he will most certainly triumph just as Moses and his forces triumphed.
I said, “O King, then place your hand in mine so that you may pledge me to him upon Islam.”
He replied, “Yes.”
He extended his hand, and I pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for Islam. I then went out to my companions, my mind now entirely changed.
They asked, “What news do you bring?”
I answered, “Good news.” When night fell, I mounted my camel, set off, and left them behind. By Allah, while I was on the way I met Khalid ibn al-Walid, so I said, “Where are you heading, Abu Sulayman?”
He said, “I am going—by Allah—to embrace Islam. By Allah, the truth has become evident; the man is a prophet, of that I have no doubt.”
I said, “And I, by Allah, as well.”
We reached Medina, and I said, “O Messenger of Allah, I wish to pledge myself to you on the condition that my past sins be forgiven,” not mentioning what might come afterward.
He said to me, “O ‘Amr, give the pledge, for Islam erases whatever came before it (1).”
Ibn Lahi‘ah reported, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Suwayd ibn Qays (2), from Qays ibn Sumayy (3):
That ‘Amr ibn al-‘As said, “O Messenger of Allah, I pledge allegiance to you on the condition that I be forgiven…"
(1) All of the transmitters are reliable except Rashid, the client (mawla) of Habib; no one other than Ibn Hibban declared him trustworthy. A version with the same meaning is transmitted by Ibn Hisham, al-Sira, 2/276-277, through the isnad of Ibn Ishaq; by Ahmad, al-Musnad, 4/198-199; and by Ibn ʿAsakir, Tarikh, 13/249 A. Al-Waqidi also records it in al-Maghazi, 2/741-745, through ʿAbd al-Hamid b. Jaʿfar from his father, in a wording longer than Ibn Ishaq’s. Muslim relates a parallel account in his Sahih (no. 121), Book of Faith, chapter “Islam cancels what precedes it,” via Ibn Shamasah al-Mahri: “We were with ʿAmr b. al-ʿAs as he lay dying. He wept for a long time and turned his face to the wall… When God placed Islam in my heart I came to the Prophet and said, ‘Extend your right hand that I may pledge allegiance.’ He extended it, but I drew back my own hand. He asked, ‘What is the matter, O ʿAmr?’ I said, ‘I wish to stipulate a condition.’ He said, ‘What condition?’ I replied, ‘That I be forgiven.’ He said, ‘Do you not know that Islam wipes out what came before it, that hijra wipes out what came before it, and that hajj wipes out what came before it…’”
(2) In the printed text the name is mistakenly given as “Nasr.”
(3) Qays b. Sami—both the base manuscript and Ahmad’s Musnad read “Shafi,” a scribal error. Al-Husaini writes: “Qays b. Sami b. al-Azhar al-Tujibi witnessed the conquest of Egypt, narrated from ʿAmr b. al-ʿAs, and was in turn narrated from by Suwayd b. Qays; he is not well-known.” Ibn Hajar, in Taʿjil al-Manfaʿa, corrects him: Abu Saʿid b. Yunus did identify the man and traced his lineage back to Saʿd b. Tujib, adding that he was the grandfather of Haywa b. al-Rawwaj b. ʿAbd…