91 – The Account of Salmān the Persian (may Allah be pleased with him)
The ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir said: He is Salmān, “the son of Islam,” Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Fārisī, the first of the Persians to embrace Islam. He accompanied the Prophet ﷺ, served him, and narrated from him.
Among those who transmitted from him were Ibn ʿAbbās, Anas ibn Mālik, Abū Ṭufayl, Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, Shuraḥbīl ibn al-Simṭ, Abū Qurrah Salamah ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Kindī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd al-Nakhaʿī, Abū ʿUmar Zādhān, Abū Ẓibyān Ḥuṣayn ibn Jundab al-Janbī, and Qarṭaʿ al-Ḍabbī—all of them from Kūfah.
Sixty of his hadiths appear in the Musnad of Baqī. Al-Bukhārī recorded four of them and Muslim three. He was intelligent and resolute, counted among the wisest, most devout, and most honorable of men.
Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah al-Qāḍī narrated—through ʿUrwah ibn Ruwaym from al-Qāsim Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—that he said:
“Salmān the Persian visited us. After the imam had led the ẓuhr prayer he came out, and the people streamed out to greet him as they would greet the caliph. We met him after he had prayed ʿaṣr with his companions; he was walking, and we stopped to salute him. Not a single notable among us failed to invite him to be his guest.
“He said, ‘I have pledged on this journey to stay with Bashīr ibn Saʿd.’ When he arrived he asked about Abū al-Dardāʾ, and they replied, ‘He is on ribāṭ (frontier duty).’ He asked, ‘Where is your ribāṭ?’ They answered, ‘Beirut.’ So he set out in that direction.
“Salmān then said, ‘People of Beirut, shall I relate to you a hadith by which Allah will remove from you the burden of ribāṭ? I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “Guarding for a single day—”’