Thumamah ibn Uthal

Thumāmah ibn Uthāl was the chieftain of Banū Ḥanīfah, one of the largest tribes of Arabia, based in central Najd around al-Yamāmah, a figure of standing comparable to a senior Qurashī chieftain. Before his conversion, he openly supported the pagans against the Muslims and had publicly threatened to kill the Prophet ﷺ, prompting the Prophet ﷺ to make du'ā' asking Allah to place Thumāmah under his power. In 6 AH, while traveling unguarded toward Makkah to perform ʿUmrah, Thumāmah was captured, unrecognized, by a small Muslim expedition returning from a campaign against Banū Bakr ibn Kilāb, and brought to Madinah as a prisoner without the Companions realizing who he was.

Recognizing him immediately, the Prophet ﷺ ordered him treated with dignity, kept in the mosque, and sent him food from his own table. For three days, Thumāmah refused the Prophet's ﷺ repeated invitation to Islam, but after witnessing the daily life, prayer, and teaching of the mosque firsthand, he was released unconditionally on the third day and returned soon after having bathed to formally embrace Islam. He became the first Muslim to enter Makkah reciting the proper Islamic talbiyah, stripped of the polytheistic additions Quraysh had attached to it, and when Quraysh nearly killed him for openly professing Islam in their city, he retaliated by cutting off all grain shipments from his territory to Makkah, causing genuine famine there until the Prophet ﷺ instructed him to lift the embargo at Abū Sufyān's request.

After the Prophet's ﷺ death, when Musaylimah al-Kadhdhāb, also of Banū Ḥanīfah, declared false prophethood during the Riddah, Thumāmah fought on the side of the Muslims against his own tribesmen who had followed Musaylimah, a clear proof of the sincerity of his conversion. He is reported to have died a martyr's death in the aftermath of these conflicts.