Conversion To Islam
He then later converted to Islam and killed the self-proclaimed prophet Musaylimah (also known as Musaylimah al-Kadhdhaab meaning "Musaylimah The Liar") during the battle of Yamama in 634. Wahshi relates his story of conversion:
"After the Battle of Uhud, I continued to live in Makkah for quite a long time until the Muslims conquered Makkah. I then ran away to Ta'if, but soon Islam reached that area as well. I heard that however grave the crime of a person might be, forgave him. I, therefore, reached with Shahadatayn on my lips. Muhammad saw me and said "Are you the same Wahshy, the Ethiopian?" I replied in the affirmative. Thereupon he said: "How did you kill Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib?" I gave an account of the matter. Muhammad was moved and said: "I should not see your face until you are resurrected, because the heart-rending calamity fell upon my uncle at your hands". It is explained by Islamic scholars that the reason for Wahshy avoiding Muhammad, was not out of continued anger against Wahshy, but in case Wahshy interpreted a look on the face of Muhammad as anger for him, which would therefore make him distraught.
Wahshi says: "So long as Muhammad was alive I kept myself hidden from him. After his death the battle with Musaylimah took place. I joined the army of Islam and used the same weapon against Musaylimah and succeeded in killing him with the help of one of the Ansar. If I killed the best of men (Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib) with this weapon, the worst man, too, did not escape its terror."
Read more about this topic: Wahshi Ibn Harb
Famous quotes containing the words conversion and/or islam:
“The conversion of a savage to Christianity is the conversion of Christianity to savagery.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)