That afternoon he said,
“In which part of Allah’s earth is Shakar?”
The two men from Jurash rose and replied, “O Messenger of Allah, in our land there is a mountain called Kashar—that is the name the people of Jurash give it.”
He said, “It is not Kashar; it is Shakar.”
They asked, “And what is happening there, O Messenger of Allah?”
He answered, “Allah’s sacrificial camels are being slaughtered there at this very moment.”
The two envoys then sat with Abū Bakr—or, according to another report, with ʿUthmān. He said to them, “Woe to you both! The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has just announced the calamity that has struck your people. Go back to him and ask him to pray to Allah to lift it from them.” They went to the Prophet and made that request, whereupon he said,
“O Allah, remove it from them.”
When they returned, they found that their people had indeed been struck on the very day the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had mentioned. Later the delegation of Jurash arrived with those who survived, appeared before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, embraced Islam, and their Islam was sound. He assigned them a protected pasture around their village.
The Arrival of the Envoy from the Kings of Ḥimyar to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ
Al-Wāqidī reports that this occurred in Ramadan of the ninth year AH.
Ibn Isḥāq relates: A letter from the kings of Ḥimyar and their envoys announcing their Islam reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as he was returning from Tabūk. They were al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd Kallāl, Nuʿaym ibn ʿAbd Kallāl, and al-Nuʿmān, the qayl (chieftain) of Dhū Ruʿayn, Maʿāfir, and Hamdān. Zurʿah Dhū Yazan Mālik ibn Murrah al-Rahāwī also dispatched a message declaring their acceptance of Islam and their abandonment of idolatry and its people. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ wrote back to them:
“In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.
From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, the Prophet, to al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd Kallāl, Nuʿaym ibn ʿAbd Kallāl, al-Nuʿmān the qayl of Dhū Ruʿayn, Maʿāfir, and Hamdān.
To proceed: I praise Allah to you—there is no deity but He. Your envoy met us in Madinah on our return from the lands of Byzantium. He delivered the message you sent, informed us of your situation, and told us of your acceptance of Islam and your slaying of the idolaters. Allah has guided you by His guidance so long as you set matters aright, obey Allah and His Messenger, establish the prayer, pay the zakāh, and allocate from the spoils of war the one-fifth that is Allah’s due, together with the share of the Prophet ﷺ and his chosen portion.
As for the charity prescribed upon the believers: on cultivated land, one-tenth of what is watered by springs or rainfall; and on land irrigated by the animal-driven water-wheel, one-half …"