The Truth That Saved Ka'b

Long ago, Ka'b ibn Malik had a son called Abdullah, who guided him after he lost his sight. Abdullah heard his father tell the story of the time he could have lied, and didn't.

Ka'b was a Companion of the Prophet ﷺ. One blazing summer in Madinah, as the fruit ripened and the shade looked inviting, the Prophet ﷺ told the Muslims to prepare for a long, hard journey across the desert to Tabuk.

Ka'b had no reason to stay behind. He had never been stronger or richer, and for the first time he owned two riding camels.

Each morning he set out to prepare and came home having done nothing. "I can do it," he told himself. When the army left, he thought, "I'll get ready in a day or two, then join them." But the days slipped by, and it was too late.

When Ka'b heard that the Prophet ﷺ was on his way back, he began to think up false excuses. But when word came that the Prophet ﷺ was almost home, they all melted away. Ka'b knew that no lie could save him, and he decided to tell the truth.

The Prophet ﷺ arrived, prayed two rak'ahs in the mosque and sat with the people. More than eighty men who had stayed behind came to him with excuses and oaths, and he accepted what they said, asked Allah to forgive them, and left their secrets for Allah to judge.

Then Ka'b came and greeted him. The Prophet ﷺ smiled, but it was the smile of someone who is angry. "Come," he said, and Ka'b sat before him. "What stopped you? Had you not bought an animal to ride?"

"Yes, O Messenger of Allah ﷺ," said Ka'b. "If I were sitting before anyone else in the world, I could talk my way out of this. I have been given a gift for words. But if I tell you a lie today to please you, Allah will soon make you angry with me. If I tell you the truth, even though it makes you angry, I hope for Allah's forgiveness. By Allah, I had no excuse."

"As for this man," said the Prophet ﷺ, "he has told the truth. Now get up, until Allah decides your case."

Outside, men from his clan kept blaming him for not making an excuse like the others, until Ka'b almost went back on his words. Then he heard that two good men had said the same: Murarah ibn ar-Rabi' and Hilal ibn Umayyah. In them Ka'b found an example, and he stood firm.

The Prophet ﷺ told the Muslims not to speak to the three men while they waited for Allah's decision. It was a hard test. People turned away, and Madinah felt like a land Ka'b had never known. The other two stayed at home, weeping. Ka'b, the youngest, still went out to pray, though no one spoke to him.

When a letter came from the king of Ghassan, inviting Ka'b to leave Madinah and join him, and promising him comfort, Ka'b said, "This is also a test," and pushed the letter into the oven fire.

Fifty nights passed. On the fiftieth morning, after Fajr, Ka'b sat on a rooftop, feeling as Allah describes in the Quran: the earth closing in on him in spite of its vastness. A voice rang out from Mount Sal': "O Ka'b ibn Malik, rejoice!" Ka'b fell down in sujood, knowing that relief had come.

In the night, Allah had sent down verses accepting the repentance of the three, and after Fajr the Prophet ﷺ had announced it. Ka'b set off to see him, and on the way people came in groups to congratulate him.

In the mosque, the Prophet ﷺ, bright with happiness, said, "Rejoice at the best day you have had since your mother gave birth to you." Ka'b asked, "Is this forgiveness from you, or from Allah?" "It is from Allah," he replied.

Then Ka'b made a promise. "O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Allah saved me because I told the truth. So part of my repentance is that I will speak nothing but the truth for as long as I live." From that day on, he said, he never once meant to tell a lie.

As for the men who had lied, Ka'b said that when Allah sent down His verses, He spoke of them more harshly than of anyone else. Straight after the verse about the three, Allah tells every believer to be mindful of Him and to be with those who are true.

That was the story Ka'b told his son: how one hard truth led, after fifty long nights, to the best day of his life. And Abdullah passed it on, so that we could hear it too, tonight.