Suhayb ar-Rumi: 'Your Trade Has Been Most Profitable'

Ṣuhayb ibn Sinān al-Rūmī رضي الله عنه was an Arab, from a tribe in Iraq, who had nothing Arab about him by the time he arrived in Makkah. When he was a young child, a Byzantine raiding party captured him. He grew up as a slave in Rome. He forgot Arabic entirely and spoke fluent Latin. He was Rūmī in everything but blood.

Eventually he made his way back toward the Arab world and was sold to ʿAbdullāh ibn Judʿān of Makkah, one of the more humane slave owners of the city. Ibn Judʿān recognized Ṣuhayb's intelligence and made him his business manager. A slave running a wealthy man's trade operations. Ṣuhayb excelled. He became the richest Mawlā in Makkah, there was no freed servant or client who had more wealth than him.

When Ibn Judʿān died, his will freed Ṣuhayb. And Ṣuhayb, now a free man with real wealth, found his way to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and accepted Islām among the earliest converts.

❧The Hijra and everything he owned

When Ṣuhayb decided to make the Hijra to Madīnah, the Quraysh intercepted him at the outskirts of the city. There were about ten of them. He turned, took out his bow and arrow, and said:

"You know I am the best marksman among you. I promise you: not one of you touches me until every arrow I have has struck one of you. Then I will use my sword until it bends on your bones. Then you can come get me. Go ahead."

Nobody wanted to die that day. But they wanted his wealth. So instead of attacking, they negotiated: "Ṣuhayb, you came to us from nothing. You built everything here. And now you're taking our wealth to Madīnah? Give it all back, everything, and you can leave."

Ṣuhayb said: "If I give you all of my wealth, will you let me go?"

"Yes."

"My wealth is buried at such and such a place. Go find it. And here, take the camel I'm riding."

They took the buried wealth. They took the camel. Ṣuhayb walked to Madīnah. Not rode, walked. The richest Mawlā in Makkah, on foot, in the desert, with nothing but what he wore. By the time he reached Qubāʾ, he was crawling on his hands and knees, dehydrated, emaciated, about to collapse.

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was at Qubāʾ, the place just outside Madīnah where he had stopped after the Hijra. And he saw Ṣuhayb approaching.

He smiled and said:

رَبِحَتِ التِّجَارَةُ يَا صُهَيْبُ، رَبِحَتِ التِّجَارَةُ

"Your trade has been most profitable, O Ṣuhayb. Most profitable."

The man who had just given away everything he owned was told: you are now the richest man alive. Because the transaction he made was with Allah.

Ṣuhayb said: "Yā Rasūlallāh, nobody could have told you this except Jibrīl."

❧The verse of Allah

Allah revealed in Sūrat al-Baqarah, the first major sūrah of Madīnah:

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ

"And there are those who sell their very souls seeking the pleasure of Allah, and Allah is Most Compassionate toward His servants." (al-Baqarah 2:207).

Ibn Masʿūd identified this verse as being revealed for Ṣuhayb. He did not just give his wealth. He sold himself, يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ. He gave everything that was his. And in return, Allah described him in His eternal Book as one who gave everything for His pleasure alone.

The man who forgot his mother tongue growing up as a slave in Rome walked into Madīnah with nothing, and became a verse of Quran.

❧A note from Shaykh Yasir Qadhi's lecture:

Ṣuhayb's closest companion and the person who brought him to Islam was ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir. The two accepted Islam together on the same day. They were inseparable, always together throughout the early Seerah. It is said that the Prophet ﷺ addressed him by his kunya: "Yā Abā Yaḥyā, the transaction has been most profitable." The Prophet ﷺ said this before Ṣuhayb had uttered a word about what happened, Jibrīl had already informed him. Of all the Ṣaḥāba, Ṣuhayb was the only one who grew up speaking fluent Latin, and he is even said to have spoken Arabic with a Roman accent.