Al-Aswad Al-Ansi
Encyclopedia
Aswad Ansi better known as Abhala son of Kaab , was a prophet claimant who claimed prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...

hood in Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

 towards the end of the prophet Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

's lifetime, around 630 AD. He claimed to receive divine inspiration in the form of words and is recorded to have recited them to his people.

He was known to be a soothsayer
Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...

 and a sorcerer who had a passion for consumption of alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

. He had an ability to dazzle a crowd with tricks, according to traditional accounts he had a donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...

 whom he had trained to kneel before him, he would tell the donkey, in front of a large crowd "Kneel before your lord" and it would kneel, and then he would say to it "Bow before your lord" and it would bow. He eventually managed to convince the people of Yemen that he was a prophet.

History

He went on to invade Najran
Najran
Najran , formerly known as Aba as Sa'ud, is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen. It is the capital of Najran Province. Designated a New town, Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom; its population has risen from 47,500 in 1974 and 90,983 in 1992 to...

 and most of the Yemen. After his invasion of Yemen he changed his title from "Prophet of God" to "Rahman
Rahman
-People:*Rahman , Arabic male name*Abdur Rahman, Arabic male theophoric name meaning Servant of Allah-See also:* Rehman * Raman * Ramen, a Japanese noodle...

" (The Most Merciful), which is one of the 99 names of Allah. He thus claimed to be God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

. His rule of the Yemen was short lived as Muhammad later sent Fairouz ad-Delami to assassinate him under the supervision and planning of Qais bin Hubaira.

According to al-Baladhuri, after Fairouz assassinated the would be prophet he climbed to the top of the palace wall carrying the severed head and shouted, "Allahu Akhbar
Takbir
The Takbīr or Tekbir is the Arabic term for the phrase ' . It is usually translated "God is [the] Greatest," or "God is Great". It is a common Islamic Arabic expression...

!" ("God is greater!") Then he proclaimed the shahadah, denounced Aswad as a false prophet and an enemy of Allah, and threw the severed head down at a small group of men who had gathered below, before escaping to Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...

.
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