the Negus of Aksum

The Negus, whom the Arabic sources name Ashama ibn Abjar, was the Christian king of Abyssinia who took in the first Muslim emigrants and refused to hand them over. In tradition he is the model of a just foreign ruler.

When the harm in Mecca grew long, the Prophet ﷺ sent a group of Muslims across the sea to Abyssinia, describing its king as one under whom "no one is wronged." Mecca sent envoys asking for the emigrants to be returned ¹. In The Sealed Nectar, the Prophet is described as calling him "a just king under whom no one is wronged," and advising the Muslims to emigrate to his land to save their religion ².

At the Negus's throne, Ja'far described what his people had been and what the Prophet called them to. He then recited from the Qur'an's account of Mary and Jesus. The sources say that the king wept until his beard was wet, and said that the difference between their two faiths is no more than a line drawn in the sand ³. He sheltered the first group in the best of neighbourliness, refused to hand the emigrants over to the two Qurashi envoys, and returned the gifts of Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'a ².

The emigrants remained under his protection for years. A later tradition adds that the Negus himself embraced Islam, and that the Prophet performed the funeral prayer for him in absentia. Historians treat this as tradition rather than documented fact ¹.

In Muslim memory, Abyssinia is the first foreign land that sheltered Muslims, and the Negus stands at the head of this museum's gallery of protectors who were not themselves of the community.

Quraysh sent Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him) and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'a with gifts, asking for the return of the emigrants. The Negus heard from Ja'far the opening of the chapter of Mary, and wept until his beard was wet. He refused to hand the emigrants over and returned the gifts (the Quraysh delegation to the Negus) ^{4 5}.

Abu Ishaq al-Heweny gives a whole lesson to Umm Salama's hadith of the migration to Abyssinia, which he calls established, narrated by Ibn Ishaq in the Sira and by Ahmad in the Musnad by way of him. ⁶ In his telling the Negus refused to hand over people who had sought his protection without first hearing them; Ja'far ibn Abi Talib spoke for the Muslims and recited the opening of Kaf Ha Ya Ayn Sad, and the Negus and his bishops wept until their beards and their scrolls were wet, and the Negus said that this and what Moses brought came from one lamp-niche. ^{7 8 9 10} When Ja'far was asked about Jesus he said Jesus was God's servant and messenger, His spirit and His word cast into Mary, and the Negus said Jesus was not more than that by the length of a twig; he returned the gifts, saying God had taken no bribe from him when He restored his kingdom. ^{11 12} He adds that a man contested the Negus's throne, and the Muslims feared a ruler who would not know their due, but the Negus prevailed. ^{13 14}

Al-Heweny names the Negus Ashama, ¹⁵ and takes the hadith of Amr ibn al-As's conversion at his hand, which is in the Musnad of Ahmad with a chain he calls good, as evidence of the Negus's Islam; ¹⁶ he says Amr ibn Umayya (may God be pleased with him) al-Damri (may God be pleased with him) was the Prophet's envoy to him and was also charged with having him marry the Prophet to Umm Habiba. ¹⁷ He returns to the Negus's stand in another lesson, saying he would not hand them over without hearing them, and compares this with how states today hand over wanted men. ^{18 19 20}