“Praise be to Allah, who has delivered you into our hands without any covenant or agreement.” Then he hurried toward the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, so I spurred the mule and outstripped him by the margin by which a slow animal outstrips a slow man. I leapt down from the mule and went in to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; Umar also came in and said, “O Messenger of Allah, this is Abu Sufyan, the enemy of Allah. Allah has delivered him into our hands without any covenant or agreement, so let me strike off his head.”

I said, “O Messenger of Allah, I have granted him protection.” Then I sat beside the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, took hold of Abu Sufyan’s head, and said, “By Allah, no one but I shall speak privately with him tonight.” When Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, continued to press the matter, I said, “Take it easy, Umar. By Allah, the only reason you are doing this is that he is a man of Banu Abd Manaf. Had he been from Banu Adi ibn Kab, you would not have said this.”

He said, “Take it easy, Abbas. By Allah, your acceptance of Islam on the day you embraced it was dearer to me than the acceptance of Islam by al-Khattab, had he accepted Islam. This is because I knew that your acceptance of Islam was dearer to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, than al-Khattab’s acceptance of Islam would have been, had he accepted Islam.” (1)

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Take him, Abbas, to your lodgings, and bring him to me in the morning.” Abbas said: “So I took him to my lodgings, and he spent the night with me. When morning came, I brought him early to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. When he saw him, he said, ‘Woe to you, Abu Sufyan! Has the time not come (2) for you to know that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah?’”

He said, “May my father and mother be your ransom! How forbearing, noble, and mindful of kinship you are! By Allah, I have come to think that if there had been another god besides Allah, he would surely have availed me something by now.”

He said, “Woe to you, Abu Sufyan! Has the time not come for you to know that I am the Messenger of Allah?”

He said, “May my father and mother be your ransom! How forbearing, noble, and mindful of kinship you are! As for this matter, there is still something in my heart concerning it, even now.” (3)

Al-Abbas said: “I said to him, ‘Woe to you! Accept Islam and testify that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, before your head is struck off.’ So he bore the true testimony and accepted Islam.”

Al-Abbas said: “I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, Abu Sufyan is a man who loves distinction, so grant him something.’ He said, ‘Yes. Whoever enters Abu Sufyan’s house is safe; whoever closes his door upon himself is safe; and whoever enters the mosque is safe.’ When he was about to depart, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Abbas, hold him at the narrow pass of the valley, by the mountain’s spur, (4) until Allah’s forces pass before him, so that he may see them.’”

He said: “So I went out with him and held him where the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had instructed me. The tribes then passed by him beneath their banners. Whenever a tribe passed, he would ask, ‘Who are these, Abbas?’ I would say, ‘Sulaym.’ He would reply, ‘What have I to do with Sulaym?’ Then another tribe would pass, and he would ask, ‘Who are these?’ I would say, ‘Muzaynah.’ He would reply, ‘What have I to do with Muzaynah?’ The tribes continued to pass, and not one tribe went by without his asking me about it. When I told him, he would say, ‘What have I to do with the sons of so-and-so?’ Until the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, passed by with the Green Squadron—the Messenger of Allah’s battalion—in which were the Emigrants and the Helpers. Nothing of them could be seen but their eyes amid the iron. He said, ‘Glory be to Allah! Who are these, Abbas?’ I said, ‘This is the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with the Emigrants and the Helpers.’