—palms that I would plant and bring to life for him—together with forty ounces of gold.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said to his Companions, “Help your brother.”
They helped me with the palms: one man gave thirty saplings,(1) another twenty, another fifteen, until three hundred saplings had been collected.

He said, “Go, Salman, dig the pits for them; when you have finished, come to me and I will plant them with my own hand.”

So I dug the pits, and my Companions assisted me. When I was done, I came and informed him. He went out with me; we would bring the saplings close to him and he would set them in the ground with his own hand. By Him in whose hand is Salman's soul, not a single sapling failed to take root.

I thus fulfilled the palm-tree portion, but the money was still outstanding. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was brought a lump of gold the size of a hen’s egg from one of the campaigns.

He asked, “What has become of the Persian who is paying off his contract?”

I was summoned, and he said, “Take this and settle what you owe.”

I said, “Messenger of Allah, how far can this go toward what I owe?”

He replied, “Take it; Allah will discharge your debt with it.”

I took it, weighed out from it forty ounces, paid them their due, and was freed. I then took part with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the Battle of the Trench as a free man, and after that I missed no expedition with him.(2)

Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd added—reporting from Ibn Isḥāq—who said:

From Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from a man of ʿAbd al-Qays, from Salman, who said: When I asked him, “And how far will this go toward what I owe?” he took the gold, rolled it about on his tongue, and then said, “Take it.”(3)

And in the version of Ibn Idrīs—from Ibn Isḥāq, from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar, from a man