The Conversion of Adi ibn Hatim

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, chief of Ṭayy and son of Ḥātim al-Ṭāʾī, the legend of Arab generosity, was a Christian tied to the Romans, and fled north when ʿAlī came against his tribe, abandoning even his sister. She was taken captive, and the Prophet ﷺ freed and gifted her for her father's sake; she went to ʿAdī and urged him, "He is either a prophet or a king, either way, go." Though no one was more hateful to him, ʿAdī reasoned it could not harm him to hear the man out, and came to Medina.

❧The Dialogue

The Prophet ﷺ said, أَسْلِمْ تَسْلَم, "accept Islam and you will be safe." ʿAdī answered that he already had a religion. Thrice, and thrice the same, until the Prophet ﷺ said, أَنَا أَعْلَمُ بِدِينِكَ مِنْكَ, "I know your religion better than you", and proved it: "Are you not chief of your people? Do you not take a quarter of their wealth? And does your own religion not forbid you that?" ʿAdī was ashamed, and knew this was a prophet. Taking him home, the Prophet ﷺ paused on the road until an old woman with a child had her need met, "this is no king," thought ʿAdī, and at his house laid out his one worn mat for ʿAdī and sat himself on the ground. He led ʿAdī to affirm there is no god but Allāh and none greater than Him, then said, "Truly the Jews have earned wrath and the Christians have gone astray."

❧Three Prophecies

Reading that ʿAdī was held back by the Muslims' poverty and weakness beside Rome, the Prophet ﷺ told him three things would come to pass: a lone woman would travel from al-Ḥīra to circle the Kaʿbah fearing nothing; the treasures of Kisrā son of Hurmuz would be shared among them; and wealth would so overflow that a man would seek someone to take his charity and find none. ʿAdī accepted Islam, lived past a hundred and twenty, and said, "I have seen two, the safe traveller and the treasures of Kisrā, which I helped conquer at al-Madāʾin, and by Allāh the third will surely come."

❧Its Lessons

His character opened the heart before a word of theology, yet the Prophet ﷺ did dispute the other faiths plainly, for one truth is shown by refuting error, and honest debate cannot dodge that hard point. And he met ʿAdī's real objection, Islam's worldly weakness, head-on, a lesson for our age when many grant Islam's logic yet recoil at the state of the Muslims; there is no shame in answering that with our true history. (Later, asked whether his endlessly generous father would be rewarded, the Prophet ﷺ said, "Your father desired something and attained it", fame, for the Hereafter is for those who seek it: تِلْكَ الدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ نَجْعَلُهَا لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُرِيدُونَ عُلُوًّا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فَسَادًا, 28:83.)