In sum, the engagement with the Turks occurred at the very end of the age of the Companions. They fought the Great Khan,(1) routing him decisively—a victory whose details we shall recount in their proper place once we reach it, by Allah’s might, His power, and His gracious enabling.(2)

The Report of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām

Imām Aḥmad said:
‘Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf al-Azraq narrated to us; Ibn ʿAwn narrated to us, from Muḥammad—meaning Ibn Sīrīn—from Qays ibn ʿUbbād, who said:

“I was in the mosque when a man entered whose face bore the mark of humility. He performed two brief rakʿahs, after which the people remarked, ‘This man is one of the people of Paradise.’ When he left, I followed him until he entered his house; I went in with him and spoke to him. Once we had become acquainted, I said, ‘When you came into the mosque, the people said such-and-such.’

He replied, ‘Glory be to Allah! By Allah, it is not fitting for anyone to say what he does not know. Let me tell you: I saw a dream during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and related it to him. I seemed to be in a lush garden’—Ibn ʿAwn added: he described its intense greenness and its vastness—‘and in its centre stood an iron post whose base was in the earth and whose top reached the sky; at its upper end was a ring.

It was said to me, “Climb it.”

I replied, “I cannot.”

Then a nasīf came’—Ibn ʿAwn explained: that is a servant—‘who lifted my garment from behind and said, “Climb it.” So I climbed until I grasped the ring.

He said, “Hold fast to the ring,” and I awoke while it was still in my hand.

I went to the Prophet ﷺ and told him my dream. He said, “The garden is the Garden of Islam; the post is the pillar of Islam; and the ring is the firmest handhold. You will remain upon Islam until you die.”’

He”—Qays—“said: That man was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām.”

Al-Bukhārī also recorded the ḥadīth through Ibn ʿAwn.(6)

Imām Aḥmad further narrated it(7) through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿĀṣim ibn Bahladah, from al-Musayyib ibn Rāfiʿ, from Kharshah ibn al-Ḥurr, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, in a longer version that includes the words:

“...until I came to a slippery mountain. He took my hand and hurled me upward, so that I found myself on its summit, unable to keep my footing or steady myself. There I saw an iron post whose top held a ring of gold. He took my hand and flung me until I seized the ring...” and he mentioned the remainder of the ḥadīth.