SALMAN Farsi (as) ACCEPTS ISLAM

Hazrat Imam Mohammed Baqir (a.s) says that some companions visited
the grave of the Prophet (a.s) one day and were busy conversing with
each other. Hazrat Ali (a.s) asked Salman Farsi, “O Salman! How did you
accept the Faith of Islam?” Salman replied, “O Ameer al Momineen!
Since it is obligatory on me to reply to your queries, I am narrating to
you the circumstances under which I accepted the Faith. I am a native of
the city of Shiraz and my profession was farming. My parents used to
love me very much. One day when I visited a hermitage along with them
I heard a sound as if someone was saying there is no God but Allah, Isa
(a.s) is the Spirit of Allah and Mohammed (a.s) is the Prophet of Allah (la
ilaha il Allah Isa Rooh Allah Mohammed Rasool Allah). These words had
such profound effect on me that the love of the Prophet (a.s) got embedded
in my entire existence. I instantly abandoned my ancestral belief of
worshipping the sun. Hearing this my father got very angry on me and
he incarcerated me in a deep well. I was held there for a very long time
during which I used to pray to Allah for my deliverance.
One day an old person dressed in a white robe arrived and releasing
me from the well took me to a hermit. I expressed to the hermit about my
faith. He was very kind to me but one day he told me that he would expire
on the following morn. I asked him, ‘Then what should I do and
where should I go to?’ The hermit mentioned to me the name of another
hermit and his location. He asked me to give his reference when I met
the other hermit. I therefore went there and spent quite a while with the
hermit till he too expired. After the hermit’s death I continued to live
with the other inmates of the hermitage. Those people were in the habit
of taking wines with the food and insisted on my partaking of it. When I
refused to comply they got angry on me and sold me as a slave to a Jew.
This Jew also inflicted lot of hardships on me. In the end he sold me to a
lady by the name of Salimia. The lady had an orchard and I was assigned
to water the trees. The lady was very satisfied and happy with my work.
10
One day a group of persons entered the garden. They were having a
cloud hovering over their heads. In the group there was the Prophet
(a.s), Hazrat Ali A.s.), Hamza, Zaid bin Haritha, Hazrat Aqeel, Abu
Dharr and Miqdad. I thought that the cloud following a person is the
sign of the Prophet (a.s). But all of them couldn’t possibly be Prophets.
Definitely one of them must be the Prophet (a.s). I was wondering about
this when the Prophet (a.s) called meup and pushing aside his robe
showed to me the Seal of Prophet-hood on his back. I instantly fell on his
feet but he raised me up with great affection.
Now the Prophet (a.s) told to Salimia that he wished to buy me from
her. She asked for four hundred date palms in exchange for me and said
that out of these two hundred should have yellow dates and the other
two hundred red dates. The Prophet accepted this deal and asked Hazrat
Ali (a.s) to gather four hundred seeds of dates. When Hazrat Ali (a.s)
completed the task, the Prophet (a.s) started sowing them and Hazrat Ali
(a.s) went after him watering the planted seeds. As the Prophet (a.s)
sowed the next seed, a full-grown plant emerged from the first laden
with fruits. Now, the four hundred date palms were ready, two hundred
bearing yellow and the other two hundred bearing the red fruits.
When Salimia saw that her wish had been fulfilled she came up with
another condition that she wanted all the palms to bear yellow fruits.
Therefore, with Allah’s wish Gabriel came and with the touch of his
wings, he turned all the palms to bear yellow dates. Now Salimia had
perforce to part with Salman. Then the Prophet (a.s) released Salman and
said, “O Rozba! From this day we give you the name of Salman.”