Quote
O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, why don't you come to my protective fortress?
Offered while the Prophet ﷺ was still being persecuted in Makkah, inviting him to emigrate to Yemen under Tufayl's protection.
Tufayl ibn Amr al-Dawsi, chieftain of the tribe of Daws in Yemen, came to Makkah to perform umrah while the Prophet ﷺ was still being persecuted. The Quraysh warned arriving pilgrims that "a magician" had arisen among them who could break the bonds between father and son, so Tufayl stuffed his ears with cotton whenever he went near the Ka'bah to avoid hearing him ﷺ. One day he still heard the Prophet ﷺ reciting Qur'an in prayer despite the cotton, and it moved him so much that he reproached himself for refusing even to listen, removed the cotton, and asked the Prophet ﷺ to let him hear what he had to say. The Prophet ﷺ sat him down, invited him to Islam and recited Qur'an to him, by some accounts just the last three surahs, and Tufayl embraced Islam on the spot, asking the Prophet ﷺ to make du'a for him and his people. The Prophet ﷺ made du'a for the guidance of Daws and told Tufayl to be gentle with them. Tufayl returned home and, being beloved by his tribe, saw his father, mother and wife accept Islam the same day; over time more than 80 families of Daws embraced Islam at his hands. While still in Makkah, Tufayl offered the Prophet ﷺ refuge in his tribe's fortress in Yemen, but the Prophet ﷺ declined, since Allah had willed his emigration to Yathrib (Madinah) instead.
One of the converts who came to Islam through Tufayl was Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr al-Dawsi, Abu Hurairah RA, who would go on to narrate more hadith than any other companion. Because Tufayl was the one who guided him to Islam, he shares in the reward of everything Abu Hurairah RA's narrations achieved, illustrating that no good deed, however small it may seem, should ever be considered insignificant.
Other events recorded in 5 BH. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, why don't you come to my protective fortress?
Offered while the Prophet ﷺ was still being persecuted in Makkah, inviting him to emigrate to Yemen under Tufayl's protection.
I will go back to my tribe and invite them to Islam as well: make du'a for me.
Said just after Tufayl embraced Islam on the spot, having removed the cotton from his ears to listen to the Prophet ﷺ recite Qur'an.
اللهم اهد دوسا وأتِ بهم
O Allah, give guidance to the people of Daws, and bring them to Islam.
They kept on telling me this until I became terrified of this man, so much so that when I would go to the Ka'bah to present in front of the idols, I would stuff my ears with cotton so that I don't hear anything from him.
The Quraysh had just warned Tufayl, on his arrival in Makkah to perform umrah, that the Prophet ﷺ was a magician who could break the bonds between father and son, brother and brother.
Even though I had the cotton in my ears, I could still hear him, and I had never heard anything like it. So I began reprimanding myself: why can't you listen to him? You are an intelligent man; you know truth from falsehood. Listen to the man and see what he has to say: if there is good, accept it, and if not, reject it.
Ya Muhammad ﷺ, your people have warned me against you, so for a few days I have not come to you at all. But I heard you recite, and I want to hear what you have to say. If it is good, then so be it; and if it is bad, then so be it.