A glimpse of the accounts concerning Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt al-Thaqafī (1) [He was a poet of the pre-Islamic era who lived into the age of Islam].

(2) Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (3) said: He is Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Rabīʿah ibn ʿAwf ibn ʿUqda (4) ibn Ghiyrah ibn ʿAwf ibn Thaqīf, known as Abū ʿUthmān, though some call him Abū al-Ḥakam al-Thaqafī. He was a pre-Islamic poet who came to Damascus before Islam. It is also said (5) that he was upright and that he initially embraced faith but later deviated from it, and that he is the one to whom the Most High refers (6) in His words:
“Recite to them the story of the one to whom We gave Our signs, yet he cast them off; so Satan pursued him, and he became one of those who strayed” (al-Aʿrāf 7:175).

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār said: Ruqayyah bint ʿAbd Shams ibn ʿAbd Manāf bore the poet Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt. The name of Abū al-Ṣalt was Rabīʿah ibn Wahb ibn ʿIlāj ibn Abī Salamah ibn Thaqīf. Others have stated that his father was among the celebrated poets of al-Ṭāʾif (7), and that Umayyah was the most gifted of them all.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq reported: Al-Thawrī said, “Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit informed me that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr said, regarding the verse, ‘Recite to them the story of the one to whom We gave Our signs…,’ that it refers to Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt.” The same report was transmitted by Abū Bakr ibn Mardawayh (8) from Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī, from Muʿādh ibn al-Muthannā, from Musaddad, from Abū ʿAwanah, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, from Nāfiʿ ibn ʿĀṣim ibn Masʿūd.

He said: “I was sitting in a study circle (9) in which ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr was present. A man from the gathering recited the verse in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, ‘Recite to them the story of the one to whom We gave Our signs…,’ and asked, ‘Do you know who this is?’ Some answered, ‘It is Ṣayfī ibn al-Rāhib.’ Another said, ‘Rather, it is Balʿam, a man from the Children of Israel.’ He replied, ‘No!’ He was then asked (10), ‘So who is it?’ He said, ‘It is Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt.’”