O Messenger of Allah, he was a scion of the Arab tribes who lived six hundred years. Five full lifetimes of that span he spent roaming the deserts and wastelands, raising his voice in glorification after the manner of the Messiah. No place could keep him, no house contain him, and no neighbor enjoyed his company. He wore coarse hides, outstripped the wandering ascetics, and never slackened in his monastic devotion. On his journeys he sipped ostrich eggs, found companionship among creeping creatures, and took pleasure in the darkness. He would observe and take heed, ponder and test, until he became a unique figure whose wisdom became proverbial and by whose counsel terrors were dispelled.

He met Simon, chief of the disciples, and was the first Arab to recognize the Divine, affirm God’s oneness, worship, and believe with certainty in the resurrection and the reckoning. He warned of a wretched end, urged deeds before the chance was lost, preached the inevitability of death, submitted to the decree—whether displeasing or pleasing—visited graves, remembered the Resurrection, exhorted through verse, contemplated fate, spoke of the heavens and of sustenance. He discussed the stars, discovered water, described the seas, identified ancient ruins; he preached while mounted, exhorted tirelessly, cautioned against calamity and violent anger. He dispatched letters, addressed every dread, thundered in his sermons, clarified in his writings, warned of the vicissitudes of time, and cautioned the powerful. He magnified the divine command, steered people away from disbelief, kindled their longing for primordial monotheism, and called them to the worship of the One God.

It was he who proclaimed at the market of ʿUkāẓ:

East and West, orphan and clan,
peace and war, dry and moist,
salt and sweet, suns and moons,
winds and rains, night and day,
females and males, lands and seas,
grain and vegetation, fathers and mothers,
assemblies and dispersions—
signs followed by yet more signs—
light and darkness, evil and annihilation,
Lord and idols: truly mankind has gone astray.
A newborn is cradled, another is buried alive;
one youth is nurtured only to be reaped.
Poor and rich, benefactor and offender—
woe to the masters of heedlessness!
Let the worker mend his work,
let the hopeful abandon hollow hope.
No indeed! He is one God—
neither begotten nor begetting—
Who repeats and originates,
causes death and gives life,
creates the male and the female,
Lord of the Last and the First.

Now then: O people of Iyād! Where are Thamūd and ʿĀd? Where are the fathers and grandfathers? Where is the sick man and those who once visited him? Each has a time to return. Quss swears by the Lord of all servants and the One who spread out the earth: you shall surely be resurrected, each one of you alone