“Something?”
I replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. I have brought you a great deal of fine leather.”
I placed it before him; he admired it and found it to his liking. Then I said, “O King, I have just seen a man leave your presence. He is the envoy of a man who is our enemy. Hand him over to me so that I may kill him, for he has put to death some of our nobles and the best among us.”
The Negus became enraged. He stretched out his hand and struck my nose such a blow that I thought he had broken it; had the earth opened up, I would have slipped into it out of fear of him. I hastened to say, “By God, O King, had I known you would resent this, I would never have asked it of you.”
He said, “Do you ask me to give you the messenger of a man to whom the Supreme Namūs—Gabriel, who used to come to Moses—comes, so that you may kill him?!”
I asked, “Is he truly like that, O King?”
He replied, “Woe to you, ʿAmr! Obey me and follow him. By God, he is upon the truth, and he will most surely triumph over those who oppose him, just as Moses son of ʿImrān triumphed over Pharaoh and his hosts.”
I said, “Will you pledge allegiance with me to him upon Islam?”
He said, “Yes.” He extended his hand, and I pledged my allegiance to him upon Islam. I then returned to my companions; my opinion had completely changed, yet I concealed my Islam from them. After that I set out for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ intending to submit to him.
I met Khālid ibn al-Walīd just before the Conquest, as he was coming from Mecca. I said, “Where are you bound, Abū Sulaymān?”
He answered, “By Allah, the path is now plain, and the man is truly a Prophet. By Allah, I am going to accept Islam—how much longer shall I delay?”
I said, “By Allah, I have come for no other purpose than to embrace Islam.”
We reached Madinah and went straight to the Prophet ﷺ. Khālid ibn al-Walīd went in first, accepted Islam, and pledged allegiance. I then approached and said, “O Messenger of Allah, I pledge allegiance to you on the condition that my past sins be forgiven; as for what comes afterward, I will not mention it.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “O ʿAmr, pledge, for Islam wipes away whatever came before it, and the Hijrah wipes away whatever came before it.”
So I pledged allegiance to him and then withdrew.
Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: Someone whose reliability I do not doubt related to me that ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah was with them and accepted Islam when they did. ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubaʿrā al-Sahmī (2) then recited:
—from the ṭawīl metre—
I remind ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah of our pact,
of the one who once set the people’s sandals down at al-Muqabbal;
And of every alliance our fathers ever forged—
Khālid was never one to break such bonds.
Do you seek the key to a House other than your own,
when glory is sought only in a house of ancient renown?
So trust not Khālid after this, nor ʿUthmān;
for both have brought a grave and murky affair.
I say: Their embrace of Islam came after al-Ḥudaybiyyah, for Khālid ibn al-Walīd was on that day among the cavalry of the idolaters, as will be detailed later. Mentioning their conversion at that later point would be more fitting, yet we have followed the arrangement of Imām Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq—may Allah have mercy on him—because ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ first travelled to the Negus after the Battle of the Trench, apparently during the remainder of the fifth year AH. Allah knows best.