Far away in Persia, in a grand house, there lived a boy named Salman (radiyallahu anhu). In the middle of his home burned a big fire that was never allowed to go out, because his family worshipped fire. Salman's father loved him so much that he kept him home all the time, like a treasure locked in a box. Salman had never even seen the streets of his own town.
One day his father asked him to go out to the family garden. On the way, Salman got lost. And as he wandered, he heard voices. People were praying inside a church, praying to God, not to a fire. Salman stopped. He listened. An hour passed, then another. Something inside him whispered: this is better than what I know.
When Salman said he wanted to follow this new way, his father was upset and kept him locked at home. But you cannot lock up a heart that is searching. Salman slipped away with a caravan of travelers and set off across the world to learn.
He found a wise teacher and served him. When that teacher grew old, he sent Salman to another teacher, in another far city. And that one sent him to another. And another! City after city, year after year, Salman kept learning and kept searching. At last, his final teacher, who was very old, told him a secret: a prophet was coming soon, in the land of the Arabs, in a town full of date palm trees between two fields of black rock. And there would be signs. The prophet would not eat food given as charity, but he would eat food given as a gift. And between his shoulders there would be a special seal, a mark of prophethood.
Salman set off again. The journey was long and very hard. Some travelers cheated him, and for years he had to work as a slave, watering date palms. But listen to this. The town where he ended up, Madinah, sat between two fields of black rock, and it was full of date palms. Exactly like his teacher had said!
One day, high up in a palm tree, Salman heard news: a man from Makkah had come, and people said he was a prophet. Salman's heart nearly leapt out of his chest. But he remembered the signs. First he brought dates and said they were charity. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ let the others eat, but did not eat himself. One! Then Salman brought dates as a gift. This time the Prophet ﷺ ate. Two! And then one day Salman saw the seal between the Prophet's shoulders, the third sign, and he wept for joy. After more than thirty years of searching, he had found the truth at last.
The Prophet ﷺ and his companions helped Salman become free. They even planted three hundred palm trees to do it, and the Prophet ﷺ planted them with his own hands. And when people argued about which tribe Salman belonged to, the Prophet ﷺ said the most beautiful thing: Salman is one of us, he is from the people of my household. The boy from far-away Persia had found something better than gold. He had found the truth, and a family.