اللهم ارزقنى شهادة فى سبيلك واجعل موتى فى بلد رسولك صلى الله عليه وسلم
May Allah grant me martyrdom in his path.
May he grant me death in the city of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)
In the time(caliphate) of Umar ibn al Khattab, there was a sahabi
who migrated to a place called Hims, in Syria (now known as Hums).
Narrations mention that this sahabi opened a shop.
One day a Christian came to this shop to buy something. The sahabisaid ’you know across the road is a shop of a Christian.I have been watching since morning and no one has come into his shop. Alhamdulillah, i have enough to feed my children, so why don’t you go to his shop and buy from him..’
So this Christian goes to the Christians shop and after a while he returns to the sahabi’s shop. The sahabiasks,’did you not get what you wanted?’.
The Christian said, ‘i got what i wanted but i want something else.'
The Sahabiasked, ‘what is it?’
The Christian replies, ‘ I want this faith that you have’
The Sahabi:‘Why? You know these are things that you don’t rush. Take your time over.'
The Christian said,’No, no, no. My heart bears witness that if this is the character of a mere companion of the Prophet, then what must have been the character of the Prophet
, himself.’
And then the Christian embraced Islam.
(taken from talk given by Shaikh Zahir Mahmood)