“O Rabāḥ, O Rabāḥ!” We took the man’s cry as a good omen and were pleased. He then looked toward us and I heard him say, “After these two, Mecca has yielded the reins.” I assumed he was speaking of me and of Khālid ibn al-Walīd. He turned and hurried off to the mosque, and I thought he had gone to inform the Messenger of Allah ﷺ of our arrival—and so it was.

We dismounted at al-Ḥarrah and put on our finest clothes. When the call for the ʿAṣr prayer was given we set out, and when we reached the Prophet his face was radiant; the Muslims around him were rejoicing at our acceptance of Islam. Khālid ibn al-Walīd stepped forward and pledged allegiance, then ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah did the same. I advanced next, and—by Allah—no sooner had I sat before him than shyness prevented me from lifting my eyes to him.

I pledged allegiance on the condition that Allah forgive my past sins; the future ones did not occur to me. He said, “Islam wipes out whatever preceded it, and the Hijrah wipes out whatever preceded it.”

By Allah, from the day we embraced Islam the Messenger of Allah ﷺ never preferred anyone over me and Khālid ibn al-Walīd whenever a serious matter arose. We held the same standing with Abū Bakr, and with ʿUmar I maintained that position, though ʿUmar was often reproachful of Khālid.

ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar, al-Wāqidī’s teacher,(1) said: I related this report to Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, who told me, “Rāshid, the freedman of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Aws al-Thaqafī, narrated from his master Ḥabīb—on the authority of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ—something to the same effect.”

I added, “Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq(2) likewise transmits it from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Rāshid, from his master Ḥabīb, who said, ‘ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ related it to me in person.’ He placed the event in the fifth year AH, after the killing of Abū Rāfiʿ, though al-Wāqidī’s wording is fuller and clearer.”

Al-Wāqidī, citing his teacher ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, further said: I asked Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb whether he had specified the date of ʿAmr’s and Khālid’s arrival. He replied, “No, except that he said it was before the Conquest.” I remarked, “My father told me that ʿAmr, Khālid, and ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah arrived at the new moon of Ṣafar in the eighth year AH.”

Later, in the section on ʿAmr’s death, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim(3) will furnish corroboration for the story of his conversion, describe the excellence of his companionship with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during the Prophet’s lifetime, and relate how he died regretting certain actions he had taken while in authority after the Prophet—glorified and exalted is He—and it will detail the manner of his death—may Allah have mercy on him.