for them; and when you have finished, come to me so that I may set them in place with my own hand.”
Salman continued: So I dug the pits and my brothers assisted me. When we were done I went to inform him, and the Messenger of God ﷺ came out with me to the orchard. We would bring each young palm to him and the Messenger of God ﷺ would plant it with his own hand. When we had finished—by Him in whose hand is Salman’s soul, not a single sapling died—I had repaid the three hundred palms, though the monetary debt still remained.
Then some gold, the size of a hen’s egg, was brought to the Prophet ﷺ from one of the mines. He asked, “What has become of the Persian under contract?” I was summoned, and he said, “Take this, Salman, and pay off what you owe.” I replied, “O Messenger of God, how far will this go toward all that I owe?” He said, “Take it; God will discharge your debt with it.” I took it and, by Him in whose hand is Salman’s soul, I weighed out forty ounces for them, settling their entire claim from that single piece, and Salman became a free man. I then fought at the Battle of the Trench as a free man, and after that I did not miss a single expedition with the Messenger of God ﷺ.
Ibn Isḥāq said: Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb related to me, from a man of ʿAbd al-Qays, from Salman, that when I said, “How far will this go toward what I owe, O Messenger of God?” the Messenger ﷺ took the gold, rolled it on his tongue, and then said, “Take it, and pay them from it.” I took it and paid them their entire due—forty ounces.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq also said: ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah related to me—from someone I do not suspect—on the authority of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān, who said: I was informed that Salman told the Messenger of God ﷺ, when he recounted his story, that the monk of Ammūriyya had said to him, “Go to such-and-such a place in the Levant; there is a man between two thickets who comes out once each year from one thicket to the other. The sick gather before him; he does not pray for anyone without that person’s being cured. Ask him about the religion you seek, and he will inform you.”
Salman said: I traveled until I reached the place he had described and found the people assembled there with their sick. That night the man emerged, crossing from one thicket to the other, and the people crowded around him with their afflicted; he would not supplicate for anyone without his being healed. They pressed in on him and I could not reach him until he had almost entered the thicket—only his shoulder remained exposed. I seized hold of it.
He said, “Who is this?” and turned toward me.
I said, “May God have mercy on you! Tell me about al-ḥanīfiyyah, the religion of Abraham.”
He replied, “You are asking about something no one asks about today. The time has drawn near for a prophet to be sent with this religion, from the people of the Sanctuary. Go to him, and he will set you upon it.” Then he entered the thicket.
The Messenger of God ﷺ said to Salman, “If you have spoken the truth, O Salman, you met Jesus son of Mary.”
Thus the story appears in this narration, although one transmitter is unnamed—the shaykh from whom ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah heard; some say he was al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAmārah. The chain is also broken—indeed, muʿḍal—between ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and Salman, may God be pleased with him.