Amr ibn al-As

One of the most politically astute figures of the early Islamic period. He eventually accepted Islam, probably around 8 AH before the Conquest of Mecca, and became one of the greatest Muslim commanders: conqueror of Egypt, and Muʿāwiyah's chief advisor and strategist. A companion of the Prophet (SAW); we say nothing of him but good.

In the Meccan period before his Islam, ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ was a cunning Qurashī politician whom the tribe trusted precisely for his shrewdness. Quraysh sent him, along with a companion (scholars differ: some say ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Rabīʿah, others say ʿUmārah ibn al-Walīd), on a diplomatic mission to Abyssinia to convince the Najāshī (Aṣḥamah) to extradite the Muslim emigrants.

Strategy in Abyssinia: he arrived with generous gifts of Meccan camel leather, the most prized export of Mecca, and bribed every minister (wazīr) before meeting the Najāshī. His opening petition: the Muslims were renegades who had abandoned both the Meccan religion and the Abyssinian religion and invented a new cult; their own leaders wanted them returned. When this failed after Jaʿfar's speech and the recitation of Sūrat Maryam, ʿAmr attempted a second angle the next day: accuse the Muslims of blasphemy against Jesus Christ.

The Najāshī heard Jaʿfar's answer, Jesus is ʿAbd Allāh, Rasūl Allāh, Rūḥ Allāh, born of the Virgin Maryam, and was satisfied. He returned all gifts, including those already distributed to the ministers. ʿAmr and his companion left in humiliation. His companion had counseled dropping the case after day one; ʿAmr refused.

The Speaker notes that ʿAmr's blood of a politician served Islam well after his conversion, he is the kind of example that shows Allāh can help this religion from whoever He wills.

Among the last of the Qurashī elite to embrace Islam, shortly before the Conquest of Makkah, ʿAmr later described his own reverence for the Prophet ﷺ in terms that echo ʿUrwah ibn Masʿūd's outsider account from al-Ḥudaybiyyah: he said there was nothing more beloved to him than to gaze at the Prophet ﷺ, yet he was never able to describe his physical features in detail, since awe (haybah) would not let him raise his eyes to look directly at his face.