and he would engage in trade, and—according to what is related—he was a believer noted for his charity. Each evening he gathered whatever profit he had earned, divided it into two equal parts, fed his family with one half, and gave the other away in alms. In the very city where he lived—Antioch—there reigned a tyrant, a pharaoh among the pharaohs, whose name was Antakhus ibn Antankhas. He worshipped idols and was immersed in polytheism.

So Allah sent to him a band of messengers, three in all: Sadiq, Saduq, and Shalum. Allah first dispatched two of them to him and to the townspeople, but they rejected them; then He reinforced them with the third.

Al-Rabiʿ ibn Anas narrated from Abu al-ʿĀliyah concerning the Almighty’s words:
“Set forth for them the parable of the people of the town, when the messengers came to it—when We sent to them two messengers but they rejected them, so We strengthened them with a third” (Yā Sīn 36:13–14),
in order that the proof against them be even more decisive. The messengers went to the townsfolk, calling them to Allah alone and to worship Him without partner, but the people denied them. They then came upon a man on the outskirts of the town, tending his field, and the man asked them, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are envoys of the Lord of all worlds.”