In the fictional world of storytelling, all of us love relatable villains. The most compelling antagonists are those that have genuinely relatable backstories, who were once promising people with great potential but unfortunately strayed to the dark side for reasons we can empathize – though not necessarily agree – with, and finally turned a new leaf to redeem themselves. (Lookin’ at you, Anakin).
Interestingly, a similar real-life story happened in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. There was a Qurayshi man by the name of Abdullah bin Abi as-Sarh, who was the foster brother of Uthman bin Affan. He embraced Islam and became a companion of the Prophet ﷺ and because of his rare ability (at the time) to read and write, the Prophet assigned him to be a scriber to write down the Qur’an for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ - an important and honorable role in the rank of Muslims.
However, he was led astray by shaitan, slipped and apostatized (murtad) to abandon his religion, plunging to the proverbial dark side.
Fast forward towards the end of the Prophet’s life during the conquest of Makkah, the Prophet ﷺ made it as a peaceful conquest, and forgave all of the people of Quraysh and spared them from the death penalty, except a handful of people, whom the Prophet demanded the death sentence. One of those unforgiven people was Abdullah bin Abi as-Sarh because of his treasonous crimes against the state, betraying the trust of the Prophet as the scriber of revelation by apostatizing from Islam.
Fearful of his fate, Abdullah went to hide in the home of his foster brother, Uthman to gain protection. He decided to swear allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ and embrace Islam once again.
Uthman brought Abdullah to the Prophet, trying to convince him to accept his pledge and said, “O Messenger of Allah! Accept the allegiance of 'Abdullah!”
The Prophet raised his head and looked, refusing to respond. Uthman then requested the Prophet once again to accept Abdullah’s allegiance, and the Prophet did not respond. Uthman did the same for a third time, and the Prophet gave the same reaction.
After the third request, finally the Prophet ﷺ accepted him embracing Islam.
Thereafter, he ﷺ asked the rest of his companions, “Was there not any sensible man among you who would get up when he saw me refusing to give him my hand and kill him?'
They said: 'We did not know, O Messenger of Allah, what was in your heart. Why did you not gesture to us with your eyes?' He said: 'It is not befitting for a Prophet that his eyes be deceitful.'"
(Hadith narrated by Abu Daud, An-Nasa’ee. Classified sahih by Al-Albani)
Here was a man whose crimes were so great that the Prophet ﷺ deemed him unworthy of being pardoned, and it was only upon repeated attempts, finally his pledge of allegiance was accepted.
Now at this point, perhaps one may wonder, did Abdullah pledge allegiance merely out of the intention to save himself from the death penalty, or was it a genuine?
Upon studying his lifetime, Imam Adz-Dzahabi, the famous scholar who compiled the life and times of the people of the past, concluded about the biography of Abdullah bin Abi Sarh:
“After the conquest of Makkah, he never harmed anybody, and he did not do anything that he could be blamed for. He was one of the wisest and most generous of men.” (Siyar A‘laam an-Nubala’, 3/34)
Abdullah lived on as a righteous companion of the Prophet ﷺ, being appointed by ‘Uthman as the governor of Egypt, and he was the one who led the battle of Dzaat as-Sawaari. He went on campaign in North Africa and conquered many of its cities.
Among Abdullah’s virtues was that he refrained from getting involved in the civil war turmoil between ‘Ali and Mu‘aawiyah (radhiAllahu anhuma), then he went to ar-Ramlah in Palestine.
One morning on the 59th year after Hijrah, he made du’aa: “O Allah, let my last deed be Fajr prayer.”
He did wudhu’ and performed his prayer. He said the salaam to his right, then when he was going to say the salaam to his left, Allah took his soul.
(Ref @ IslamQ&A: “Differentiating between ‘Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh and someone else who apostatised and claimed that he had distorted the revelation”)
SubhanAllah! What an amazing end!
Abdullah ibn Abbas, the great mufassir of Qur’an says that the following ayah of the Qur’an describes the redemption arc of Abdullah bin Abi Sarh:
ثُمَّ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لِلَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا فُتِنُوا ثُمَّ جَاهَدُوا وَصَبَرُوا إِنَّ رَبَّكَ مِنْ بَعْدِهَا لَغَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
"Then, verily, your Lord for those who migrated after they had been put to trials, and thereafter strove hard and fought (for the Cause of Allah) and were patient, verily, your Lord afterward is, Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Surah An-Nahl 16:110)
There is an important lesson here: Empathy.
Never lose hope that someone can change. In the words of Anakin’s son, “I KNOW there is good in you”
We might meet someone who is antagonistic, toxic, or difficult, in our lives – perhaps they could even be from among our family members. Then, always remember: perhaps his redemption arc is yet to come. Everyone has an innate fitrah in them to be a good person, and perhaps they even used to be someone with a bright and hopeful past which we do not know of, but, QaddarAllahu, perhaps they were misguided, influenced by the wrong crowd and shaped by wrong choices, and perhaps are also battling their own inner demons to change. And perhaps we could be the people sent by Allah to help them make the right choices!
Perhaps today, we are merely witnessing them in their “dark side” phase, we've only seen them in their "Darth Vader" form.
Yet this story of Abdullah bin Abi Sarh teachess us to be patient and remain optimistic: perhaps, they may yet redeem themselves with a great ending!
Remember the words of the Prophet ﷺ :
وَإِنَّ أَحَدَكُمْ لَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ النَّارِ حَتَّى مَا يَكُونُ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَهَا إلَّا ذِرَاعٌ فَيَسْبِقُ عَلَيْهِ الْكِتَابُ فَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ فَيَدْخُلُهَا
“And verily, perhaps one of you may perform the actions of the people of the Hellfire, until there is nothing but an arm’s length distance between him and the hellfire,
and that which has been written overtakes him and so he acts with the deeds of the people of Paradise and thus he enters Paradise.” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari, Muslim)
وَإِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالْخَوَاتِيمِ
"And verily, deeds are only decided upon by their endings" (Al-Bukhari)
May Allah grant us a good ending, and the patience to help others towards a good end!
#TheBarakahEffect
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