Allah and His Messenger?’ He was asking for sworn testimony, yet Abu Qatadah still would not vouch for him, even though he knew that Kaʿb loved Allah and His Messenger; so Kaʿb’s eyes filled with tears.

He then climbed back over the orchard wall—meaning that he headed toward the marketplace—and while he was walking, a nabati man from the people of Syria appeared. (A nabati is someone who is neither fully Arab nor fully non-Arab; they were called that because they roamed the deserts tapping the earth for water.) The man was calling out, ‘Who can direct me to Kaʿb ibn Mālik?’

Look at how the people of evil seize their opportunities!

When he said, ‘Who will lead me to Kaʿb ibn Mālik?’ I replied, ‘I am he,’ so he handed me a letter. I was one of the few who could read and write in those days.

I read the letter, and it said: ‘To proceed: news has reached us that your companion has abandoned you’—meaning the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. The sender was the disbelieving Ghassanid king—‘and you are not living in a land of humiliation or loss. Come to us; we shall console you with our wealth, and perhaps even share our rule with you.’

Yet the man was a believer in Allah the Exalted and in His Messenger, and a lover of Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.

He said, ‘This is another part of the trial,’ meaning another test. Rebuffed, with no one speaking to him, deserted and cast aside even by those closest to him—had there been the least weakness of faith in his heart, he would have pounced on the king’s invitation and gone to him. Instead, his faith was firm and unshakable.