Abdullah ibn Salam and the First Hadith of Madinah

When the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Madinah, the entire city came out to greet him. People rushed through the streets and pushed toward the arrival route just to catch a glimpse of this man they had heard so much about, and who had been so long awaited.

Among those who rushed was ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām, a Jewish Rabbi, considered by many to be the greatest scholar of the Jewish community in Madinah. He was a man who had spent his life in the Torah, waiting for the prophet described within it. He describes what happened in the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad:

"Falammā tabayyanat wajhahu, ʿaraftu anna wajhahu laysa bi-wajhi kadhdhāb."

"When his face became clear to me, when I was close enough to see it clearly, I knew that this face was not the face of a liar."

Just by looking. Before a word was exchanged, before a single argument was made, ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām knew.

❧Firāsah: The Believer's Insight

This capacity, to recognize truthfulness in a face, to sense piety or deception without being told, is called Firāsah (فِرَاسَة) in Arabic: a form of spiritual perception or intuition. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Ittaqū firāsat al-muʾmin fa-inna firāsatahu ḥaqq", "Beware of the believer's insight, for it is true."

Allāh allows righteousness and piety to manifest in ways the human eye can perceive. And Allāh allows insincerity and evil to do the same. People of genuine faith can recognize other people of genuine faith.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām was a sincere man, a seeker of truth. When he saw the Prophet ﷺ, his own sincerity recognized the Prophet's sincerity. He knew.

❧The First Hadith of Madinah

Then ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām listened to the first words the Prophet ﷺ spoke publicly upon arriving in Madinah. This statement became the first ḥadīth formally narrated from Madinah, called the Ḥadīth al-Salām:

"Afshū al-salām, wa aṭʿimū al-ṭaʿām, wa ṣilū al-arḥām, wa ṣallū bi-l-layl wa al-nāsu niyām, tadkhulū al-jannata bi-salām."

"Spread the greeting of Salām. Feed the people. Maintain your family ties. Pray at night when people are sleeping. You will enter Paradise in peace."

Four commands. One promise.

❧The Four Commands:

1. Afshū al-salām, "Spread Salām everywhere." Not just among your friends, not just among people you know, not just among Muslims. Everywhere. The spread of peace as a social culture.

2. Wa aṭʿimū al-ṭaʿām, "Feed the people." Anyone in need of food, give it. The Prophet ﷺ was speaking to a community in which the Muhājirūn had arrived with nothing. Generosity with food was not abstract charity; it was survival. And it was also the creation of a culture in which no one goes hungry.

3. Wa ṣilū al-arḥām, "Maintain your family bonds." The root ṣilah means to connect, to join. Arḥām means wombs, the closest blood relations. This command is to actively maintain those relationships, not merely to tolerate them.

4. Wa ṣallū bi-l-layl wa al-nāsu niyām, "Pray at night when people are asleep." The night prayer, Tahajjud, done in the quiet hours when the world is asleep, is one of the highest acts of worship. It is a private transaction between the servant and Allāh.

The Promise: Tadkhulū al-jannata bi-salām, "You will enter Paradise in peace." The word salām appears twice, once in the command to spread it, and once in the promise of how you will enter the Garden. What you spread in this world is what you walk through in the next.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām accepted Islam. He went on to become one of the most respected of the Companions, and one of the small number whom the Prophet ﷺ explicitly stated would enter Paradise while still alive (aḥad al-ʿasharah al-mubashsharīn, actually he was separate from that specific list, but he was among those specifically promised Paradise by name).