The Strangers (Kitab al-Ghuraba') summary

There is a short saying of the Prophet ﷺ that has comforted believers for fourteen centuries. It is recorded by Muslim, from Abu Hurayrah.

Islam began as something strange, and it will return to being strange, as it began. So glad tidings to the strangers.

More than a thousand years ago, a scholar of Baghdad, who later lived for many years in Makkah, wrote a small book about this saying. His name was Abu Bakr al-Ajurri. He was a scholar of hadith and of law, known by everyone for his honesty, his worship, and his love of the Sunnah. His book is called The Strangers Among the Believers.

He begins by asking: what does it mean that Islam began as something strange?

Before the Prophet ﷺ was sent, he explains, people followed many different religions. When the message came, whoever accepted Islam, from any tribe or any class, became a stranger among his own people. He had to hide his faith. His family turned cold towards him. He was looked down upon, and he bore it patiently. He was a stranger in his own house.

Then Allah gave strength to Islam. Its supporters grew many. The people of truth rose, and the people of falsehood were humbled. And the strangeness passed, for a time.

But the Prophet ﷺ said it would return. al-Ajurri explains this too, with the humility of a scholar who adds: and Allah knows best. Misleading desires would multiply, and many people would be led astray by them. Those who held on to the truth would become strangers once again, simply because they were few.

This book is not about people far from their countries. It is about people who may be living in their own homes, among their own families, and yet feel like strangers, because they are trying to live by what Allah loves when most around them are not.

If you have ever felt alone because of your faith, al-Ajurri wrote this book for you. And the Prophet ﷺ has already given you the good news: glad tidings to the strangers.