The Believer of Ya-Sin

The believer of Ya-Sin is a man of the people, evoked in the Quran without being named. When his city rejected the messengers sent to it, he rushed from the far end of the city to call his people to follow them and worship God alone. His faith cost him his life, but God admitted him immediately to Paradise.

A city had received messengers calling to the worship of God, but its inhabitants called them liars and threatened them.

While no notable took their defence, a simple man rushed from the far end of the city. He challenged his people with limpid logic: why not worship the One who created them and to whom all would return? Why trust in idols incapable of averting the slightest misfortune? He proclaimed openly: 'I believe in your Lord, so listen.'

This word cost him his life. But at the moment of his death, he was told: 'Enter Paradise!' — and his first wish, even then, was not revenge, but that his people might come to know the forgiveness and honour that God had just bestowed upon him.

According to tradition (and not the Quran), this man would be Habib al-Najjar, a carpenter, and the city would be Antioch.

The believer of Ya-Sin teaches the courage to speak the truth, even alone, even at the risk of one's life. And he shows the greatness of a heart that, even in death, wishes nothing upon those who killed him but that they too might come to know God's mercy.

وَجَاءَ مِنْ أَقْصَى الْمَدِينَةِ رَجُلٌ يَسْعَىٰ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اتَّبِعُوا الْمُرْسَلِينَ ۝ اتَّبِعُوا مَن لَّا يَسْأَلُكُمْ أَجْرًا وَهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ

Accourant du bout de la ville, un homme vint leur dire : « Mon peuple ! Suivez les messagers ! Suivez ces hommes qui ne vous réclament aucun salaire et qui sont bien guidés.

36:20-21

قِيلَ ادْخُلِ الْجَنَّةَ ۖ قَالَ يَا لَيْتَ قَوْمِي يَعْلَمُونَ ۝ بِمَا غَفَرَ لِي رَبِّي وَجَعَلَنِي مِنَ الْمُكْرَمِينَ

Il lui fut dit : « Entre au Paradis ! » Il dit : « Si seulement mon peuple pouvait savoir que mon Seigneur m’a pardonné et placé au nombre des hôtes honorés du Paradis ! »

36:26-27