that even the kings of the Byzantines (1) now fear him for their very rule.

Ibn Isḥāq (2) said: al-Zuhrī related to me that a Christian bishop who had lived in those days told him:

“Dihyah ibn Khalīfah came to Heraclius with a letter from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in which it was written:

‘In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, to Heraclius, the ruler of Byzantium.

Peace be upon those who follow the guidance.

To proceed:
Embrace Islam and you will be safe; accept Islam and Allah will grant you your reward twice over. But if you refuse, then upon you rests the sin of the peasants (3).’

When Heraclius received the letter and had read it, he placed it between his thigh and his side. He then wrote to a man from Rome who could read some Hebrew, informing him of the message that had come from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The man wrote back: ‘He is indeed the awaited Prophet—there is no doubt about it—so follow him.’

Heraclius therefore summoned the grandees of Byzantium, gathering them in a hall (4) of his palace. He ordered that the doors be locked upon them, then looked down on them from an upper chamber, fearful of their reaction, and said:

‘O people of Byzantium! A letter has reached me from Aḥmad. By Allah, he is the Prophet we have been expecting; we find mention of him in our Scripture and recognize him by his signs and by the appointed time. Accept Islam and follow him, and both your worldly life and your Hereafter will be secure.’

They roared as one man and rushed to the doors of the hall but found them shut against them. Heraclius became afraid of them and said, ‘Bring them back to me.’ They were brought back, whereupon he said:

‘O people of Byzantium, I only spoke those words to test you, to see how firm you are in your religion; I have now seen from you what pleases me.’

They prostrated before him, after which the doors of the hall were opened and they departed.

Al-Bukhārī has also narrated the story of Abū Sufyān’s meeting with Heraclius with further details. We wish to quote it here with its chain of transmission and exact wording from the Ṣaḥīḥ, so that the points of divergence between the two accounts and the benefits to be drawn from them may be known.

Al-Bukhārī, at the beginning of the Book of Faith in his Ṣaḥīḥ (5), said: ‘Abū al-Yamān, al-Ḥakam ibn Nāfiʿ, related to us; Shuʿayb related from al-Zuhrī, who informed me—ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah ibn Masʿūd—that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās informed him that Abū Sufyān informed him that Heraclius had summoned him while he was with a caravan of Quraysh. They were merchants in Syria during the period when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had concluded a truce with Abū Sufyān and the idolaters of Quraysh. They came to him while he was in Aelia (6); he admitted them into his court with the dignitaries of Byzantium around him, and then he called them