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    Mohammed Bashir
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    Cheraman Perumal, a Hindu king of Malabar, India in the 7th century, embraced Islam after witnessing the splitting of the moon. He traveled to meet the Prophet Muhammad and became one of his companions. Upon his return, he constructed India's first mosque, the Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kodungallur, Kerala. This establishes that Islam reached India during the Prophet's lifetime, not through later invaders as commonly believed. The mosque remains intact today and Juma prayers have been held there for over 1,300 years, making it one of the oldest in continuous use.

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    Cheraman Perumal, a Hindu king of Malabar, India in the 7th century, embraced Islam after witnessing the splitting of the moon. He traveled to meet the Prophet Muhammad and became one of his companions. Upon his return, he constructed India's first mosque, the Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kodungallur, Kerala. This establishes that Islam reached India during the Prophet's lifetime, not through later invaders as commonly believed. The mosque remains intact today and Juma prayers have been held there for over 1,300 years, making it one of the oldest in continuous use.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    2K views7 pages

    How A Hindu King Became A Muslim and Attained The Status of A Sahabi

    Uploaded by

    Mohammed Bashir
    Cheraman Perumal, a Hindu king of Malabar, India in the 7th century, embraced Islam after witnessing the splitting of the moon. He traveled to meet the Prophet Muhammad and became one of his companions. Upon his return, he constructed India's first mosque, the Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kodungallur, Kerala. This establishes that Islam reached India during the Prophet's lifetime, not through later invaders as commonly believed. The mosque remains intact today and Juma prayers have been held there for over 1,300 years, making it one of the oldest in continuous use.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    of 7

    HOW A HINDU KING BECAME MUSLIM AND

    ATTAINED THE STATUS OF A SAHABI


    Hold your breath! What you are about to read is not only amazing but highly
    awe-inspiring. It will, God willing, not only revitalize the conviction of the
    people of Islamic faith, but will also make the non-Muslims to revisit Islam.

    It is a common belief that Islam was first introduced to India by Muhammed


    bin Kasim. However, in the light of some startling facts that have surfaced in
    the recent past, it has been established that Islam came much earlier to India
    - as early as the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) time.

    In an interview with a descendant of an Indian King of that time whom Allah


    guided to become a Ṣaḥābi, some very fascinating facts have emerged. 87-
    year-old Raja Valiyathampuram of Kodungallur in Central Kerala (Malabar
    as it was known then) is a successor of a Chera king, King Chakrawati
    Farmas of Malabar who was also known as Cheraman Perumal Bhaskara
    Ravi Varma of Kodungallure. Cheraman Perumal, is known to be the first
    Indian to embrace Islam in the early 7th century. In the interview, taken by
    A. U. Asif, Raja Valiyathampuram dwells in detail upon his great early
    ancestor and the oldest masjid (see picture below) of the sub-continent. The
    facts stated in this interview also confirm that not all Ṣaḥāba’s graves are in
    Arabia, meaning they travelled all over the world with the mission to spread
    the Deen of Islam.

    Part of the interview is given below:

    How do you take your great-great grandfather


    Cheraman Perumal?
    Cheraman Perumal was not only a king and my ancestor, but the first Indian
    to come into the fold of Islam. He was actually the person who gifted Islam
    and the first ever mosque to the Indian sub-continent. This happened much
    before the advents of Muhammad bin Kasim and Mahmood Ghaznavi. This
    shows that Islam didn’t come to India with the sword.

    Is it a fact?
    As is well known in Kerala, on a moon-lit night the king while walking on
    the rooftop of his palace along with the queen saw the moon suddenly

    1
    splitting into two halves. Later he came to know through the Arab traders
    that a prophet called Muhammad (peace be upon him) had wrought a
    miracle (upon Allah’s command) on that fateful night and sundered the
    moon before a crowd of dazed spectators. Impressed by this new Messenger
    of God in Arabia, the king set out for the holy land after dividing his
    kingdom and assigning various territories to local chieftains to ensure
    smooth governance. In Arabia he met the Prophet (peace be upon him) and
    embraced Islam in the presence of Abu Bakr Siddique, who later became the
    first Caliph. Cheraman, who took a Muslim name, Tajuddin, died on his way
    back to India and was buried on the shore of the Arabian Sea at Ṣalālah in
    the Sultanate of Oman. It is said that he had earlier written letters to the local
    rulers of Malabar and sent it through his ministers along with Malik bin
    Dinar*, a companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him). In the letters he
    had asked them to "receive the bearers of the letters and treat them well and
    help them to construct mosques at Kodungallur and elsewhere". The rulers
    of Kerala honoured the letters and permitted Malik Bin Dinar and his fellow
    Arab traders to build mosques in Kerala. The mosque built in the early 7th
    century at Kodungallur, known as Cheraman Malik Masjid, still exists with
    its original structure and is said to be the oldest mosque in the sub-continent.
    It is named after both Cheraman Perumal and Malik bin Dinar.

    Is the mosque intact with its original structure?


    Yes, the original structure, including the sanctum sanctorum, remains intact.
    However, there have been a few extensions in the past. Its front portion is
    new while the back portion with its sanctum sanctorum, mehrab, mimbar
    (pulpit), wooden work on the roof of mimbar and traditional lamp as well as
    the ancient ceremonial pond, is still untouched.

    Anything more about Malik bin Dinar?


    After the construction of the mosque at Kodungallur, Malik bin Dinar moved
    towards Mangalore and died at Kasaragod, now in Karnataka, where he rests
    in peace. Interestingly, Cheraman Perumal and Malik bin Dinar are buried
    on two sides of the Arabian Sea, one at Ṣalālah in the Sultanate of Oman and
    the other at Kasaragod in India. In other words, their graves are interlinked
    by the waters of the sea. There exist 14 mosques of the same pattern and
    design from Kodungallur to Mangalore.
    (A. U. Asif is a Delhi based senior journalist)

    2
    ORIGINAL CHERAMAN JUMA MASJID

    A very striking fact which the historians have failed to highlight is that this
    is the world’s second oldest Juma Masjid, where the Juma prayers have been
    held for the last 1379 years, since the days of Prophet Mohammed (peace be
    upon him). The first Juma Masjid in the world is Masjid-un-Nabawi
    (Prophet’s (peace be upon him) Masjid in Madinah Al-Munawarah.

    We have to bear in mind that travelling in those days was very arduous and
    time consuming, and Cheraman, being a King, must have been used to a
    very comfortable life. Yet his belief in the Prophet (peace be upon him) was
    so strong that he was ready to leave his comforts and withstand all these
    hardships just to meet the Prophet (peace be upon him).

    3
    CHERAMAN JUMA MASJID AS IT STANDS NOW

    The books of ahadith have documented the arrival of the Indian king and his
    meeting the Prophet. Abu Sa’id al-Khudri, a companion of Prophet
    Muhammad (peace be upon him), states:
    “The Indian king gifted the Prophet (peace be upon him) with a jar of
    ginger. The companions ate it piece by piece. I took a bite as well.”

    The king was thus considered a Ṣaḥābi (companion) – a term used for a
    person who met the Prophet (peace be upon him) and died as a Muslim – his
    name is registered in the mega-compendiums chronicling the Prophet (peace
    be upon him)’s companions.

    In Ṣalālah there in an unmarked tomb of the Dravidian Emperor of the Chera


    dynasty, the illustrious Cheraman Parumal., who was the first known head of
    state to embrace Islam during the life time of the prophet Mohamed(peace
    be upon him).
    According to the Omani legend, on the way back to his native country in
    South India, the Emperor fell ill and he and his party decided to rest in the
    present day Ṣalālah. His request to land there was met with a rebuttal.
    Subsequent to negotiations, the locals agreed to give permission on
    condition that, since they were starving due to lack of food, the emperor
    should do something to see that their barren area received rain and the
    nearby sea, where there was a dearth of fish, became plentiful with fish.

    4
    Emperor Cheraman (now Tajuddin) and his entourage prayed to Allah
    Subhanahu wa Ta’la. Allah granted their prayers and blessed the people of
    Ṣalālah, which became a green paradise in the desert region, identical to his
    (Emperor Cheraman Perumal’s) own land back in India, which is very fertile
    and has plenty of fish in the sea. However, the Emperor could not recover
    from illness and he passed away peacefully in a land exactly like his own
    cherished Kerala. Ṣalālah still remains like a heaven in an otherwise desert
    area. But before his death he had asked his companions, among whom there
    were a number of senior disciples of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon
    him), to continue their journey to Kerala.

    Another historical version says: The king met the prophet at Jeddah on
    Thursday 27th Shawwal, six yeas before Hijrah (617 A.D.). He embraced
    Islam and accepted the name Tajuddin (the crown of the faith). After
    remaining in Arabia for few years the king decided to return to Malabar, but
    on the way he died at Shahar Muqalla in Yemen on Monday 1st Muharram
    in the first year of Hijrah (622 A.D.)

    ANOTHER VIEW OF CHERAMAN JUMA MASJID

    5
    MAP SHOWING PROBABLE JOURNEYS OF CHERAMAN
    PERUMAL AND MALIK BIN DINAR

    6
    Shaq ul Qamar (splitting of the Moon)
    The splitting of the moon is mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, Surah Al-
    Qamar (54), Verses 1-3:
    The hour drew nigh and the moon was rent in twain.
    And if they behold a portent they turn away and say:
    Prolonged illusion.
    They denied (the Truth) and followed their own lusts.
    Yet everything will come to a decision.

    This ‘Moon Splitting’ is also mentioned in several ahadith ((Translation of


    Sahih Bukhari, Virtues and Merits of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and
    his Companions,Volume 4, Book 56, Ahadith Nos. 830 to 832)

    Number 830: Narrated Abdullah bin Masud:


    During the lifetime of the Prophet the moon was split into two parts and on
    that the Prophet said, "Bear witness (to thus)."

    Number 831: Narrated Anas:


    That the Meccan people requested Allah's Apostle to show them a miracle,
    and so he showed them the splitting of the moon.

    Number 832: Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:


    The moon was split into two parts during the lifetime of the Prophet.

    Researched & written by: Mohammed Bashir Bharadia


    (Allah knows best and may He forgive me for any inaccuracies – Ameen.)

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