2- Khadija
When the apostle of Allah was twenty‑five years
old he married Khadija, a rich and noble merchant‑woman who engaged
men to sell her merchandise and allowed them part of the profits; the
Quraysh was a trading tribe. She had heard of the veracity, honesty, and
excellence of the apostle of Allah, and sent for him to propose that he
take some of her goods to
Syria
as a trader. She promised to allow him a larger profit than other
merchants, to send with him her male slave, Maysara. The apostle of the
offer and departed with the goods and the slave.
On his arrival in
Syria
the apostle of Allah alighted in the shade of a tree near the hermitage of
a monk, who approached Maysara and asked, ‘Who is this man under the
tree?’ Maysara replied, ‘This man is one of the Quraysh from the
sacred city.’ And the monk said, ‘Under this tree no one ever alighted
except a prophet.’
Then the apostle of Allah sold the goods he had,
purchased others and returned with Maysara to
Mecca
. It is said that
Maysara saw, at noon during this return journey when
the heat was strong, two angels shading the apostle of Allah from the sun
while he rode on his camel. When he arrived at
Mecca
and came to Khadija with his goods, she sold them and found their value
doubled or almost so. Maysara, too, informed her of what the monk had
said, and what he had seen of the two angels shading the apostle; and
Khadija ‑ who was an intelligent, noble and good woman, predestined
to great favour by Allah ‑ sent for the apostle of Allah and spoke
the following words: 'O son of my uncle! I have taken a liking to you on
account of our relationship, your respectability among the people, your
honesty, character and veracity.' Then she offered herself to him for a
wife. She was at that time the most honoured woman among the Quraysh
because of her lineage, the highest in nobility, and the richest in
property; for this everybody envied her. When she had made this proposal
to the apostle of Allah he mentioned it to his uncles, and his uncle,
Hamza, went with him to her father, whom he asked for her; and he married
her. The apostle of Allah gave her twenty young camels for a dowry. She
was the first wife he married, and he never married another until she
died.
Khadija bore to the apostle of Allah all his children
except Ibrahim. She gave birth to al‑Qasim, and to al‑Tayyib,
to alTahir, to Ruqayya, to Zaynab, to Umm Kulthum and to
Fatima
. Al‑Qasim, al‑Tayyib and al‑Tahir died during
'ignorance' [before the promulgation of Islam], but all the daughters of
the apostle of Allah lived to see the establishment of Islam, made
profession of it, and emigrated with him to Medina.
Khadija told her cousin, Waraqa, who was a Christian
well versed in sacred and profane literature, what Maysara had related of
the conversation of the monk and what he had seen of the two angels
shading the apostle of Allah, and Waraqa replied, 'If this be true, o
Khadija, then Muhammad is the prophet of his people. I know that a prophet
is expected at this time.'
Waraqa had been one of the men of the Quraysh known
as the 'four inquirers', who had gone in search of the true religion of
Abraham. This happened in the following manner:
Some decades earlier the Quraysh had begun to
establish the of 'The Hums', which imposed acceptance of Quraysh priority
over the other Arab tribes. 'We are the sons of Abraham, men of honour,
governors of the house of Allah, inhabitants of
Mecca
. No Arab has such virtue as we, nor such dignity as we. No man of the
Quraysh should honour territory which is secular in the way he honours
that which is sacred. For if he does so the Arabs will slight his honour,
and will say of the Quraysh, "They have honoured that which is
profane [outside the sacred limits] in the same way as that which is
sacred [within .the sanctuary of the holy
territory
of
Mecca
]." ' Accordingly the Quraysh abandoned certain holy ordinances of
pilgrimage enjoined by the religion of Abraham, saying: 'We are the
inhabitants of the sacred city of
Mecca
and it is not proper for us to leave it and honour another place as we
honour
Mecca
. We are the Hums, the people of the sacred place.' But they imposed the
ordinances on all other Arabs born either without or within the limits of
Mecca
.
They next invented new observances for themselves.
They announced that it was not proper for the Hums to prepare eqth [milk
be dried and reduced to powder], to melt fat, or to enter a
camel‑hair tent whilst they were in a state of purity and sanctity
[performing the ceremonies of the pilgrimage]. They added even to these
rules, saying that persons who had come from outside the sacred city ought
not to eat food they had brought in with them, whether they came as
pilgrims or visitors. The pilgrims’ first circuit of the Kab a should be
made in dress provided by the Hums, or, if such could not be procured, in
no dress at all; but rich men or women unwilling to do either could walk
around the temple in the garments in which they had arrived, provided they
afterwards threw them away and neither touched them any more nor allowed
anyone else to touch them. The Arabs were induced to agree to this and
made the circuit of the Kaba, the men naked, and the women clad only in an
open cassock.
One day, when the Quraysh held a festival near one of
the stone idols which they honoured, for which they slaughtered
sacrifices, near which they assiduously prayed, and around which they
walked in procession, four men (one of whom was Waraqa) separated from the
rest, saying one to another: 'Will we make a covenant of mutual friendship
and protection?' And each said, 'Indeed we will! Our people have no
religion! They have lost the religion of their father Abraham! What worth
has a stone that it should be walked around, which can neither hear nor
see anything, neither hurt nor profit anyone? O ye Quraysh, seek a
religion for yourself, for, by Allah, you have none whatever.'
And the four dispersed to various countries to seek
the religion of Abraham. Waraqa decided on Christianity and followed the
books of its teachers until he had obtained knowledge of the scripture.
Ubaydullah remained in doubt until, after the revelation, he made
profession of Islam and went to
Abyssinia
; but when he arrived there he became a Christian and died thus, after
having renounced Islam.
The third, Uthman, went to
Byzantium
, where he became a Christian and attained high office.
The fourth man, Zayd, became neither Jew nor
Christian, although he renounced the religion of the Quraysh and abandoned
idols, blood, and sacrifices slain for idols, and condemned the burying
alive of female infants. He said, 'I worship the Lord of Abraham', and,
when he was a very old man, was to be seen leaning with his back against
the Kaba, saying, 'O ye Quraysh people! I swear by Him in whose hand the
life of Zayd is, there is not one among you of the religion of Abraham,
except myself. O Allah ! If I knew which way is most pleasing to Thee, I
would worship Thee according to it, but I do not know it.' He set forth in
search of the religion of Abraham and made inquiries from monks and Jewish
priests. He passed through Mesopotamia, and then wandered through the
whole of
Syria
until he found a monk in whom the knowledge of Christianity was
concentrated. Him he asked about the orthodox religion of Abraham, and the
monk replied, 'You are in search of a religion to which no one can guide
you at present; but the time is at hand when a prophet will arise in your
country; he will be sent with the religion of Abraham. Adopt it, for he
comes now, and this is the time.'
Shortly after this Zayd departed for
Mecca
, but he was attacked and died by the way. When the apostle of Allah was thirty‑five years old some
evil men stole the treasure which was kept in a well inside the Kaba. The
treasure was found again in the possession of a manumitted slave, and the
Quraysh cut off his hands, although they believed others had stolen the
treasure and merely left it with the slave.
The
Quraysh now felt it necessary to rebuild the Kaba and roof it in,
but they were afraid to demolish it, because there was a serpent which
always came up to the wall to warm itself. The people feared it because
when anyone approached it raised itself, hissed and opened its mouth. One
day, however, whilst it was warming itself as usual in the sun on the
wall, Allah sent a bird which snatched it up and flew off with it. Thereon
the Quraysh said: 'Allah must approve of our intention. We have a workman,
we. possess wood. and Allah has delivered us from the serpent.”
They were now firmly determined to pull down the Kaba
and build it up again, and Abu Wahb rose and took a stone from the Kaba.
But the stone leapt from his hand and returned to its place, and he
exclaimed: 'O ye Quraysh people! In the building of the Kaba, do not
employ any of your goods unless they be of righteous origin; do not use in
it the profit of iniquity, nor of usurious sale, nor of injustice towards
any man.'
The Quraysh had decided that different parts of the
Kaba should be demolished by different sections of the community, but the
people were still afraid to destroy the edifice. Then al-Walid said: 'I
shall make a beginning for you', and he took up a pickaxe,stood up before
the Kaba and declared: 'O Allah! Let us not be afraid! We want only what
is good”. Then he began to pull down the wall between the two
buttresses. But the people waited that night, saying: 'We shall see; and
if anything happens to al‑Walid, we shall not demolish it, but leave
it as it was; but if nothing befalls him, Allah is pleased with what we
have done demolition.' The next morning al‑Walid continued his work
of demolition, and the people aided him till they reached the foundations.
In the buttress they found an inscription in Syriac, and knew not what it
meant until a Jew read it for them. It was as follows: 'I am Allah, the
lord of
Mecca
! I created it when I created the heavens and the earth, when I fashioned
the sun and the moon, and I have appointed over it seven angels;
Mecca
will not perish until its two hills perish! It will be blessed to its
inhabitants in water and milk!” When they reached the foundations they
found them to be green boulders adhering together like a single stone, and
when a man of the Quraysh inserted a lever to separate the boulders, the
whole of
Mecca
began to shake; so the people touched the foundation no more.
The groups of Quraysh now collected stones for the rebuilding,
each group gathering separately, and they built until they reached the
spot for the ruku [the sacred black stone]. Then all the people
quarrelled, because each group wished the honour of lifting the stone into
place; so bitter were the quarrels that the groups made alliances and
prepared to fight. One group produced a dish filled with blood and
entered into a covenant unto death with another group by dipping their
hands into the dish ‑they were therefore called blood‑lickers.
The situation remained thus for four or five nights; then the Quraysh
assembled in the mosque to consult and reach a decision, and the oldest
man among them said at last, 'Why not let he who next enters through the
door of this mosque be the arbiter in this quarrel, and let him decide
it?' They agreed, and the first man who entered was the apostle of Allah.
And they said, 'This is the faithful one! We agree that he shall judge.'
When he came near they told him of the problem and he said, 'Bring me a
cloak'. When they had brought one, he placed the ruku [black stone]
in it with his own hands, saying, 'Let every group take hold of a part of
the cloak.' Then all of them lifted it together, and when they reached the
spot, the apostle placed it in position with his own hands, and the
building was continued over it.
Thus matters stood when Allah sent for Muhammad, His
prophet, and revealed to him His religion and the proper usages of the pi
1grimage. 'Therefore go [ye Quraysh] in procession as the people
[the other Arabs] go in procession, and ask pardon from Allah; because
Allah is forgiving and merciful.' As for the prohibitions invented by the
Quraysh concerning cooking, dress, the circuit of the Kaba, and food
brought from beyond the sacred territory, Allah revealed the following: 'O
children of Adam! Wear decent apparel at every place of worship, and eat,
and
drink but be not prodigal, for He loveth not
prodigals. Say, who has forbidden the decent apparel of Allah which He has
brought forth for His servants, and the good things of His providing? Say,
these benefits, especially on the day of resurrection
shall be for those who were believers during their present life”.
Thus, when Allah established Islam by sending his apostle, he set
aside the observances the Quraysh had invented for their own people.
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