The story of the people of the town

In the fifth episode of the series Qissa wa 'Ibar, Omar Abdelkafy tells the story of the people of the town to whom messengers came, as evidence that truth never lacks supporters and that the first thing messengers meet is denial. ^{1 2}

He says that God sent two messengers to the town and they were rejected, then reinforced them with a third; they said “We are sent to you”, and the people answered that they were only human like themselves and were lying. God, he says, told His Prophet to strike this parable for his people. ^{3 4 2 5} He holds that many messengers sent to a people is no sign of their goodness but of their many ills, as many doctors around a patient point to many diseases, and in this context says the messengers of the Children of Israel were very many (the figure he gives is approximate and his own; needs_source). ^{6 7}

He says that a man of the town supported the messengers, named in the books of history and commentary Habib al-Najjar and known as “the man of Ya Sin”, and that he came urging his people to follow the messengers who asked no reward and were rightly guided. ^{8 6 9} He relates that his people killed him, trampling him, and that as his soul left him he was told to enter paradise; he presents him as a model of a good end, saying that it takes an hour's patience upon the truth. ^{9 10}

• He relates that a man asked al-Hasan al-Basri whether he sinned by sewing al-Hajjaj's clothes and was told: you are like al-Hajjaj; he urges listeners not to back falsehood lest they be gathered with its people. ^{1 3}
• He digresses to the story of Abdullah ibn Salam and his people as evidence of denial. ^{2 5}
• He speaks of provision being in heaven and tells the story of Sulayman and the ant. ^{11 12}
• He reports the scholars' saying that a person is born crying while his family laughs, so let him work to leave the world laughing while they weep, and says that the righteous man, carried to his grave, says “Hurry me on”. ^{13 14 15}