if you want wealth, then ask and you shall be given whatever you desire.’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Release him.’ Thumāmah went to a grove of date-palms near the mosque, performed a full ablution, then entered the mosque and declared, ‘I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. O Muhammad, by Allah, there was no face on earth more hateful to me than yours, yet now your face is the most beloved of all faces to me. By Allah, no religion was more detested by me than your religion, yet now your religion is the dearest of all religions to me. By Allah, no land was more loathsome to me than your land, yet now your land is the most beloved of all lands to me. Your cavalry captured me while I was on my way to perform ʿumrah—what do you advise?’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave him glad tidings and instructed him to perform ʿumrah. When he reached Mecca, someone said to him, ‘Have you abandoned your former faith, O Thumāmah?’ He replied, ‘No; rather, I have embraced Islam. By Allah, not a single grain will reach you from al-Yamāmah until the Messenger of Allah ﷺ permits it.’

Agreed upon. Muslim also narrated it through ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar from al-Maqburī with this chain.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, however, relates a different version in the report transmitted by Yūnus ibn Bukayr from him: Saʿīd al-Maqburī told me, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah, that Thumāmah ibn Uthāl’s conversion occurred after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ invoked Allah against him when, while still a polytheist, he had set out to kill the Prophet. Thumāmah then travelled for ʿumrah; on entering Madinah he became disoriented, was captured, brought before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and was ordered to be tied to a pillar of the mosque. That narration also contains the phrase, ‘And if you ask for wealth you will be given it.’

Abū Hurayrah said, ‘We, the poor folk, began saying, “What would we gain from Thumāmah’s blood? By Allah …”’