means of livelihood and by poverty. We are ready to give you what will satisfy you, and to see you leave with certain things that ye choose."[1] Al-Mughîrah answered, "Allah has sent us his Prophet by following and obeying whom we were made prosperous, and he has ordered us to fight those who differ from our faith 'Until they pay tribute out of hand and in a humbled state'.[2] We, therefore, call thee to the worship of Allah alone and the belief in his Prophet, which if thou shouldst do, well and good; otherwise, the sword will decide between us." Rustam, snorting with anger, said, "By the sun and by the moon, the day will not break to-morrow before we kill you all." "No strength and no force but in Allah," answered al-Mughîrah, and departed riding a lean horse with a sword broken at its edge and wrapped up in rags.[3]
ʿAmr and al-Ashʿath interview Rustam. ʿUmar wrote to Saʿd instructing him to send to the magnate of the Persians a delegation to invite him to Islâm. Accordingly, Saʿd sent ʿAmr ibn-Maʿdikarib az-Zubaidi and al-Ashʿath ibn-Ḳais al-Kindi at the head of a delegation. They passed by Rustam, and on being brought before him, he asked them, "To whom are ye going?" to which they replied, "To your chief." A long conversation followed in which they said, "Our Prophet has promised us the conquest of your land," upon which Rustam called for a palm-leaf basket full of soil and said, "This is for you from our land!" ʿAmr ibn-Maʿdikarib immediately arose, spread his cloak and departed, carrying in it some of the soil. When he was asked later, "Why didst thou do that?". ʿAmr replied, "Because I considered it a good omen, indicating that
