One of prophet Muhammad's companion, Salman the Persian or Salman Al-Farisi, was born into an affluent Persian family and was much loved by his father. Early in his life, he was a devout Magian (fire worshipper) and attained the position of custodian of fire. However, one day he passed by a Christian group and out of curiosity stayed with them to learn of their religion. He found that this religion was better and replaced his old religion with this one. His father was not approved of this and chained him away but Salman managed to sneak out and fled to Syria, where Christianity was flourishing at that time. As years gone by, news of a new a prophet in Arabia reached him and he set out to Hijjaz (the region in Arabia where Mecca and Medina (then Yathrib) were located) by joining an Arab caravan heading there. Before reaching Yathrib, he was betrayed by his host and was sold to a Jewish family as slaved. He was transferred to Yathrib and that is where he accepted Islam as his faith after observing prophet Muhammad pbuh. He couldn't join the Battle of Badr and Battle of Uhd due to his position as a slave. However, after Uhd, he was released from slavery following a payment of planting several hundreds of palm trees for his master, an agreement brokered by prophet Muhammad pbuh. The following military conflict, the Battle of the Trench, made Salman famous among the Muslims. Salman was the one who gave idea of building a trench to fortify a seiged Medina from the Confederate army, a strategy that was alien to the Arab world back then. The Muslims were outnumbered and faced betrayal from previously ally Jewish tribes, the trench provided the Muslims time until the Confederate army has to withdraw due to poor weather (or divine intervention). After the death of the prophet, Salman became a governer in Syria where he is known to give away all his salary to charity. His living is largely dependent on his own crop. Salman is known for his attributes of generosity, humility, extensive knowledge of Islam, Christianity, Zoroastriasm. He was also the first person to translate al-Quran.
Summarised from wikipedia.
Nothing to do with Salman Al-Farisi (but I wanted to write something too before my hiatus from blogging for a couple of days) is that Man Utd has got this talented youngster that had me impressed. Another 19 year-old Brazilian, Rodrigo Possebon made his competitive debut in the 1-1 EPL match against Newcastle Utd. He also made a 13-minute cameo in the 1-0 win over Portsmouth this morning. Playing in the defensive CM position, he was comfortable on the ball, good range of passing, good ball control and technique and can use both feet. He is 6 foot tall too which is a plus.
