because of you and your terrorizing/persecution of us just because we want to worship Allah! Because of you we have to go somewhere else and find a land where we can worship Allah in!" Instead of getting angry, Umar showed compassion and said, "Has the matter reached that level? May Allah be with you." And he walks on his way. Layla is completely flabbergasted - so when her husband comes home, she tells him about this. Her husband snorted in contempt and said, "Do you really think he will be merciful to us and accept Islam? The donkeys of his father's house will embrace Islam before he does." Subhan'Allah this shows us Umar had an outer hardness but inside he was very compassionate and soft.
(Indeed when he hit his own sister, as soon as she bleeds what happens? We will see [in episode 18]. And indeed the sahaba never expected him to accept Islam. So this also shows we should never condemn people to Hell. Allah guides whoever he wills.)
Ummi Salama narrated first person, in Bukhari: "We began to live in a good land, with good neighbors. And we were safe with regards to our religion and did not fear any persecution." Notice everyone who migrated were all high status Qureshi people. Why couldn't the lower status emigrate? Because they were slaves. So they didn't have the political luxury to emigrate. This shows us that the people who needed to emigrate the most couldn't do so. Bilal, Khabbab, Ibn Mas'ud, Ammar etc. all couldn't do so. And the more elite Muslims like Uthman ibn Affan, whom in later seerah was the one the Muslims sent for Hudaybiyyah because everyone knew the Quraysh would never hurt him as they loved him so much, emigrated. And this shows us, a person does have to take care of himself (see Qur'an [5:105]) - the elites were not as persecuted as the rest, but they had an opportunity to have less persecution, so they availed themselves to the opportunity; there was no point for them to stay and be persecuted. And there is nothing un-Islamic about this. Even though there were people who needed to emigrate worse than them. But you make the best of a bad situation - whoever CAN leave and be emigrated, they did. There is a maxim in fiqh: [if you can't save everybody, then] take a path of the lesser of the two evils.
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Benefits We Derive From Muslims in Abyssinia
Not all of the lands of the non-Muslims are the same. Some of the lands of the non-Muslims are peaceful and could be inhabited to worship Allah in peace; and others are hostile. Makkah and Abyssinia were not the same. There are lands where freedom is guaranteed; and there are lands where people are persecuted. So in our religion, we have a clear-cut political notion that there are certain lands we are allowed to or in fact should live in, provided we can worship Allah in that land. And if we have this freedom, we should remain law abiding citizens of that land. The model of the Abyssinian Muslims is a model Muslims living in the Western world should benefit from, even as we know that no two things are exactly the same. But overall there is a model. And the model is: You live as a minority in a majority non-Muslims land, and you obey the laws of the land, and you understand that you are citizens under the government of the land, and you don't intend to overthrow the constitution or the government. The Abyssinian Muslims did not plot and plan to overthrow the Najashi - they just lived, worshiped and participated in the community without any problems. Many extremists say it's haram to live in America. In response we say the Muslims lived in Abyssinia, and their goal was nothing but to worship Allah. And they remained there for over a decade. In fact for 14 years - 7 years after the Hijrah the Muslims were still in Abyssinia. It was only after the Battle of Khaybar (7 AH) that the Prophet PBUH sent a letter to Ja'far in Abyssinia and tell them to come back to Madinah. This shows there was a community of believers living in Abyssinia even when there was a fully functioning Dar al-Islam in Madinah. Thus how about when there is no khalifa, or Dar al-Islam?
Also notice, the Prophet PBUH described the Najashi of Abyssinia (the Emperor of Abyssinia), named As'hama ibn Abjar (أصحمة بن أبجر), as a JUST king. Why? Because he did not persecute his subjects nor did he interfere in their religion - allowing people freedom in worship is considered to be a just act.
Is it possible that a Christian can be praised for allowing the freedom of worship, yet our sharia does not allow the same? No. Even in an utopic Islamic land that some of our naive youngsters daydream about, where an ideal Islamic government actually exist, that government should not have the right to ban other religions. It is un-Islamic to infringe on the freedom of worship. Historically speaking, we have always had non-Muslim minorities living in Muslim lands. Always. This is proven by the fact that 10% of Egypt is still Coptic Christian - showing they have this freedom. No doubt, the laws were slightly different, but in essence, the government cannot BAN a religion. Scholars have differed whether this only applies to the People of the Book. But the correct opinion is that it applies to ANY religion. What is the evidence for this? Even though, yes, the Prophet PBUH only said "Jews and Christians", but when the Muslims conquered Persia, where majority of the people were Zoroastrians (not the People of the Book), by unanimous consensus, the Muslims extended this ruling meant for the People of the Book, to them. Thus the correct opinion, as mentioned by Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, is that this applies to any religion - even to paganism. No doubt, there are different laws for them e.g. they cannot proselytize to their faith; but we do not ban them from practicing their religion. They have the right to worship in their centers of worship, and do in their localities as they please - this is something that the Islamic sharia guarantees.
This shows us that the perception many non-Muslims (and even some of our overzealous Muslim brothers) have of our religion is incorrect.
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Wisdoms of Why Abyssinia Was Chosen
So the wisdoms of choosing Abyssinia as the safety net were as follows:
1. The king of Abyssinia was a just king that allowed freedom of worship.
2. Abyssinia was familiar to the Quraysh and Muslims due to trade that happened between them. It wasn't as if the Prophet PBUH said to go to China i.e. somewhere the Muslims had never heard.
3. Its easy passage. The journey to Juddah only took 1.5 day, not too far; and from there it was a ship to Abyssinia which took 5~7 hours. So within two days you could be in Abyssinia. Much closer than even Yemen or Rome.
4. They are Christians, not pagans. Christians are much closer to Muslims. In fact, Allah says:
وَلَتَجِدَنَّ أَقْرَبَهُم مَّوَدَّةً لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّا نَصَارَىٰ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ مِنْهُمْ قِسِّيسِينَ وَرُهْبَانًا وَأَنَّهُمْ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ
"And you will find the nearest of them in affection to the Believers [are] those who say, "We are Christians." That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant." [Qur'an 5:82] And it's also said (a theory), that Najashi was following a version of Christianity that wasn't the Trinitarian version.
(A very long tangent: When Jesus was raised up, his followers were immersed in a huge confusion, "What happened? Where is he?" And within a generation the question became, "Who is he? What was he?" And one group, the true disciples of Jesus like Barnabas said he was a prophet, a messiah, a noble person who obeyed the law of Musa, etc. They believed as we Muslims believe.
Another person came along by the name of Paul who never met Jesus, and he taught a version of Christianity that was a different version. That you have to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that Jesus came to abrogate the law [of Moses and Abraham]. This is why Christians [in our times] don't have a law - even though Jesus was circumcised, didn't eat pork, lived a life of a Jew, etc.
And this controversy continued for 300 years.
One group of Christians remained firm. Modern day scholars call them Jewish Christians, or Messianic Jews [i.e. they believed Jesus was a prophet] - these were the real Muslims.
Another group was the Pauline Christians, and they said Jesus was a son of God, and he abrogated the law. Eventually the Trinity was added to this belief [even though Paul never preached it]. You'll never find the Trinity in the Old Testament; and even in the New Testament you won't find any reference except with great difficulty - but you'll NEVER find it in the words of Jesus Christ. To make a long story short, Constantine, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, called a huge council in Nicaea. He invites all the bishops of the Christian world. And you have opposing factions; some who say there is one God, some who say there is three, some who say he was a son of God, etc. Constantine makes a decree - the Nicene Creed. This creed says there are three that rule in Heaven, but these three are not actual three - they are One. Basically 3=1.
The main opponent of the Nicene Creed was a man by the name of Arius. He did not agree with the Trinity. And after this meeting Constantine said he had to be executed. Arius fled for his life and he fled down south. Possibly to parts of Africa [this is theory now] - that he fled down while the Nicene Creed was spreading down through the Roman Empire. [Tangent within tangent: There's three main branches of Christianity in our times: Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. And they all go back to the Nicene Creed. Those that are pre-Nicene Creed have all disappeared. There's not a single branch of Christianity that is existent in our times is of the original pre-Nicene Creed Christianities. But there is legends that some pockets of true Christianity survived. And we should believe it because it's mentioned in hadith. Recall the story of Salman al-Farisi. His teacher said, "I don't know of anybody left upon my religion except so and so. Go to him!" And so Salman goes and goes, until finally when he meets his last teacher, the last teacher said, "I don't know anybody left upon OUR VERSION of Christianity." And that version of Christianity was true Islam.] Thus there is a theory that Najashi was influenced by Arius's understanding of Christianity. And that's why when Islam came to him, he instantly said, "This comes from the same well as Jesus Christ came from." He instantaneously recognized it. And we know for a fact that Arius's influence was in that part of Africa. Perhaps some of those influences remained, and therefore Najashi was influenced by that.)