Ibn Hibban

Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: A Muslim army set out and I was the commander of those people, until we camped at Alexandria. Their chief said: Send a person to me who will talk with me and I will talk with him. So I said: No one will go to him except me. I set out from there. My interpreter was with me. His interpreter was with him, until a pulpit was set up for us. He asked: Who are you people? I replied: We are Arabs, we are people of thorns and leaves (i.e., there is no greenery and vegetation in our land), we are people living near the House of Allah. Our land was the narrowest and our life was the hardest. We used to eat carrion and blood as well. In short, we were in the worst condition until a man appeared among us who, at that time, was not the greatest among us in status and not the wealthiest in terms of wealth. He said: I am the Messenger of Allah who has come to you. He commanded us with things we were not familiar with and forbade us from things we used to do and upon which our forefathers were. We denied him, we rejected his words, until a people came to him who were not related to us. They said: We affirm you, we believe in you, we follow you, and whoever fights you, we will fight him. So the Messenger went to them, then we set out to go to them, we fought them. They killed us and prevailed over us. After that, they advanced towards the other surrounding Arab tribes. They fought them until they also prevailed over them. And if my children, the present Arabs, come to know about the kind of luxurious life you are living, then every person present there will come to you and will become a partner with you in the luxury you are in. Upon this, he (i.e., the chief of the disbelievers) laughed and then said: Your Messenger spoke the truth. Messengers came to us just as your Messenger came to you. We also followed their guidance until kings gained dominance among us. They began to follow their desires and abandoned the commands of the Prophets. So as long as you adhere to the command of your Prophet, whoever fights you, you will prevail over him, and whoever tries to become your partner, you will prevail over him. And when you adopt the way we did, and you abandon the command of the Prophet, and you do what those people did who followed their desires, then you will not be able to compete with us, because in numbers you are not more than us, and in strength you are not mightier than us. Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I have never conversed with anyone more cunning than that person.