We obeyed him and followed his teachings.

We obeyed him and followed his teachings. Most of the people in our country are still polytheists, and they resented our conversion to the new faith.

They began to persecute us, and it was in order to escape from persecution by them that we sought and found sanctuary in your kingdom." When Jaafer concluded his speech, the king declared that he was convinced of his veracity, and added, to the great disappointment of Amr bin Ass, that the Muslims could live in his kingdom as long as they wished, without any fear. But Amr bin Ass bethought himself of a new argument which, he felt confident, would appeal to the king who was a Christian.

If it did, he was certain, it would tilt the scales against the Muslims, and they would be extradited. On the following day, therefore, he returned to the court and said to the king that he (the king) ought to waive his protection of the Muslims because they rejected the divine nature of Jesus, and asserted that he was a mortal like other men.

When questioned on this point by the king, Jaafer said: "Our judgment of Jesus is what was revealed to our Prophet, viz., that Jesus is the servant of God, and is His Prophet, His Spirit, and His Command given unto Mary, the innocent virgin." The king said to Jaafer: "Jesus is just what you have stated him to be, and is nothing more than that." Then turning toward the Muslims, he said: "Go to your homes and live in peace.

I shall never give you up to your enemies." He refused to extradite the Muslims, returned the presents which Amr bin Ass had brought, and dismissed his embassy. Washington Irving "Among the refugees to Abyssinia, there was Jaafer, the son of Abu Talib, and brother of Ali, consequently the cousin of Mohammed. He was a man of persuasive eloquence and a most prepossessing appearance. He stood forth before the king of Abyssinia, and expounded the doctrines of Islam with zeal and power.

The king who was a Nestorian Christian, found these doctrines so similar in many respects to those of his sect and so opposed to the gross idolatry of the Koreishites, that so far from giving up the fugitives, he took them more especially into favor and protection, and returning to Amr b. Ass and Abdullah, the presents they had brought, dismissed them from his court." (The Life of Mohammed) The Muslims spent many years in Abyssinia.

Thirteen years later, they returned, not to Makka but to Medina - in 7 A.H. (A.D.