1 of 2 · 5th year of prophethood · c. 615 CE · Abyssinia
Al-Najashi (Ashamah)
A King Under Whom No One Is Wronged
Across the Red Sea, the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia was ruled by a king whose title was al-Najashi, the Negus. His own name, as the Prophet ﷺ would later say, was Ashamah. When Quraysh's persecution grew unbearable, Ibn Ishaq reports, the Prophet ﷺ told his followers that in Abyssinia there was a king under whom no one was wronged, and that they should go there until Allah made a way out for them.
Small groups crossed the sea, and later a larger one led by Ja'far ibn Abi Talib. Umm Salamah, who was among them, later said that they settled in the best of lands, with the best of neighbours, and worshipped Allah without being harmed.
Quraysh sent 'Amr ibn al-'As and 'Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah with gifts for the king and his generals, asking him to return the emigrants as runaways. The generals urged him to agree. The Negus refused to hand over people who had chosen his protection until he had heard them for himself.
Justice does not depend on whose side you are on. A ruler who would not wrong strangers became the shelter Allah prepared for the believers.
Would you insist on hearing both sides before judging someone others want you to condemn?
- Musnad Ahmad (hadith of Umm Salamah)Grade not recorded here
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (the migration to Abyssinia)Historical report
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3877 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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