Salman · a Light

He crossed three countries looking for one man

Salman al-Farisi was born near Isfahan, the son of a Zoroastrian landowner who locked him in the house to stop him leaving. He left anyway, followed a Christian monk to Syria, and served a succession of teachers, the last of whom told him a prophet was about to appear in a land of date palms between two fields of black rock. On the way he was betrayed and sold as a slave, and ended up in Madinah, where he recognised the description of the place before he met the man. His freedom was bought under a contract requiring three hundred date palms and a weight of gold, and the Prophet ﷺ planted the palms with him. He later proposed digging the trench that saved the city.

Salman al-Farisi · Persia to Madinah