“By Allah, you have indeed invoked harm upon a commissioned Prophet!”

Bishr replied, “Then, by Allah, I shall not loosen a single strap of this camel until I reach the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” He turned his camel’s head toward Madinah, whereupon the bishop wheeled his own mount after him and said, “Listen to me. I only said what I did so that the Arabs would hear it, lest they suppose that we have seized his right, or were content to champion him, or have capitulated to this man in a way the other Arabs have not—when we are the most honored among them and the most united in our land.”

Bishr answered, “Never, by Allah, will I accept what has come from your mouth.” He struck his camel, turning his back on the bishop, and chanted in rajaz:

Toward you she dashes, her girths all astray;
A fetus lies crosswise within her belly;
Her creed no longer the creed of the Christians.

He rode until he reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, embraced Islam, and remained with him until he was later killed.

The narrator adds: When the delegation entered Najrān they went to the monk Liyth ibn Abī Shamir al-Zubaydī, who was atop his hermitage. They told him that a Prophet had been sent in Tihāmah, recounted all that had happened with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—that he had invited them to mutual imprecation but they refused—and informed him that Bishr ibn Muʿāwiyah had gone over to him and become Muslim. The monk said, “Bring me down, or I will throw myself from this tower!” They brought him down, and he set off to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with a gift that included the cloak later worn by the caliphs, a wooden bowl, and a staff. He stayed for a time with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, listening to the revelation, then returned to his people. Islam, however, was not decreed for him; he promised he would come back, but that was not destined before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away.

The bishop Abū al-Ḥārith likewise came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, accompanied by al-Sayyid, al-ʿĀqib, and the notables of his people. They stayed with him, listening to what Allah was revealing, and the Prophet wrote for the bishop—and later for the bishops of Najrān—the following document:

“In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. From Muḥammad the Prophet to the bishop Abū al-Ḥārith and to all the bishops of Najrān, their priests and their monks, and to everything, great or small, that is under their authority: they are under the protection of Allah and His Messenger. No bishop shall be removed from his bishopric, no monk from his monastic vocation, and no priest from…”