Reports on Tustar

Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Bakrah said: When Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) led the fighters against Tustar to subdue al-Hurmuzan, they stayed there for a year or about that without achieving victory. During this time al-Hurmuzan had a noble and leading man of Tustar killed. The brother of the slain man came one day to Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) and said to him: "If I show you the way into al-Hurmuzan's fortress, what reward will I get?" Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "What do you want?" He said: "That you spare my life and the lives of my family, and leave us our property and our dwellings." Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) agreed to this. He said: "Now give me a man who can swim and is intelligent. He will bring you clear news." (2) Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) called Majza'ah bin Thawr al-Sadusi and said to him: "Give me a man from your people who can swim and is very intelligent, but not so important a man that his martyrdom would be a cause of despair for the Muslims. If he stays safe, he will bring us the news. I do not know what this man wants, nor do I trust him." (3) Majza'ah said: "I have found that person." Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) asked: "Who is he?" He said: "It is I." Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "May Allah have mercy on you. I do not want this; give me some other man." Majza'ah bin Thawr said: "By Allah, I will not go to an old woman of Bakr bin Wa'il to ransom the son of Umm Majza'ah with her son." Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "If you refuse, then go." (4) Majza'ah put on white clothes and took a handkerchief and a dagger with him. Then he went with that man, swam across a stream on the way, and then entered their fortress by way of the stream. At times the way became so narrow that he had to crawl on his belly, at times it opened up and he walked on his feet, and at times he went on his knees, until he entered the city. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) had ordered him to memorise the way to the city gate, the way to its wall, and the house of al-Hurmuzan. That man took him and showed him the way to the wall, the way to the gate and the house of al-Hurmuzan. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) had instructed Majza'ah: "Take no action on your own until I know of it." (5) When Majza'ah saw al-Hurmuzan sitting with his friends drinking wine, he said to that man: "Is this al-Hurmuzan?" He said: "Yes, this is he." Majza'ah said: "This is the man who has caused the Muslims hardship. I will not leave him alive." That man said: "Do not do that. Those appointed to guard him will not let you reach him, and the Muslims will not be able to enter the fortress either." Majza'ah held firm to what he had said. That man tried hard to persuade him, and finally he reminded him of the advice of Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him). Then Majza'ah stopped, came back to that man's house and stayed there until evening. (6) Then he went back to Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him), who sent a force of more than three hundred fighters with Majza'ah and ordered them that each man should wear only two garments and keep his sword with him. The people did so. Then all the fighters sat on the bank of the river waiting for Majza'ah, while Majza'ah was with Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) taking orders and instructions. Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Bakrah said: Those people desired nothing but death. That scene is before my eyes: the dining mat was spread before Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him), and Majza'ah felt shy not to take something from the mat. He picked up a grape but did not have the heart to swallow even that, and he gently took it out and put it down. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) gave him advice and sent him off. While taking leave Majza'ah said to Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him): "If I ask you for one thing, will you grant it to me?" Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Whatever you ask, I will give it to you." Majza'ah said: "Give me your sword, so that I may gird it on beside my own sword." So Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) gave him his sword. (7) Then Majza'ah joined the fighters, and saying Allahu Akbar he plunged into the water. Behind him all the people plunged into the water as well. Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Bakrah said: They were swimming in the water like ducks. They crossed the stream, then advanced to the opening through which the water was going in. He said Allahu Akbar and went in. When they reached the city, only thirty-five or thirty-six men remained with him. He said to his companions: "Shall I not go back to them and bring them in?" A man from the people of Kufah, who was called al-Jaban on account of his courage, said: "Let someone other than you say this, O Majza'ah. You are only responsible for yourself, so carry out what you have been ordered to do." He said to him: "You are right." So he went with one group to the gate and posted them at it, sent one group to the wall, and went on with those who remained until he climbed up to the wall. A non-Arab soldier of the Asawirah (Persian cavalry) came down upon him with a short spear and thrust at Majza'ah, wounding him gravely. Majza'ah said to them: "Carry on with your task; let nothing distract you from it on my account." They threw a saddle blanket over him so that they would know his place, and went on. The Muslims cried Allahu Akbar on the wall and at the gate of the city, opened the gate, and the Muslims came on in their usual manner until they entered the city. It was said to al-Hurmuzan: "These Arabs have entered." He said: "There is no doubt they have forced their way in. From where did they enter? From the sky?" He took refuge in a citadel of his. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) came galloping on an Arab horse of his until he came to Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who was in command of the people, and he said: "As for us, O Abu Hamzah, we have accomplished nothing today, while they have finished with the enemy; they have killed those whom they killed and captured those whom they captured." They surrounded al-Hurmuzan in his citadel but could not reach him until they gave him security, and he came down on the judgement of Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab, the Commander of the Faithful. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) sent them, al-Hurmuzan and his companions, with Sayyiduna Anas, and they took them until they reached Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Anas sent word to him: "What is your view concerning these people? Shall I bring them in naked and bound, or shall I order them to take up their ornaments and fine clothes?" Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) sent word to him: "If you brought them in naked and bound, as you say, they would be nothing more than non-Arab peasants. Rather, bring them in wearing their ornaments and fine clothes, so that the Muslims may know what Allah has bestowed upon them as spoils." So he ordered them, and they took up their fine clothes and ornaments. They came in to Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), and al-Hurmuzan said to him: "O Commander of the Faithful, how shall I speak to you: with the speech of a living man who will remain, or with the speech of a man to be killed?" A word came from Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) that he did not intend: "Speak; there is no harm for you." Al-Hurmuzan said to him: "O Commander of the Faithful, you know how it was with us and you when we were all in misguidance. A tribe of the Arab tribes would see the arrow of one of our cavalrymen and flee to a distant land. But when Allah guided you and He was with you, we could not fight Him." Sayyiduna Anas took them back. When evening came, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) sent word to Sayyiduna Anas: "Come to me in the morning with your captives so that I may strike their necks." Sayyiduna Anas came to him and said: "By Allah, O Umar, that is not for you to do." He said: "Why?" He said: "Because you said to the man: 'Speak; there is no harm for you.'" He said: "You shall bring me proof of this, or I shall deal harshly with you." Sayyiduna Anas asked the people sitting with Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him): "Did not Umar say to the man: 'Speak; there is no harm for you'?" They said: "Yes indeed." This weighed heavily on Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: "If it must be so, then take them away from me." So he sent them off to a village called Dahlak, in the sea. When they were on their way, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) raised his hands and said three times: "O Allah, break it with them." They boarded the ship, and it was smashed and broke apart with them, but it was close to land, so they came out. A man of the Muslims said: "Had he prayed that they should drown, they would have drowned; but he only said: 'Break it with them.'" So he left them there.

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: We besieged Tustar, and al-Hurmuzan submitted to the judgement of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) sent me to Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) with al-Hurmuzan. When we came into the presence of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), al-Hurmuzan said nothing and remained silent. Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said to him: "Speak." He said: "Shall I speak as a living man or as a dead man?" Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Speak; there is no harm for you." He said: "O people of Arabia, as long as Allah Almighty left us and you to one another, we used to kill you and drive you away. And now that Allah is with you, we have no power over you." Then Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "O Anas, what do you say?" I said: "O Commander of the Faithful, I have left behind me great strength and large numbers. If you kill him, the people will despair of life and this will make their strength fiercer, and if you leave him alive, the people will be hopeful." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Shall I leave alive the killer of al-Bara' bin Malik and Majza'ah bin Thawr?" Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: When I saw that he would kill him, I said: "You cannot kill him." He said: "Why? Have you received some financial help from him?" I said: "I have not done so. You said to him: 'Speak; no harm will come to you.'" Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Bring witnesses to this, or I will punish you." So I went out looking for a witness and met Sayyiduna al-Zubayr, who also remembered what I remembered. He testified to this, so Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) released al-Hurmuzan; later he accepted Islam, and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) fixed a stipend for him.

Shihab said that he took part in jihad with Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him). On the day we reached Tustar, Sayyiduna al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) was hit by an arrow and fell to the ground. I stood behind him with a shield until he recovered. Shihab said: I was the first man of the Arabs to light a fire at the gate of Tustar. When we conquered Tustar and took captives, Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Choose ten men from the army to stay with you to guard these captives until our return." Then they advanced, conquered many regions and came back. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) distributed the spoils among the fighters; he gave the horseman two shares and the foot soldier one share, and when a captive woman was sold he would not separate her from her child.

Shihab said: I was the first to light a fire at the gate of Tustar. Sayyiduna al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) was hit by an arrow and fell to the ground. When the gate of Tustar was opened and the enemy were taken captive, Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) made me commander over ten of my people, and before the distribution of the spoils he gave me a man (a captive) as a bonus, besides my share and the share of my horse.

Khalid bin Sayhan said: Four or five women took part in the jihad at Tustar with Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him). They gave water to drink and tended the wounded, and Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) gave them a share of the spoils too.

Mutarrif bin Malik said: I was with Sayyiduna Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) at the conquest of Tustar. At a place called al-Sus we found Daniel (peace be upon him). When drought struck the people of al-Sus, it was their custom to bring him out and seek rain through him. With him we found sixty jars with their mouths sealed. We opened one jar from the nearest of them, one from the middle of them and one from the farthest of them, and in each jar there were ten thousand. Hammam said: I think he only said ten thousand. With him we also found two sheets of linen and a box containing a book. The first to come upon him was a man of Bal'anbar whose name was Harqus. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) gave him the two sheets and two hundred dirhams. Later those two sheets were asked back from him, but he refused to give them and tore them into turbans for his companions. The narrator said: With us in this battle was a Christian hired worker whose name was "Nu'aym". He said: "Sell me this box with what is in it." He was told: "Take it, if there is no gold, silver or Book of Allah in it." It was looked into, and in it was the Book of Allah. So the people disliked selling the Book, and they sold him the box for two dirhams and gave him the Book as a gift. Qatadah said: From then on, the sale of copies of the Qur'an came to be regarded as disliked, because Sayyiduna al-Ash'ari and his companions regarded it as disliked.

Abu Tamimah said that Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to Sayyiduna al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) that you should wash Daniel (peace be upon him) with water of lote-tree leaves and basil, and that the funeral prayer should be offered over him, for he is a Prophet who supplicated to his Lord that the Muslims should bury him.

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: When we conquered Tustar, we found in a coffin a man whose nose was a cubit long. Those people used to seek victory and rain through him. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) about this, and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) replied: "This is a Prophet from among the Prophets; fire does not consume the Prophets and the earth does not consume the Prophets." And: "Bury him in a place that no one knows except you and one companion of yours." So I and Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) took him and buried him.

Habib Abu Yahya said that Khalid bin Zayd, whose eye had been lost at al-Sus, said: We besieged the city, and during this we had to endure great hardship. The commander of the army was Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him). The chief of the place obtained security for himself and those with him, and Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said to him: "Set them apart." He began to set them apart, and Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said to his companions: "I hope that Allah will deceive him about himself." So he set them apart and left that enemy of Allah himself out. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) ordered him to be seized. He offered to ransom himself and offered a great deal of wealth for his life, but Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) refused and struck off his head.

The same is reported through another chain.

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I was present in the battle of Tustar with Sayyiduna Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him). One day I missed my dawn prayer and could not offer it until half the day had passed. Even if I were given the whole world in exchange for that prayer, it would not make me happy.

Abu Farqad said: When we conquered the market of Ahwaz under the leadership of Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him), a man of the polytheists ran away. Two Muslims ran after him. While running, one of the Muslims said to him: "Matars." On hearing this he stopped, and they seized him and brought him to Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) was having the captives beheaded, and when that man's turn came, the Muslims who had seized him said: "He has been given security." Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) asked: "How was he given security?" That man said: "He was running away and I said to him 'Matars', and he stood still." Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) asked: "What does Matars mean?" He said: "It means: do not fear." Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "This is security. Let this man go." So the man was set free.

Sudays al-Adawi said: We took part with our commander in the battle of al-Ubullah. We were victorious there. Then we went to Ahwaz, where there were people of the Zutt and the Asawirah. We fought them fiercely and we were victorious. Many captives fell into our hands, and we divided them among ourselves. Some men got one captive and some two. We also had intercourse with the women we owned. When Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was informed of this, he wrote to us a letter in which it was written: "You do not have the capacity to cultivate the land. Free all the captives; you are not to take ownership of any one of them. Take land tax (kharaj) from them in proportion to the land they hold." So when this order came, we freed all the captives. How many a child of ours was overcome by al-Hammas! Among the Zutt whom we had overcome, many resembled the Arabs. They kept long beards, wore waist-wrappers and sat with a cloth wrapped around their legs. Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was written to about them, and he said: "Bring these people near you, and whoever of them accepts Islam, join him with the Muslims." When they were tested against people, they proved to have no fighting strength. The Asawirah were stronger than they were. Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was written to about them too, and in reply he said: "Bring them near, and whoever accepts Islam, join him with the Muslims."

Al-Muhallab said: We launched a raid on the people of Manadhir and overcame them. It seems they had a covenant with the Muslims, because of which Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to us in a letter: "Return whatever of theirs you have taken." So they returned it, even returning the pregnant women.

Abu Zur'ah bin Amr bin Jarir said: Among the companions of Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) there was a very brave and bold man. When the Muslims obtained spoils, Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) did not give him his full share. He refused to accept a lesser share. Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) had him given twenty lashes and shaved his head. He gathered up his hair and came into the presence of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Jarir (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I was the nearest of the people to him. He struck his hair against Sayyiduna Umar's chest and said: "By Allah, if it were not for it!" Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "He speaks the truth: if it were not for Hell." Then Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) asked him the reason, and he told the whole matter and said: "Sayyiduna Abu Musa thinks that he will not be made to give retaliation for this." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "That all the people should have the firmness of this man is dearer to me than everything that has come to me." Then Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote a letter to Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) in which, after the greeting, he said: "So-and-so son of so-and-so has informed me of this, and I adjure you: if you did this wrong to him in front of people, then sit before people and let him take retaliation from you, and if you did it in private, then let him take retaliation from you in private." The people asked that man: "Pardon him." He said: "No, by Allah, I will not leave it for anyone." When the letter was given to Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him), he sat down for the retaliation. That man raised his head towards the sky and said: "I have pardoned him."

Hammad also said: So Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) gave him part of his share. And Sayyiduna Jarir (may Allah be pleased with him) also said: I was the nearest of the people to him. He also said: I have pardoned him for the sake of Allah.

Simak bin Salamah said: When the Muslims conquered Tustar, they left detachments of the Muslims there and advanced to fight the enemy. The chief of the place betrayed the Muslim fighters and seized them. Then he heated an oven, placed pork and wine with them, and said to them: "Either eat this or you will be thrown into the oven." So whoever drank the wine and ate the pork was released. These things were presented to Nuhayt bin al-Harith al-Dabbi, but he refused, and for that he was thrown into the oven. When the Muslims came back from their campaigns and besieged the city, and peace was made with the people of Tustar, peace was made with that chief as well. One day the nephew of Nuhayt said to his uncle: "O uncle, this man is the killer of Nuhayt." He replied: "These people have now come under the covenant of the Muslims, so we cannot do anything to them now."

Simak said: It reached me that when this reached Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: "May Allah have mercy on him. What harm would it have done him if he had eaten?"

Kulayb al-Jarmi said: When we besieged the region called Tawwaj, our command was in the hands of Mujashi' bin Mas'ud of Banu Sulaym. When we conquered Tawwaj, I was wearing an old shirt. I went to one of the slain non-Arabs, took off his shirt, washed it, cleaned it, put it on and entered the settlement. In the settlement I took a needle and thread and sewed my own shirt. After that Sayyiduna Mujashi' (may Allah be pleased with him) addressed the fighters and said: "O people, do not commit any misappropriation of the spoils. Whoever misappropriates will have to answer for that misappropriation on the Day of Resurrection, even if it is only a needle." Then I took off that shirt and tore open again the part of my own shirt that I had sewn with that thread. Then I put that shirt, the needle and the thread back where I had taken them from. Then in my lifetime I saw the time when people would misappropriate whole wasqs, and if they were asked, "What are you doing?", they would say, "Our share of the spoils is more than this."

The father of Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman said: When the news of the conquest of Tustar reached Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), he asked: "Did anything strange happen there?" He was told: "A Muslim apostatised and joined the polytheists, and we captured him." Sayyiduna Umar asked: "Then what did you do with him?" The people said: "We killed him." He said: "Why did you not keep him in confinement? You should have kept him confined for three days, given him one loaf of bread each day and called him to return to Islam. If he repented, well and good; otherwise you would have killed him." Then Sayyiduna Umar said: "O Allah, I was not present, I did not order it, and I was not pleased with it when it reached me."

Al-Muhallab bin Abi Sufrah said: We besieged Ahwaz and then conquered it. A peace settlement had been mentioned there, and we had taken some women captive and had intercourse with them. When this news reached Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), he wrote to us: "Take your children and return their women to them." And he had made peace with some of them.

Sayyiduna Muhammad bin Hatib (may Allah be pleased with him) said: We were sent towards Istakhr, and the horseman was assigned for the one who stayed behind.

Shuways al-Adawi said: I took part in the battle of Maysan. I took a slave girl captive and married her. Then a letter from Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) came to us, in which he had written: "Return the captives of Maysan." So I returned that slave girl, and I do not know whether she was pregnant or not. This was the cause of greater prosperity for their settlements and of a greater collection of land tax.