From 613 to 619CE, theIslamic prophetMuhammad gathered in his hometown ofMecca a small following of those who embraced his message ofIslam and thus becameMuslims. The first person who professed Islam was his wife,Khadija bint Khuwaylid. The identity of the second male Muslim, after Muhammad himself, is disputed largely along sectarian lines, asShia and someSunni sources identify him as the firstShia imamAli ibn Abi Talib, a child at the time, who grew up in the household of his cousin, Muhammad. Other sources report that the first male convert wasAbu Bakr, who later succeeded Muhammad as the firstSunni caliph, or Muhammad's foster son,Zayd ibn Haritha. While it is difficult to establish the chronological order of early conversions, the identities ofearly Muslims are known with some certainty.
Muhammad first claimed to have received his first revelations around 610CE, which he initially shared only with his wife,Khadija bint Khuwaylid. Over time, in his hometown ofMecca, Muhammad gathered a small following of those who embraced his message ofIslam (lit. 'submission' to God) and becameMuslims. This increasingly drew the ire of the Meccan elite, who persecuted the early converts, especially the slaves and social outcasts.[1] While Khadija is universally recognized as the first female convert to Islam, the identity of the second male Muslim, after Muhammad himself, is disputed.[2]
An ongoing dispute concerns the identity of the second male Muslim, that is, the first male who accepted the teachings of Muhammad.[3][2]Shia and someSunni sources identify him as Muhammad's cousin,Ali ibn Abi Talib, aged between nine and eleven at the time.[4] For instance, this is reported by the Sunni historianIbn Hisham (d. 833) in his recension ofal-Sira al-Nabawiya, the biographical work of the Shia-leaning historianIbn Ishaq (d. 767).[5][6] Similar reports appear in the works of the Sunni authorsIbn Sa'd (d. 845) andal-Suyuti (d. 1505).[5][7] Ali himself claimed to be the second male Muslim inal-Qasi'a, a sermon attributed to him inNahj al-Balagha.[8] Among contemporary authors, this is also the view ofHassan Abbas,[6]John Esposito,[9]Clément Huart,[10] Betty Kelen,[11] John McHugo,[12]Moojan Momen,[13]Hossein Nasr andAsma Afsaruddin,[14] andReza Shah-Kazemi,[15] whileW. Montgomery Watt (d. 2006) regards the aforementioned list of early Muslims inal-Sira al-Nabawiya as "roughly accurate."[16]
Other Sunni sources specify the first male convert to Islam to be either the firstSunni caliph,Abu Bakr, or else Muhammad's foster son,Zayd ibn Haritha.[4] In particular, the Sunni historianal-Tabari (d. 923) lists several contradictory Sunni traditions as to the relative priority of Ali, Abu Bakr, and Zayd, but—himself refraining from judgment on the matter—leaves the reader to decide which of the narratives is to be preferred.[2] The earliest extant records seem to place Ali before Abu Bakr, according to the IslamicistRobert Gleave;[4] nevertheless, the Sunni–Shia disagreement over this matter has an obvious polemical dimension,[17][4] and Abu Bakr's later high status might have been reflected back into the early Islamic records.[2][18]
Sunni sources often describe Ali as the first child to embrace Islam,[19][20] though the significance of his conversion has been questioned by Watt[2] and by Sunni historianal-Jahiz (d. 869).[21] Alternatively, the Shia juristIbn Shahrashub (d. 1192) counters that Ali's youth—far from impeding his ability to grasp the message of Muhammad—in fact only increases his merit in so doing; Shahrashub further argues thatJesus andJohn the Baptist were similarly bestowed with divine wisdom in childhood, according to theQuran.[21] In Shia sources, Ali is credited not only as being the first male convert, but also with—since he had been raised by Muhammad from a young age—having never practiced idolatry. This places him—in Shi'ism—above Abu Bakr, who was a middle-aged man at the time of his conversion.[22]
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Since social status in Islam depended on Islamic precedence, historical reports about the order in which his followers joined Muhammad are often not reliable.[2] Nevertheless, an approximate list of early Muslims may be compiled with reasonable certainty, and one such list is given by Ibn Ishaq.[16] Many of them were young and middle-class men, surmises Watt, some of whom did not enjoy any clan protection and were thus susceptible to harassment by Meccan pagans.[23]
Among theBanu Hashim, Muhammad's clan,Ja'far ibn Abi Talib andHamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib were two early Muslims.[24]Ubyda ibn al-Harith, some years senior to Muhammad, was another relative of him who embraced Islam early on.[25] Besides Abu Bakr, a youngTalha ibn Ubayd Allah was another early convert from theBanu Taym clan in Mecca.[25] Among theBanu Zuhra, another Meccan clan,Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf,Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and his brothers,Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, al-Muttalib ibn Azhar and his brother, andKhabbab ibn al-Aratt were all early Muslims, though the last figure was a poor confederate with little protection, and probably suffered persecution in Mecca.Miqdad ibn Aswad and Mas'ud bin Rabi'a, both early Muslims, were two other confederates of this clan.[26] The early converts among the MeccanBanu Adi clan includedSa'id ibn Zayd, Nu'aym ibn Abd Allah, andUmar ibn al-Khattab, who later succeeded Abu Bakr to the caliphate.[27]Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah and Suhayl ibn Bayda' became Muslims from among the ranks of theBanu al-Harith, another Meccan clan.[28] Early Muslims from the Meccan clan ofBanu Amir includedIbn Umm Makhtum,Suhayl ibn Amr, and his brothers.[29]Zubayr ibn al-Awwam is perhaps the only named early convert from the Banu Asad, another Meccan clan.[29] Among the influentialAbd Shams clan in Mecca,Uthman ibn Affan,Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba,Khalid ibn Sa'id, and the family of the confederate Jahsh professed Islam early on.[30] TheBanu Makhzum, evidently the politically dominant clan in Mecca, also had some early Muslims, includingAbu Salama,al-Arqam,Shams ibn Uthman, and the confederateAmmar ibn Yasir.[31]Khunays ibn Hudhafa is the only named early convert from theBanu Sahm, another Meccan clan.[32] Among theBanu Juma,Uthman ibn Maz'un and some of his close relatives are listed among the early converts.[32]
