Salman the Persian details: Early Years in Persia (Iran)
According to the investigations and researches of the Arab
historians, Salman was born in or around the year 568 A.D., in a small town in
Persia called Jiyye. The modern city of Isfahan stands on the site of Jiyye.
Incidentally, Salman was not the name given to him at his birth. His Persian
name was Rozeba. Many years later when he became a Muslim, his master, Muhammed
Mustafa, the Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and his Ahlul-Bayt),
changed his name to Salman. During the years when he was at the court of his
master, Muhammed Mustafa, his friends sometimes, also addressed him, as Abu
Abdullah (the father of Abdullah).
Salman's father was a rich landlord and a powerful political
figure in Jiyye and the surrounding areas. He had much prosperity in the city,
and vast estates in the country, and he had numerous slaves and many herds of
horse. Since Salman was his only son he lavished all his love upon him.
Most Persians (Iranians) in those days were Magians or
Zoroastrians (followers of the Persian prophet Zoroaster). Salman was also
taught the principles and doctrines of Zoroastrianism. He was in his early
teens when he grasped the highly complex, sometimes esoteric doctrines and
dogmas of the Persian national belief and soon he knew as much as his own teachers
and the priests of the Zoroastrian fire temples of Jiyye did.
In those days in Persia, it was considered a great honor to
be a priest in one of the fire-temples. Service in a fire-temple provided the
priests with status, prestige and numerous perquisites. Since in Persian also,
the priests could reach high position in local and "national"
governments, Salman's father managed to get him appointed as a priest in the
local fire-temple while he was only sixteen years old.
For three years, Salman played priest in the fire-temple of
Jiyye but then he began to lost interest in his work. It had become too
monotonous and wearisome for him. The priests were men of limited vision and
limited knowledge and they were too dogmatic. If he posed any creedal question
to them, they were, in most cases, unable to answer him; or, they spoke in a
language of allusions, historical allegories and parallels.
One day in spring (circa 586 A.D.), Salman's father had some
important business to attend to at one of his country houses. But before he
could go to the country, some merchants arrived in Jiyye from the ancient city
of Balkh and to entertain them he had to stay in Jiyye itself. He, therefore,
asked Salman to go in his stead, and briefed him on what he had to do at the
country house.
The following day Salman left Jiyye for his father's country
estate. When Salman had traveled a few miles from the city, he came upon a fork
in the road, and standing upon the brow of an eminence, he paused for a few
minute to survey the surroundings and to determine the direction of his
destination.
The light was now rapidly advancing from the east, and was
tinting the landscape. Presently the sun rose and as Salman was still basking
in the stream of the rays of the rising sun a grey stone edifice, partly veiled
in golden mist, caught his eye. It was some distance from the road, and Salman
decided to find out what it was and to whom did it belong. He, therefore, went
near it to take a closer look at it.
Salman, propelled by his curiosity, entered the building to
investigate. Inside, people were conducting a religious service and a choir was
singing a hymn in a foreign language, which he did not understand. When the
service was over, one member of the congregation came to him, greeted him, and
asked him who he was, and what was the purpose of his visit.
Salman told him who he was, and explained that he wished to
know who they were, and what creed they professed. He was taken to the
"high priest" who explained to him that they were Christians from
Syria and explained to him the Oneness of God, the Day of Judgment, and the
role of the Apostles, Messengers and Prophets of God. Salman questioned the
Christian priest regarding their beliefs and eventually the priest initiated
him into Christianity.
When Salman was late coming home, his father became very
anxious. His father sat, hacked with nameless fears and dark forebodings, in
the court of his palatial house, surrounded by his friends who were trying to
comfort him. Suddenly, Salman entered through the gate. His father threw his
arms around him and asked him where he had disappeared.
Salman proceeded to explain to his father that he had ridden
past a church of Christians and was with them all day long. His father then
said that he hoped that those people hadn't misled him and his religion and the
religion of his forefathers was the right one. Salman refuted his father by
proclaiming that their religion was better than Zoroastrianism.
Angered by this, his father threatened him with imprisonment
and torture if Salman did not swear that he had not and will not change his
religion. Salman, however, refused and was beaten and tortured, and was kept
hungry and thirsty in his prison day after day.
One of the servants of Salman's father was a young man
called Mehran. He had reared Salman from his infancy, and he loved him like his
own son. Salman knew that he could trust Mehran, and asked him one day if he
could put him touch with the Christian priest who might assist him in escaping
to Syria.
Mehran was only too glad to give this service to his young
master and he arranged for his escape. After a few days Mehran came to see
Salman and informed him that a caravan was ready to leave for Syria. The
following night Mehran entered his cell, removed the shackles from his feet,
gave him a new set of clothes to wear, and led him quietly out of the house
while everyone was sound asleep.
Outside the house, a horse was awaiting Salman. He thanked
Mehran for his invaluable help, bade him a silent and tearful farewell, and
rode out of Jiyye. Upon arrival in the church, Salman thanked his Christian
friends for what they were doing him. The priests gave special instructions to
the leader of the caravan regarding the welfare of Salman. The high priest then
committed Salman to the protection of God. The caravan left Jiyye the same
night, and moving at a brisk pace, put considerable distance between itself and
the city before daybreak.
The Years in the Wilderness
Nearly a month after its departure from Jiyye in Persia, the
caravan arrived in the ancient city of Damascus. Salman had come to the
journey's end but quite frequently; the end of one journey is the beginning of
another. Salman too had a new journey ahead of him but he knew that the new
journey would be in the realm of spirit.
Salman at this time was in the nineteenth year of his life.
He was rangy and muscular, and he had a powerful build. He was endowed with a
highly retentive memory, and a most penetrating intelligence. He had a critical
and an analytic mind that applied logic to every situation. In his physical
characteristics and his mental attributes he surpassed all the young men of his
age and generation. Just as he was tall, broad and robust beyond his years, he
was also wise, prudent, and sagacious and his experience. Early in his life, he
had cultivated a temperate personality. In Jiyye - his hometown - he had
riches, luxury, and high status - all within grasp. But he spurned them all,
and he did so not withstanding his extreme youth. Instead of seeking power and
pleasure, as other young men of his generation did, he made the pursuit of
Knowledge and Truth the "vocation" of his life. He was the idealist
par excellence.
After leaving Jiyye in Persia, Salman lived in four other
cities. He lived for ten years in Damascus, and then during the next twenty
years, he lived in Mosul, Nasibin and Ammuria. In each of these cities, he
read, studied, observed, and he assimilated all the religious knowledge that
was extant. He also spent much time in devotions in the hope of finding the
gift of enlightenment and inner peace. But his religious experience during this
period was almost entirely subjective. It arose out of and was identified by
means of his awareness of his own mental states and psychological processes.
There were times when his interior world became so vivid that he lost touch
with the exterior world. This alarmed him. One question that arose persistently
in his mind was if it was right to turn one's back upon the world and its
problems, and to try to win felicity and inner peace for one's owns self.
With the passage of time, the specter of doubt began to rear
its head in Salman's thoughts. He felt that Truth - the Ultimate Truth - was
still hidden from his, and this after an effort to find it that had spanned
more than a quarter century. When Salman was tormented too much by these
thoughts, and when he knew he had come to and impasse, he turned to God, and
prayed to Him to give him deliverance from doubt and skepticism, and lead him
to the destination which He had chosen for him. Little did he know, the light
of guidance that he wished and hoped to see, was soon to appear on the horizon.
Slavery
The last city, in which Salman lived, was Ammuria - a city
in the eastern part of Asia Minor - then a province of the Eastern Roman Empire
or the Byzantium Empire. It was in Ammuria that he heard, for the first time,
vague reports of the appearance, in Makkah in Arabia, of a new prophet.
According to these reports, this new prophet forbade the worship of idols and
images and preached the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty and Oneness of
God.
It occurred to Salman that the Flame of Truth, which he was
seeking, might be the one burning in Makkah in Arabia. Suddenly, Makkah
appeared to be beckoning him to come. He, therefore, made up his mind to go to
Makkah to meet the Arabian prophet as soon as his circumstances would allow,
and to interrogate him personally on the problems, which had been perplexing
him.
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