Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami

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'Abu Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami (Arabic: ابو العلاء الحضرمي‎, "Abu Al-ʿAlāʾ al-Haḍrami) was a Yemeni envoy sent by the Muslim prophet Muhammad in the 7th century AD, to spread the message of Islam to the region that is now Bahrain and Qatar. He was from Hadhram in Yemen.

Prior to Islam, the inhabitants of Qatar and Bahrain worshipped idol gods like Awal or Nestorian Christianity. Islam swept the entire Arabian region in the 7th century, overturning the idol worshippers. Prophet Muhammad sent his first envoy Abu Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami to Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi, the ruler of Bahrain, which in those days, extended the coast from Kuwait to the south of Qatar including Al Hasa and Bahrain Islands, in the year 628 AD, inviting him to Islam. Munzir, responding to Muhammad's call announced his conversion to Islam and all the Arab inhabitants of Bahrain and Qatar including some Persians living in Qatar also became Muslim, heralding the beginning of the Islamic era in Bahrain and Qatar. Consequently, Abu Al Ala Al-Hadrami was appointed by prophet Muhammad as his representative in Bahrain to collect the Jizya (religious tax).

Al-Ala' was also the ruler of the region from 633 until his death in 635.

The letter from Muhammad to Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi is preserved and can be seen at Beit Al Qur'an museum in Hoora, Bahrain, with the seal of Muhammad still intact.

See also

• Salaf
• Sahaba
• Khamis Mosque
• Islam in Bahrain
• Bahrain
• Qatar
• Sunni view of the Sahaba