HAZRAT SALMAN AL-FARISI (RAZI ALLAH ANHU)
Salman al-Farisi
May Allah Be
Well Pleased With Him
"My heart has become able to wear all forms:
A
pasture for gazelles, a monastery for monks,
A temple for idols, the
Ka`ba of the pilgrims,
The tablets of Torah, the Book of
Qur'an.
I profess the religion of Love.
Whatever direction its
mount may take,
Love is my Religion and my Belief."
Ibn `Arabi, Tarjuman al-ashwaq.
Salman al-Farisi 
is known
as the Imam, the Flag of Flags, the
Inheritor of Islam, the Wise Judge, the
Knowledgeable Scholar, and One of the House
of the Prophet 
. These were
all titles the Prophet gave him.
He stood fast in the face of extreme
difficulties and hardships to carry the
Light of Lights and to spread the secrets of
hearts to lift people from darkness to
light. He was a noble companion of the
Prophet . He
reported sixty of his sayings.
He came from a highly respected
Zoroastrian family from a town near Ispahan.
One day while passing by a church, he was
attracted by the voices of men praying.
Drawn by their worship, he ventured in and
found it better than the religion of his
upbringing. On learning that the religion
originated in Syria, he left home, against
his father's wishes, went to Syria and
associated himself with a succession of
Christian anchorites. He came to know from
them the coming of the last Prophet and the
signs accompanying his advent. He then
traveled to Hijaz where he was seized, sold
into slavery, and taken to Madina, where he
eventually met the Prophet . When he
found in the Prophet the
fulfillment of all the signs of which he had
been informed by his Christian teachers, he
affirmed the testification of faith - Shahada. Servitude prevented Salman from
being at the battles of Badr and Uhud. The
Apostle helped him gain his release from slavery by
planting with his own hand three hundred
palm trees and giving him a large piece of
gold. Once a free man he took part in every
subsequent battle with the Prophet .
In Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah,
we find the following in Salman's account to
the Prophet of his journey in search of the true
religion:
"`Asim ibn `Umar ibn Qatada said
that he was told that Salman the
Persian told the Prophet that his master in 'Ammuriya told
him to go to a certain place in
Syria where there was a man who
lived between two thickets. Every
year as he used to go from one to
the other, the sick used to stand in
his way and everyone he prayed for
was healed. He said, 'Ask him about
this religion which you seek, for he
can tell you of it.' So I went on
until I came to the place I had been
told of, and I found that people had
gathered there with their sick until
he came out to them that night
passing from one thicket to the
other. The people came to him with
their sick and everyone he prayed
for was healed. They prevented me
from getting to him so that I could
not approach him until he entered
the thicket he was making for, but I
took hold of his shoulder. He asked
me who I was as he turned to me and
I said, 'God have mercy on you, tell
me about the Hanifiya, the religion
of Abraham.' He replied, 'You
are asking about something men do
not inquire of today; the time has
come near when a prophet will be
sent with this religion from the
people of the haram. Go to
him, for he will bring you to it.'
Then he went into the thicket. The
Prophet said to Salman, 'If you have
told me the truth, you met Jesus the
son of Mary.'"
In one of the Prophet's battles
called al-Ahzab or al-Khandaq Salman advised the Prophet to dig trenches
around Madinah in defense of the city, a
suggestion which the Prophet happily
accepted. He then went ahead and helped the
digging with his own hands. During this
excavation, Salman struck upon a rock which
he was unable to break. The Prophet took an axe
and hit it. The first strike brought forth a
spark. He then hit it a second time and
brought forth a second spark. He then struck
for the third time and brought forth a third
spark. He then asked Salman , " O
Salman, did you see those sparks?" Salman
replied, "Yes, O Prophet, indeed I did." The
Prophet said, "The first spark gave me a vision in
which Allah has opened Yemen for me. With
the second spark, Allah opened Sham and
al-Maghreb (the West). And with the third
one, Allah opened for me the East."
Salman reported that the Prophet said:
"Nothing but supplication averts the decree,
and nothing but righteousness increases
life," and "Your Lord is munificent and
generous, and is ashamed to turn away empty
the hands of a servant when he raises them
to him." Tirmidhi transmitted them.
At-Tabari recounts that in the year 16
A.H. the Muslim army turned to the Persian
front. In order to confront the Persian king
at one point the Muslim army found itself on
the opposite bank of the great Tigris River.
The commander of the army, Sa`d
Ibn Abi Waqqas, following a dream, ordered
the entire army to plunge into the rushing
river. Many people were afraid and hung
back. Sa`d, with Salman by his
side, prayed first: "May Allah grant us
victory and defeat His enemy." Then Salman
prayed: "Islam generates good fortune. By
Allah, crossing rivers has become as easy
for the Muslims as crossing deserts. By Him
in whose hand lies Salman's soul, may the
soldiers emerge from the water in the same
numbers in which they entered it." Sa`d and
Salman then plunged into the Tigris. It is
reported that the river was covered with
horses and men. The horses swam and when
they tired the river floor seemed to rise up
and support them until they regained their
breath. To some it seemed that the horses
rode effortlessly on the waves. They emerged
on the other bank, as Salman had prayed,
having lost nothing from their equipment but
one tin cup, and no one having drowned.
They went on to take the Persian capital.
Salman acted as spokesman and said to the
conquered Persians: "I have the same origin
as you. I shall be compassionate toward you.
You have three options. You may embrace
Islam, then you will be our brethren and you
will have the same privileges and
obligations as we. Or you may pay the Jizyah tax and we will govern you
fairly. Or we will declare war on you." The
Persians, having witnessed the miraculous
crossing of the Muslim army, accepted the
second alternative.
Salman Al-Farsi was eventually appointed
governor of that region. He was the
commander of 30,000 Muslim troops. Yet, he
was very humble. He lived from his own
manual labor. He did not own a house, but
instead rested under the shade of trees. He
used to say that he was surprised to observe
so many people spending all their life for
the lower world, without a thought for the
inevitable death which will take them from
the world one day.
Salman was a very strict and just man.
Among some spoils which were distributed one
day was cloth out of which each companion
had one piece of clothing cut. One day `Umar got up to
speak and said: "Lower your voices so that I
may hear you." He was wearing two pieces of
that cloth. Salman said, "By God, we will
not hear you, because you prefer yourself to
your people." "How is that?" asked
Umar. He said: "You are wearing two pieces
of cloth and everyone else is wearing only
one." Umar called out: "O Abdullah!" No one
answered him. He said again, "O Abdullah ibn
Umar!" Abdullah, his son called out: "At
your service!" Umar said, "I ask you by God,
don't you say that the second piece is
yours?" Abdullah said "Yes." Salman said:
"Now we shall hear you."
At night Salman would
begin to pray. If he got tired, he would
start making dhikr by tongue. When his
tongue would get tired, he would contemplate
and meditate on Allah's power and greatness
in creation. He would then say to himself,
"O my ego, you took your rest, now get up
and pray." Then he would make dhikr again,
then meditate, and so forth all night long.
Bukhai relates two hadiths which show the
Prophet's consideration for Salman:
Abu Huraira relates: While we
were sitting with the Holy Prophet ,
surat al-Jumu`a was
revealed to him. When the Prophet recited the verse, "And He
(Allah) has sent him (Muhammad) also
to others (than the Arabs)..." [62:3] I said, "Who are they, O
Allah's Apostle?" The Prophet did
not reply till I repeated my
question thrice. At that time Salman
al-Farisi was with us. Allah's
Apostle put his hand on Salman,
saying: "If faith were at
ath-Thurayya (the Pleiades, very
distant stars), even then some men
from these people (i.e. Salman's
folk) would attain it."
Abu Juhayfa relates: The Prophet made a bond of brotherhood between
Salman and Abu ad-Darda al-Ansari .
Salman paid a visit to Abu ad-Darda'
and found Um ad-Darda' (his wife)
dressed in shabby clothes. He asked
her why she was in that state. She
said, "Your brother Abu ad-Darda' is
not interested in the luxuries of
this world." In the meantime Abu ad-Darda'
came and prepared a meal for Salman.
Salman requested Abu ad-Darda' to
eat with him, but Abu ad-Darda'
said, "I am fasting." Salman said,
"I am not going to eat unless you
eat." So Abu ad-Darda' ate with
Salman. When it was night and a part
of the night has passed, Abu ad-Darda'
got up (to offer the night prayer),
but Salman told him to sleep and Abu
ad-Darda slept. After some time Abu
ad-Darda' again got up but Salman
told him to sleep. When it was the
last hours of the night, Salman told
him to get up then, and both of them
offered the prayer. Salman told Abu
ad-Darda', "Your Lord has a right on
you, your soul has a right on you,
and your family has a right on you.
Abu ad-Darda' came to the Prophet and
narrated the whole story. The
Prophet said, "Salman has spoken the truth."
He passed away in 33 A.H. during the
reign of `Uthman . He passed
his Secret on to Abu Bakr's grandson, I mam
Abu `Abdur Rahman Qassim ibn Muhammad ibn
Abi Bakr as-Siddiq .
