Tufayl bin ‘Amr, who was a wise man and a melodious poet and enjoyed great respect in his tribe, came to Makkah. It was very detestable and annoying for Quraysh that Tufayl should embrace Islam. The chiefs of Quraysh and the jugglers of diplomacy, therefore, gathered round him and groaned and said: “That man who is offering his prayers by the side of the Ka’bah has destroyed our unity and created dissensions amongst us by his magical narrations and we are afraid that he would create a similar discord in your tribe also. It will, therefore, be much better if you do not converse with him at all”.
Tufayl says: “Their words impressed me so much that fearing that Muhammad’s magical narrations might affect me, I decided not to speak with him or to hear what he said. In order to ward off the influence of his magic, therefore, I decided to put some cotton in my ears while performing ‘tawaf’, so that his voice should not reach me, while he was reciting the Qur’an and offering his prayers. In the morning I entered the mosque after having put cotton in my ears and was not at all inclined to hear him speak.
However, I don’t know how it happened that all of a sudden some extremely sweet and charming words reached my ears and I enjoyed them very much. Upon this I said to myself: “Curse upon you! You are an eloquent and intelligent person. What is the harm if you hear what this man says? If he says something good you should accept it, otherwise you can very well reject it. I waited, however, so that I might not contact the Prophet openly.
At last the Prophet proceeded to his house and entered it. I also obtained permission and entered his house. I told him the entire story and said: “Quraysh ascribe so many things to you, and in the beginning I had no intention of seeing you. However, the sweetness of the Qur’an has drawn me to you. I now request you kindly to explain the nature of your religion and recite a portion of the Qur’an to me”.
“The Holy Prophet made his religion known to me and recited some verses of the Qur’an”.
Tufayl adds: “By Allah! I had never heard a narration more appealing and had never seen a law more moderate!”
Then Tufayl said to the Prophet: “I am an influential man in my tribe and shall take steps for the propagation of your religion”.
Ibn Hisham writes8 that he (Tufayl) was with his tribe till the Battle of Khayber and remained busy in propagating Islam and joined the Holy Prophet in that very battle along with seventy or eighty Muslim families.9He remained steadfast in Islam till he met his martyrdom in the Battle of Yamamah.