Speech by Jaafar bin Abi Talib


 May God be pleased with him, in front of the King of Abyssinia, Negus


 How was Islam presented to him?

 Jaafar bin Abi Talib was able to convince the Negus of his position after a comprehensive speech delivered by Jaafar to the King of Abyssinia..


 The Quraysh delegation, led by Amr ibn al-Aas, tried to convince the Negus of the necessity of returning the Muslims who had migrated to him, and here the great companion Jaafar ibn Abi Talib came forward and delivered a solemn speech to the king of Abyssinia that turned the event completely in favor of the Muslims.

 Jaafar began his speech by saying: “O King, we were a people of pre-Islamic times. We worshiped idols, ate dead meat, committed immoral acts, cut ties of kinship, and treated bad neighbors. The strong among us ate the weak.”

 Jaafar bin Abi Talib began to make the situation they were in before Islam ugly.  Where he said: “So we were like that until God sent to us a messenger whose lineage, honesty, trustworthiness, and chastity we know.”  Here, Jaafar points out that the one who brought this new religion is honest and trustworthy.

 Then Jaafar took a good view of Islam and said: “He called us to God to unite Him and worship Him, and to give up what we and our fathers used to worship other than Him, such as stones and idols. He commanded us to tell the truth, fulfill trusts, maintain family ties, be good neighbors, refrain from forbidden things and blood, and forbade us from immoral acts.”  And false speech, and devouring the property of an orphan, and slandering a chaste woman, and commanding us to worship God alone, not associating anything with Him, and commanding us to pray, alms, and fasting.”

 Then Jaafar continued his speech: “So we believed him, believed in him, and followed him in what he brought. We worshiped God alone and did not associate anything with Him. We prohibited what was prohibited to us, and we made lawful what was lawful to us.”  Then he followed that up and said: “Then our people oppressed us. They tortured us and tempted us to abandon our religion, in order to return us to the worship of idols from the worship of God, and to make permissible what we used to deem permissible of the evil things.”

 Jaafar mentioned this because he knows that images of affliction affect the hearts of Christians.  It reminds them of the image of Christ, peace be upon them.

 Thus, Jaafar completely controlled the feelings of the Negus, and even the feelings of the bishops around him, and he concluded his statement with a wise political passage in which Jaafar said: “When they oppressed us, oppressed us, and treated us harshly, and prevented us from our religion, we went out to your country, and we chose you over everyone else, and we desired your side.”  We hope that we will not be unfair to you, O king.”

 After the end of the speech, Al-Najashi asked Jaafar, may God be pleased with him, saying: Do you have anything that he brought from God?  Jaafar said: Yes.  Al-Najashi said: Read it to me.

 So Jafar chose the beginning of Surat Maryam, which begins with the Almighty’s saying: “He who disobeys * Remember the mercy of your Lord to His servant Zechariah” until the Almighty’s saying: “She said, ‘How can I have a son, when no human being has touched me, and I have not been a transgressor?’” He said thus. Your Lord said, “It is easy for me, and let us make him a sign for the people and a mercy from us.” And it was a matter.  decreed” [Maryam: 1-21].

 After hearing these miraculous words, the Negus could not control himself, so the king of Abyssinia cried and his bishops wept, and here the Negus clearly took the decision and said: “This and the one whom Moses (and in one narration: Jesus) brought came out of a single niche.”

 Then Al-Najashi turned to the Quraysh delegation and said to them: “Go, by God, I will never hand them over to you.” This entire tour was on the side of the believers, and the Quraysh delegation was defeated in a terrible defeat.