his uncle and said to him,
“Either you kill this young man or send him away from among us, for we are now afraid of what he might do to us.”
He answered, “Woe to you! You slew his father only yesterday, and am I to kill him today? No—drive him out of your country instead.”
So they led him away, sold him to a merchant for 600 dirhams, put him on board a ship, and the man sailed off with him. By evening that very day a bank of autumn clouds gathered; the uncle went out beneath it hoping for rain, but a lightning bolt struck him and he died.
The Abyssinians then hurried to his children, only to discover that they were fools in whom there was no good. Their affairs fell into complete disorder, and when the hardship of their situation became unbearable, some of them said to the others,
“By Allah, you know that the only man who can set your kingdom right is the very king whom you sold this morning. If you care about the fate of Abyssinia, then catch up with him.”
They set out in pursuit, overtook him, took him back from the merchant, returned with him, placed the crown upon his head, seated him on the royal throne, and installed him as king. The merchant thereupon came to them and said,
“Either give me my money, or I shall speak to him about it.”
They replied, “We will not give you anything.”
He said, “Then—by Allah—I will certainly speak to him.”
They said, “Very well, go ahead.”
He came before the Negus, sat down in front of him, and said,
“O King! I bought a boy from some people in the market for 600 dirhams. They delivered him to me and took my money, but when I set off with my boy they caught up with me, seized the boy, and withheld my dirhams.”
The Negus said to them, “Either return the man his dirhams, or hand the boy over to him so that he may take him wherever he wishes.”
They replied, “We will give him his dirhams.”
Umm Salamah continued, “That is why he used to say, ‘When Allah restored my kingdom to me He did not take a bribe from me—shall I then accept a bribe concerning it?’ This was the first sign people noticed of his firmness in religion and his justice in judgement.
She added, “When the Negus died, we would relate that a light was continually seen over his grave ⦗1⦘.”
The Musnad of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal states: Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, my father narrated to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, who said, Ibn Shihāb narrated to me, from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn