A group wanted Ali ibn Abi Talib to talk about the companions of the Prophet and introduce them. As they continued with their questions about the Prophet’s companions, they asked about Salman’s position.
Ali Ibn Abu Talib said, ‘Salman realized the first and last knowledge. He is a sea whose depth cannot be measured, and he is one of us – the Ahlul Bayt’.
In narrating this hadith by Ibn Abel Hadid Motazeli in praise of Salman’s knowledge, it is said, “Salman is the sea that never finishes; he is one of us “Ahlul Bayt”.
These two Prophetic and Alawite maxims, narrated by Shi‘as and Sunnis, remind us of Salman al-Farsi’s vast knowledge. It is obvious that someone whom the Prophet and his caliphate recognize as a scholar and emphasize on the different dimension of his knowledge is definitely a great scholar and is a pattern and role model for intellectuals. Salman’s knowledge was to the extent that even his enemies acknowledged it, such as Abu Saleh, who said, “I hope Salman’s mother loses him; he’s too vast in his knowledge.”
Salman al-Farsi: A Great Companion of the Prophet Muhammad