and you even sat in his gatherings until you abandoned your own religion and accepted as true everything he said! We know of no delegation more foolish than you”—or so they said.

The Christians replied, “Peace be upon you. We will not dispute with you. We have our way and you have yours. We have done nothing but seek what we thought best for ourselves.”

It is said that this group (1) of Christians came from Najrān. It is also said that the following verses were revealed about them: “Those to whom We gave the Scripture before it, they believe in it. And when it is recited to them they say, ‘We believe in it; surely it is the truth from our Lord’… ‘Peace be upon you; we seek not the ignorant’” (Al-Qasas 52–55).

Al-Zuhrī said: “I have continually heard our scholars say that these verses were revealed concerning the Negus and his companions.”

Ibn Isḥāq (2) reported: A delegation of the Christians of Najrān came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Madinah. Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr related to me: When the Najrān delegation arrived before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, they entered his mosque after the ʿAṣr prayer. The time for their own prayer coincided, so they stood and performed it in his mosque. Some of the people wished to stop them, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Leave them.” They therefore faced east and performed their prayer. They were sixty in number, of whom twenty-four (3) were nobles. Among these were three men to whom all their affairs reverted: “al-ʿĀqib,” the leader of the people, the man of counsel whose opinion they followed and who would not