“Perhaps someone behind you might blame you for this?”
Shurahbīl answered, “Ask my two companions.” He did so, and they replied, “No one comes into the valley or leaves it except according to Shurahbīl’s counsel.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then withdrew and did not engage them in mutual imprecation. The next morning they returned, and he wrote for them the following document:
In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. This is what Muḥammad, the Prophet, the Messenger of Allah, grants to the people of Najrān. Though his judgment would normally encompass all of their gold, silver, and slaves, he has shown them favor and waived all of that, stipulating instead two thousand garments—one thousand to be delivered each Rajab and one thousand each Ṣafar—together with the remainder of the agreed conditions.
Witnesses: Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb, Ghaylān ibn ʿAmr, Mālik ibn ʿAwf of Banū Naṣr, al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis al-Ḥanẓalī, and al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah. The document was duly recorded.
Once they had received their letter, the delegation set out for Najrān. The bishop and the leading men of Najrān met them a day’s march from the city. With the bishop was his maternal brother—also his paternal cousin—Bishr ibn Muʿāwiyah, whose kunyah was Abū ʿAlqamah. The envoys handed the bishop the letter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. While he was reading it, Abū ʿAlqamah walking beside him, Bishr’s camel stumbled and he was thrown to the ground. Bishr cursed—though he never spoke of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with euphemism—and the bishop thereupon said to him:
(1) In the edition, “(ahad)” is an error.
(2) An addition not found in Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah.
(3) Afterwards, in Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘A disbeliever,’ or as he also said, ‘a successful denier,’ and then he withdrew ….”
(4) See Majmū‘at al-Wathā’iq al-Siyāsiyyah lil-‘Ahd al-Nabawī wa-al-Khilāfah al-Rāshidah, document no. 94, pp. 111–112.
(5) In the edition: “al-nabī al-ummī” (the unlettered Prophet).
(6) In al-Bayhaqī (5:389) and in Majmū‘at al-Wathā’iq: “Since he exercised authority over every sort of produce—yellow, white, and black, whether of inferior or superior quality.”
(7) In Majmū‘at al-Wathā’iq: “All of it is theirs ….”
(8) In Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah and Majmū‘at al-Wathā’iq: “For two thousand robes made of awāqī silk.”
(9) The remaining stipulations in Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah and Majmū‘at al-Wathā’iq are: “...and with each ḥillah (noble garment) an uqiyyah (ounce) of silver; any excess over the kharāj (land-tax) or shortfall in awāqī silk is settled by calculation. Whatever they expend on coats of mail, horses, mounts or equipment is to be accounted for by them. Najrān must provide for my messengers and their animals for up to twenty days, though they may not detain them for more than a month. They owe thirty coats of mail, thirty horses, and thirty camels when there is aggression in Yemen and raids occur, and any borrowed arms, horses, or mounts that are lost become a debt on my messengers until replaced. Najrān and its environs are under the protection of Allah and the pledge of Muhammad ﷺ concerning their persons, lives, lands, properties, absent and present, tribes, and commerce. They must not change their faith, rights, or denominations, nor remove a bishop from his bishopric, a monk from his monastic order, or a wāqi from his office. Everything under their care, whether small or great, belongs to them. They are exempt from jizya and pre-Islamic blood money, and their lands shall not be conscripted, taxed by tithe, nor overrun by an army. If any of them claims his right, arbitration is shared equally, with neither oppressor nor oppressed in Najrān. Whoever previously took usury is disowned by my pledge, and no one may be wrongfully seized by another. On this charter rests the response of Allah ﷻ and the pledge of Muhammad ﷺ forever, until Allah’s command comes, and they repented and restored what was due without being burdened by injustice.”
(10) An addition not found in Dalā’il al-Nubuwwah.
(11) In Majmū‘at al-Wathā’iq: “This document was written for them by ‘Abd Allāh ibn Abū Bakr.” See also al-Ya‘qūbī, Tārīkh al-Ya‘qūbī, vol. 2, p. 90 ff.