His speech is honey-sweet while he is present,
yet in your absence it strikes at the hollow of the throat.
His outward manner pleases you, but beneath the skin
lurks spiteful back-biting that hacks at the spine.
His eyes betray what he hides of rancour and hatred
whenever they cast a sidelong, baleful glance.
So shelter me with goodness—long have you whittled me—
for the finest ally is the one who feathers the shaft and does not shave it away.
The narrator continued: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard of Suwayd, he sought him out and called him to Allah and to Islam. Suwayd replied, “Perhaps what you possess is like what I possess.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked, “And what is it that you have?” He answered, “The Scroll of Luqmān,” meaning the wisdom of Luqmān. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Let me hear it.” Suwayd recited it, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ remarked, “Fine words indeed, yet what I have is better: a Qur’an that Allah has revealed to me, a guidance and a light.” He then recited the Qur’an to Suwayd and invited him to embrace Islam. Suwayd did not reject it; he said, “These are noble words.” He then departed, returned to Madinah, and before long was killed by the Khazraj. Men of his own clan used to say, “We think he was slain as a Muslim.” His death occurred before the battle of Buʿāth.
Al-Bayhaqī relates this report through al-Ḥākim, al-Aṣamm, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Yūnus ibn Bukayr, and Ibn Isḥāq in a shorter form.
The Conversion of Iyās ibn Muʿādh
Ibn Isḥāq said: Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr ibn Saʿd ibn Muʿādh related to me from Maḥmūd ibn Labīd:
When Abū al-Ḥaysar Anas ibn Rāfiʿ came to Mecca accompanied by some young men of the Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal—including Iyās ibn Muʿādh—seeking an alliance with Quraysh against their Khazraj kinsmen, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard of them. He went to them, sat down, and said, “Shall I offer you something better than that for which you have come?”
They asked, “And what is that?”
He replied, “I am the Messenger of Allah to His servants. I call them to worship Allah alone without associating anything with Him, and He has revealed a Book to me.” He then explained Islam to them and recited the Qur’an.
Iyās ibn Muʿādh—still a youth—said, “My people, by Allah, this is far better than what you have come for!” At this, Abū al-Ḥaysar Anas ibn