My father, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated to me. He said: Muhammad bin Yahya al-Attar and Ahmad bin Idris both narrated to us from Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Isa, from Muhammad bin Ali bin Mahziyar, from his father, from someone who mentioned it, from Musa bin Jaʿfar عليه السلام, who said: I asked him, O son of the Messenger of Allah, will you not tell us the story of how Salman al-Farsi accepted Islam? He said: My father told me that the Commander of the Faithful ʿAli bin Abi Talib, Salman al-Farsi, Abu Dharr, and a group from Quraysh were gathered at the grave of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم. The Commander of the Faithful عليه السلام said to Salman: O Abu ʿAbdillah, will you not tell us about the beginning of your story? Salman said: By Allah, O Commander of the Faithful, had anyone else asked me, I would not have told him. I was a man from Shiraz, from the sons of the nobility, and I was dear to my parents.
One day, while walking with my father on a festival day, I came upon a hermitage where a man was proclaiming: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that ʿIsa is the spirit of Allah, and that Muhammad is the beloved of Allah. The description of Muhammad sank into my flesh and blood, and I could no longer enjoy food or drink. My mother said: My son, why did you not prostrate to the rising sun today? I avoided her until she fell silent. When I returned home, I saw a book hanging from the ceiling. I asked my mother: What is this book? She said: O Ruzbah, we found this book hanging when we returned from our festival. Do not approach that place or your father will kill you. I resisted until night came, and when my parents slept, I got up and took the book. It read: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. This is a covenant from Allah to Adam that a prophet will be created from his lineage named Muhammad. He will command noble morals and forbid idol worship. O Ruzbah, go to the successor of ʿIsa, believe, and leave Magianism.
I was struck deeply and became even more determined. My parents found out and threw me into a deep well and said: If you return, good, or we will kill you. I said: Do whatever you like with me, the love of Muhammad will not leave my heart. Salman said: I did not know Arabic before reading the book, but Allah caused me to understand Arabic that day. I remained in the well while they would lower small loaves of bread to me. When the days grew long, I raised my hands to the sky and said: O Lord, You have made me love Muhammad and his successor. By their means, hasten my relief and deliver me from this. A man in white garments came to me and said: Rise, O Ruzbah. He took my hand and brought me to the hermitage.
I began to say: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that ʿIsa is the spirit of Allah, and that Muhammad is the beloved of Allah. The monk looked down at me and said: Are you Ruzbah? I said: Yes. He said: Come up. So he brought me up, and I served him for two complete years. When his death approached, he said: I am dying. I said: To whom do you leave me? He said: I know no one who believes as I do except a monk in Antioch. When you meet him, convey my greetings and give him this tablet. He handed me a tablet. When he died, I washed, shrouded, and buried him, then went to Antioch with the tablet.
I came to the hermitage and said: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that ʿIsa is the spirit of Allah, and that Muhammad is the beloved of Allah. The monk looked out and said: Are you Ruzbah? I said: Yes. He said: Come up. I ascended and served him for two complete years. When his death approached, he said: I am dying. I said: To whom do you leave me? He said: I know no one who believes as I do except a monk in Alexandria. When you reach him, convey my greetings and give him this tablet. When he died, I washed, shrouded, and buried him and went to the hermitage.
I said: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that ʿIsa is the spirit of Allah, and that Muhammad is the beloved of Allah. The monk looked out and said: Are you Ruzbah? I said: Yes. He said: Come up. I ascended and served him for two complete years. When his death approached, he said to me: I am dying. I said: To whom do you leave me? He said: I know no one who believes as I do in the whole world. But Muhammad bin ʿAbdullah bin ʿAbd al-Muttalib is about to be born. When you meet him, convey my greetings and give him this tablet.
When he died, I washed, shrouded, and buried him. I took the tablet and set out. I joined some people and said to them: O people, provide me with food and drink and I will serve you. They said: Yes. When they went to eat, they slaughtered a sheep by striking it, cooked some and grilled the rest. I refused to eat. They said: Eat. I said: I am a monastic lad and monks do not eat meat. They beat me and almost killed me. One of them said: Leave him until the drink comes, he will not drink. When they brought the wine, they said: Drink. I said: I am a monastic lad and monks do not drink wine. They pounced on me to kill me.
I said to them: O people, do not beat me or kill me, I confess servitude to you. I confessed servitude to one of them. He took me out and sold me for three hundred dirhams to a Jewish man. He asked about my story. I told him and said: I have no sin but that I love Muhammad and his successor. The Jew said: I hate you and I hate Muhammad. He took me outside his house where there was a lot of sand. He said: By Allah, O Ruzbah, if morning comes and you haven't moved all this sand, I will kill you.
So I carried sand all night. When I became exhausted, I raised my hands and said: O Lord, You made me love Muhammad and his successor. By their means, hasten my relief and deliver me. Allah sent a wind that moved the sand to where the Jew had wanted. In the morning he saw the sand all moved. He said: O Ruzbah, you are a sorcerer, I didn’t know. I will remove you from this village lest you destroy it. He sold me to a woman of the Salmi tribe.
She loved me intensely. She had a garden and said: This garden is yours, eat from it, give and donate as you wish. I stayed in that garden as long as Allah willed. One day, I saw seven people approaching, a cloud shading them. I thought: By Allah, not all of these are prophets, but surely one of them is. They entered the garden and the cloud followed them. Among them was the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم, the Commander of the Faithful عليه السلام, Abu Dharr, al-Miqdad, ʿAqil bin Abi Talib, Hamza bin ʿAbd al-Muttalib, and Zayd bin Haritha. They ate from the dates and the Messenger said: Eat the dry dates and do not ruin anything for the people.
I went to my mistress and said: O my mistress, grant me a tray of fresh dates. She said: You have six trays. I took one and thought: If there is a prophet among them, he will not eat from charity but will eat a gift. I placed the tray before him and said: This is charity. The Messenger صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم said: Eat, but he and the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAqil, and Hamza did not eat. He said to Zayd: Stretch your hand and eat. I said to myself: This is a sign. Then I brought another tray and said: This is a gift. He stretched his hand and said: In the name of Allah, eat. They all stretched their hands and ate. I thought: This is another sign.
While I was circling behind him, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم turned and said: O Ruzbah, are you looking for the seal of Prophethood? I said: Yes. He uncovered his shoulders and I saw the seal of Prophethood between them with a few hairs. I fell at the feet of the Messenger of Allah, kissing them. He said: O Ruzbah, go to that woman and tell her Muhammad bin ʿAbdullah says: Sell us this slave. I went and told her. She said: I won’t sell him except for four hundred palm trees, two hundred yellow and two hundred red. I returned to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم and told him. He said: How easy is what she asked. Then he said: Rise, O ʿAli, gather all these pits. He gathered them, planted them, and said: Water them. The Commander of the Faithful watered them and before reaching the last one, they had all sprouted. He said to me: Go tell her Muhammad bin ʿAbdullah says: Take what is yours and give us what is ours. I did, and she came out, saw the palms, and said: By Allah, I will not sell it unless all four hundred are yellow. Jibra’il descended and passed his wings over the trees, turning them all yellow. He said: Tell her Muhammad says: Take what is yours and give us what is ours. I did. She said: By Allah, one of these trees is more beloved to me than Muhammad and you. I said: By Allah, one day with Muhammad is more beloved to me than you and all you have. So the Messenger of Allah freed me and named me Salman.
[Al-Saduq says:] The name of Salman was Ruzbah ibn Khasboodan and he had never prostrated to the sun. He always prostrated to Allah, the Mighty and Sublime. Since the Qibla direction towards which he had been commanded to pray was in the east, his parents thought that he was also prostrating to the sun like them. Salman was the legatee of the legatee of Isa عليه السلام and he was entrusted with the burden that terminates at the successorship of the Imams. The name of Isa’s legatee was Aabi and some people say that it was His Eminence, Abu Talib. This group has erred at this point because when Amirul Momineen عليه السلام was asked about the last successor of Isa عليه السلام he said: ‘Aabi’. But people mistook it for ‘Abi’ which in Arabic means: My father. And Burdah has also mentioned this.