Douth Dhu Tholoban and the Great Groove Holocaust
Dhu Nawas
- in Najran, about 40 years before the Year of the Elephant, Yemen was ruled by King Dhu Nuwas Al-Himyari, (Yusuf Ibn Sharhabil, King of Himyar) And he was like many kings over the course of time, He thought of himself as a god.
- And like any king who claimed divinity at that time, he had a special magician, and when the magician got old, this magician suggested to the king that he take a boy who teaches magic, so that if he dies or stabs at the age, he will be of help to Dhu Nuwas.
- Dhu Nuwas agreed and the magician started looking for a smart boy to teach him magic and already tried with several boys from Yemen, but failed with all of them.
- One day, a man named Al-Thamer and his son Abdullah came to the magician, AL-Thamer wanted to make his son Abdullah a great magician.
- The magician was very impressed with Abdullah bin Al-Thamer and his intelligence, and one day Abdullah bin Al-Thamer was going on his way to the magician to follow the magician's lessons with him, he met an old man who knew how to read and write ( and this was a very rare thing in Najran at this time that someone could read and write well ).
- The monk almost fell to the ground from fatigue, and when Abdullah bin Al-Thamer noticed the monk's extreme fatigue, he grabbed his hand to take him to his house, and inside he found many papers with words written on it regarding of teachings of the Christian religion.
- so he sat with the monk and listened to him and his words about the Christian religion and the worship of the one God, and Abdullah bin Al-Thamer was very impressed by the monk's words and continued to visit him every day and learn from him, and he also continued to go to the magician and learn the arts of magic from him.
- After a period of time, Abdullah bin Al-Thamer came to possess two completely opposite sciences, the science of the monk and the science of the magician.
- Abdullah bin Al-Thamer became distracted between the magician's order and the monk's teachings and always asked himself, which is the truest and which of the two Sciences pleases God and benefits people.
- Abdullah was walking one day in the streets of Najran, where he found people running to their homes in horror and fear, and when someone asked, he replied that there was a monster coming to them ( it is said to be a huge lion )
The Biggest Test
- Here an idea came to Abdullah to test the knowledge of the monk and the knowledge of the magician in front of this lion, and when he became directly in front of the lion, he grabbed a stone in his hand And he began to address God, saying, "O Lord, if the magician's knowledge is certainty and right, please kill this animal", and he began to mutter some words that the magician taught him and threw the lion with a stone, but the lion was not hurt by anything.
- And the lion began to jump in the direction of Abdullah, and Abdullah grabbed another stone and said, "O Lord, if the monk's knowledge is certainty and right, please kill this animal", and threw the lion with the stone, at this moment The lion died instantly, and Abdullah then knew that the monk's knowledge is the truth and the magician's knowledge is nothing but a lie and slander against god.
- Abdullah became famous in all of Yemen after killing the lion, and he continued to learn more about the Christian religion and became familiar with the sciences of medicine and astronomy, And faith entered his heart and he became a believer in God and he went very deep in studying the Christian religion, and God granted him the miracle of restoring the sight of the blind, and began to heal the sick people with God's permission.
- One day a servant came to him from those who work in the palace of King Dhu Nuwas, and he was blind, so the servant asked Abdullah to restore his sight, so Abdullah conditioned him to believe in God first, and when the servant heard from Abdullah about the worship of God and the teachings of Christ, peace be upon him, he immediately believed in God and embraced Christianity, and here Abdullah prayed to his Lord to restore the servant's sight, and God answered him and restored the servant's sight.
Arrogant King
- The servant returned to the palace to resume his work, and while the servant was serving wine to King Dhu Nuwas, Dhu Nuwas then realized that he was seeing, so he asked him how you returned your sight to you, and the servant said with a pure intention it's A boy with faith and knowledge called Abdullah bin Al-Thamer after I converted to the Christian religion and believed in God.
- Dhu Nuwas said to the guards, "Bring me this boy," and when Abdullah came, Dhu Nuwas recognized him immediately and said to him, "You have become a great magician, boy," and Abdullah replied to him, "It is not magic that did this, but the one who restored the man's sight is God Almighty and Exalted", and Dhu Nuwas replied arrogantly, but I did not do anything.
- Abdullah replied to him in a calm tone and in front of everyone in the palace, of course, you have not and will not do anything because you are not a god, you are only human like us and cannot do anything.
- Dhu Nuwas got very angry and said to Abdullah "You're too young to learn all this on your own", so I will continue to torture you untill you tell me who taught you this speech, The boy couldn't stand the torture, he confessed that the monk taught him this and that his words were true and that you are not God.
- Dhu Nuwas ordered to bring the monk and ordered the monk and the servant to leave their religion and confess that God is Dhu Nuwas only, The monk and the servant refused, so Dhu Nuwas ordered to torture the monk and the servant, but the monk did not endure the torture and died, and one of the guards killed the servant.
- At this time, many people loved Abdullah bin Al-Thamer and began to learn Christianity, so the unjust king Dhu Nuwas ordered his soldiers to take the boy to the highest point of the mountain and give him a choice between two things, either to disbelieve in God Almighty or to throw him from the top of the mountain, so the boy prayed to the god to save him, so the mountain shook violently and the soldiers of the unjust king all fell and died, and the boy returned safely.
- When Dhu Nuwas saw him, he asked him, "Where are my soldiers?" Abdullah said, "God saved me from the evil of your soldiers, and they all died." The king became very angry and ordered other soldiers to take him in a boat in the open sea, throw him into the sea, and not return to him until they were sure that the boy had drowned.
- The soldiers carried out the order of the unjust king and took the boy to the open sea. Once again, the boy prayed to his Lord to save him from the evil of the unjust king and his soldiers, and indeed God Almighty answered the boy's prayer, so the boat shook with everyone in it and all the soldiers drowned except the boy.
- The boy returned to the king again, and Dhu Nuwas almost ignited in anger when he saw Abdullah bin Al-Thamer in front of him. He said: "O king, your soldiers have drowned and God Almighty has saved me again, and you will not be able to kill me.
The Big Deal
- The people were already starting to get angry with Dhu Nuwas and the fact that he was torturing a young boy and wanted to kill him, and that torturing people and killing them is not an attribute of God Almighty.
- Dhu Nuwas ordered his soldiers to gather all the people of Najran and even all the people of Yemen and tied Abdullah to a tree and told him in front of the people to confess that Dhu Nuwas is the only god of the Worlds, but Abdullah refused and told the king that you are just a human being like all these people and that you are not God and that you cannot kill me unless God wills it.
- Dhu Nuwas grabbed his spear and aimed it strongly at Abdullah, but it did not hit him, so People were stunned, and he again grabbed his bow and shot an arrow at Abdullah, but the arrow moved away from him and did not hit him, so The witnesses grew more believing in their hearts. and they began to humming against Dhu Nuwas.
- All the soldiers tried to kill Abdullah bin Al-Thamer, but to no avail, so Allah guided the boy to a way to make people enter the religion of Allah and leave their faith in this unbelieving and unjust king.
- Abdullah said to the unjust king, "If you want to kill me, hold your bow and say in a loud voice, "In the name of the god of Abdullah," and aim the arrow at my heart, Dhu Nuwas agreed and did what the boy told him, and when he shot the arrow, it hit Abdullah's heart and died immediately, and Dhu Nuwas laughed and thought he had won, but he heard the people in one voice saying, "We believe in the Lord of boy" ... "We believe in the Lord of Abdullah".
The Great Canyons
- Anger flared up in the mind and heart of Dhu Nuwas when he saw that all the people had believed in God, and he shouted to his soldiers, "Arrest them and bring them all to me.
- Dhu Nuwas tied all the witnesses with iron chains, and the references mention that they were about twenty thousand men and women, including children and young boys and girls, then ordered his soldiers to dig a huge Ditch in Najran and then ordered his soldiers to set fire to the Ditch.
- Dhu Nuwas was originally a Jew who stood in front of the people and told them, "You have three choices: believe in me, convert to Judaism, or be thrown into this fire.
- All the people of Najran refused to leave Christianity, so Dhu Nuwas ordered his soldiers to throw all the people into the Ditch.
- The soldiers began to throw people into the groove until the turn came on a woman and her three children, so the soldiers began to throw the first and second into the groove, and the third was an infant carried by the mother in her hands, and the soldier said to her, "Don't you turn back from what you are in and save yourself and save your infant son?" The woman was about to disbelieve the Christian religion and turn back from the truth until the miracle happened.
- The soldier was stunned by what he saw, and he looked into the woman's eyes then she said, "No, by God, I will never turn back from the truth after I have knew its way." Another soldier heard her and grabbed her and threw her into the fire.
- This boy was one of the four who spoke in the cradle, namely, Jesus, peace be upon him, The Child in the Story of the Monk Greg, The son of Pharaoh's daughter's maid , and the child in the groove story.
- The soldiers kept throwing the people of Najran into the groove until they were all burned, except for one who managed to escape, Douth Dhu Tholoban.
Vengeance
- Douth Dhu Tholoban managed to escape and the images of his family and neighbors burning in the groove did not leave his eyes, and after he calmed down, he decided to go to the king of the Romans.
- When he reached the king of the Romans, Douth Dhu Tholoban told him what happened in Najran, and the king of the Romans was a Christian, so he became very angry and thought for a while, then told Douth Dhu Tholoban that Yemen is far from them and gave him a letter to Najashi in Abyssinia, saying, "Get up from your spot and help our Christian brothers in Yemen".
- Douth Dhu Tholoban went to Najashi and gave him the letter and told him what happened in Najran. Najashi was furious and sent an army of seventy thousand soldiers led by Aryat to Dhu Nuwas.
- And when Aryat arrived with his army to the kingdom of Himyar, they began killing all the soldiers of Dhu Nuwas in revenge for the people of Najran and destroyed their castles, and when Dhu Nuwas saw himself alone and almost all his soldiers were killed, he feared that a king and a god like him would be killed by a person from Abyssinia, which is an insult from his point of view.
- So Dhu Nuwas climbed on the back of his horse and walked him towards the sea and continued to Running towards the sea until he died by drowning.
- Aryat and his army defeated the oppressive king Dhu Nuwas and were able to control the reins of government in Yemen, and among Aryat's army was a brave and powerful knight named Abraha, who was laterly known as Abraha AL-Ashram.