What kind of a new religion have you adopted which compelled...
What kind of a new religion have you adopted which compelled you to leave your families and relatives?” Now Ja’far who was a handsome and gentle young man got up and said, “Your Highness! We were unwise and unintelligent folk. We used to worship man-made idols. We ate carrion and indulged in immoral deeds. We did not know how to honor our elders. We did not behave nicely with our neighbors.
The powerful among us starved the poor ones until Almighty God had mercy on us and sent to us His Messenger whom we knew very well as a noble, truthful, honest and most responsible man as he was born in one of our noblest families. This Prophet, Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) taught us to worship only One God and called upon us to end idol-worship forever which was in vogue since our forefathers’ time.
This Prophet taught us to always tell the truth and also to hand over every trust to whom it belongs and to pay honor and respect to our relatives and to love our neighbors and to have friendly and brotherly relations with them and to refrain from everything which is against self-respect. This Prophet taught us to worship none but only One God and never to consider anyone His partner.
He ordered us to establish prayer, to observe fasts and to pay the poor tax… We have testified to his prophethood and have put faith in him and we accept and obey whatever comes to him through revelation from Almighty Allah, the only One God. We never consider anyone as equal to God Almighty. Whatever he has banned for us, we regard it as a permanently prohibited thing and whatever he has allowed is permissible forever. But our community rose up to oppose us tooth and nail.
They harassed and oppressed us in every painful and degrading way only to make us return to our superstitious faith of idol-worship and to make us indulge in all bad and dirty affairs in which we were engaged earlier.
When their high-handedness, oppression and harassment crossed all limits and it became quite unbearable for us and when they swept upon us wildly from all directions to force us to return to the earlier deviated way of life we decided to take shelter in your honor’s kingdom and we gave preference to your honor over all other rulers so that we may be able to live a peaceful life in your territory.
We hope that we will no more suffer in the limits of your peaceful kingdom.” King Negus asked, “Have you the knowledge of any sign, which your Prophet has brought to you from his God?