3- The Revelation
As the time approached for
the revelation of the apostle, Jewish priests and Christian monks
discussed prophecies concerning the event contained in their sacred books
and inherited from their own prophets.
One day, according to an
Arab tribesman, 'I was lying in the courtyard of our family house and a
Jew who conducted business with us told us of the day of judgement, the
resurrection, the reckoning, of paradise and of hell. We who were
idolaters had no knowledge of the resurrection, and said, "Woe be
unto you! Do you think it possible that men will be raised up after death
in a place where there is a paradise and a hell, and in which they will be
requited according to their acts?" And he assured us, by Him who is
sworn by, that he would prefer to be cast into the greatest oven in this
world, scorching though it might be and sealed tight, rather than face the
torments of hell in the next. My kinsmen said, "What will be the
sign?" and he replied, "A prophet will arise in the direction of
this country", and pointed towards
Mecca
and
Yemen
. They asked, "When will this happen?" and, looking at me, the
youngest of the people, he said, "When this boy's life attains
maturity he will see him." And by Allah, not a day nor a night passed
after that until the time when sent his apostle to live among us during
which we did not expect his arrival. But when it came, that refractory and
envious Jew refused to become a believer, even after the apostle had
promulgated Islam, and we said, "Woe be to you! Did you not yourself
inform us about the prophet?" And he replied, "Indeed! But not
about this one!" '
There was also a Syrian Jew
who paid a visit to the Banu Quraysa,a Jewish tribe, several years before
the establishment of Islam and settled down among them; and many later
said had never seen a man who did not recite five prayers daily [i.e. was
not a Muslim] of a better character than he. He remained with them, and
when they suffered from drought they said to him, 'Come, and
procure us water!' After being paid with dates and barley, he went out
into the fields and prayed to Allah for rain and did not move until clouds
came and drenched him. This he did not once, twice or thrice, but many
times. As his death approached, he said, 'Why do you think I came away
from the land of abundance to the land of misfortune and famine? I have
come to this country to await the arrival of a prophet, whose time is near
at hand; and it is to this country that he will flee. I hoped he would be
sent during my lifetime, that I might follow him. His time is near at
hand. Do not allow others to forestall you in believing in his
mission; for he will be sent to shed the blood, and to capture the
children and women, of those who oppose him; but let not this hinder you
from following him.' Years later, when the apostle of Allah besieged the
Banu Qurayza, the friends of the dead Jew said, 'By Allah! This is the
prophet foretold to us. This is he according to his description!
They accordingly came down
from their fort, made profession of Islam, and thus preserved their
lives, their property and families.
Like the Jews and
Christians, the Arab soothsayers also spoke coming of the coming of an
apostle, but their people paid no heed until Allah actually sent him,
when, the prophecies made by the soothsayers having been fulfilled, the
people became aware of their significance. Whereas the Jews and
Christians culled their
prophecies from scripture,
the Arab soothsayers received their foreknowledge of most events from the
djinns, spirits of the air who stole information by listening close to
heaven. But when the coming of the apostle was close at hand meteors from
heaven were hurled at all the djinns and they were driven away from the
places where they used to sit and listen; and they realized that this was
by the command of Allah.
The first Arabs to be
struck with fear at the sight of the shooting stars ‑ for that was
how the meteors thrown at the djinns appeared on earth ‑ went to the
wisest man of their tribe and said, 'Have you seen what happened in the
sky and the falling of some of the stars?' He replied, 'If the stars
thrown down were those which serve as signs and guides by land and sea,
those by which the seasons of summer and winter are defined and by which
the various affairs of mankind are regulated, then by Allah the world has
come to an end with all the people thereof; but if those stars remain in
their places and it is others which have been hurled down, then Allah has
a different intention and does not mean to destroy creation.'
Afterwards, the apostle of
Allah asked some men of
Medina
what had been said there about the falling stars and was told: 'We said,
"A king has died or has begun to reign; a child has been born, or has
died." ' The apostle of Allah replied: 'It was not so. When Allah
reaches any decision concerning His people He is heard by the bearers of
His throne, who praise Him; and this praise is taken up by the angels
below them, and by others still further below; and the praise continues to
descend until it reaches the sky of this world, where other angels also
praise. Then these ask each other why they praise, and the question
ascends gradually till it reaches the bearers of the throne. They then,
tell of the decree of Allah concerning His people, and the news travels
down by degrees until it reaches the heaven of this world, where the
angels discuss it. But the evil djinns, who used to listen to such
discussions by stealth, sometimes misheard, and what they retailed to
soothsayers on earth was sometimes true and sometimes false. The
soothsayers also conversed about these matters, some giving true and some
false accounts. So, when the coming of the apostle was being discussed by
the angels, Allah foiled the evil djinns by hurling meteors, and from that
time onwards an end was made to soothsayers.'
For some time the mind
of Muhammad had been in a state of ferment. The religious aspect, however,
was not without political overtones, as can be seen in the parts of the
Koran dating
From this period: and an
imperfect understanding of Christianity and Judaism coloured the
beginnings (and, indeed, the later development of the
new religion in his mind. At the start of his mission, Muhammad saw
himself as the latest in the line of prophets which began with Moses and
ended with Jesus of
Nazareth
.
When Muhammad was forty
years old Allah sent him as a prophet of mercy to the people of the
visible and of the invisible worlds, and to all mankind.
With every prophet whom
Allah had sent before the time of Muhammad, He had made a covenant,
binding each of them to the coming of Muhammad, to declare him a true
apostle, to aid him against every opponent, and to testify to every man
who believed in the truth of their own prophetic missions that the
mission of Muhammad was still to come. They complied, according to His
command, and spread the covenant of Allah to all who believed in them, so
that many men who believed in the Old or the New Testament believed also
in the truth of this covenant.
According to his wife, the
first prophetic sign shown by the apostle of Allah ‑ after
Allah determined to honour him and, through him, to show mercy to His
servants ‑ took the form of true visions. That is to say, the
apostle of Allah never had a vision in his sleep; instead, it came like
the break of day. She also said that Allah made him love solitude, so that
he loved nothing more than to be alone.
When Allah had
determined on the coming of the apostle of Allah, Muhammad went out on
some business at such a distance that he left human habitation
behind and came to deep valleys. He did not pass by a stone or a
tree but it said 'Salutation to thee,
o apostle of Allah!” The
apostle turned to his right, to his left, and looked behind, but saw
nothing except trees and stones. Thus he remained for some time looking
and listening, till Gabriel came to him with that revelation which the
grace of Allah was to bestow upon him when he was at Hira during the month
of Ramadan.
Every year the apostle of Allah spent a month praying
at Hira and fed the poor who came to him; and when he returned to
Mecca
he walked round the Kaba seven or more times, as it pleased Allah, before
entering his own house. In the month of Ramadan, in the year when Allah
designed to bestow grace upon him, the apostle of Allah went to Hira as
usual, and his family accompanied him. In the night the angel Gabriel came
with the command of Allah. The apostle of Allah later said, 'He came while
I was asleep, with a cloth of brocade whereon there was writing, and he
said, "Read." I replied, "I cannot read it." Then he
pressed the cloth on me till I thought I was dying; he released his hold
and said, "Read." I replied, "I cannot read it." And
he pressed me again with it, till I thought I was dying. Then he loosed
his hold of me and said, "Read." I replied, "I cannot read
it." Once more he pressed me and said, "Read." Then I
asked, "What shall I read?" And I said this because I feared he
would press me again. Then he said, "Read in the name of the Lord thy
creator; who created man from a drop of blood. Read, thy Lord is the most
bountiful, who taught by means of the pen, taught man what he knew
not." Accordingly I read these words, and he had finished his task
and departed from me. I awoke from my sleep, and felt as if words had been
graven on my heart.'
This reading is, in
fact, recorded in the Koran. From this point on in the text, every
revelation from Allah appears in the wording of a Sura (chapter) or verse
in the Koran, the Muslim bible which is neither more nor less than a
compilation of the revelations vouchsafed by Allah to Muhammad.
Appearing here as they do in the context of the events to which they
refer, these revelations are ‑ in spite of their inspirational
overtones ‑ a logical reflection of what was happening at the time.
Afterwards I went out, and
when I was on the centre of the mountain, I heard a voice from
heaven, saying, "O Muhammad!Thou art the prophet of Allah, and I am
Gabriel." I raised my head to look at the sky, and lo! I beheld
Gabriel in the shape of a man with extended wings, standing in the
firmament, with his feet touching the ground. And he said again,
"O Muhammad! Thou art the apostle of Allah, and I am Gabriel." I
continued to gaze at him, neither advancing nor retreating. Then I turned
my face away from him to other parts of the sky, but in whatever direction
I looked I saw him in the same form. I remained thus neither advancing nor
retreating, and Khadija sent messengers
to search for me. They went as far as the highest part of
Mecca
and again returned to her, while I remained standing on the same spot,
until the angel departed from me and I returned to my family.
When I came to Khadija I narrated to her what I had seen, and
she said, "Be of good cheer and comfort thyself ! I swear by him
whose hand the life of Khadija is, that I hope thou wilt be the prophet of
this nation!" Then she rose, collected her garments around her and
departed to Waraqa.' She described to him what the apostle of Allah had
seen and heard, and Waraqa exclaimed, 'Holy! Holy! I swear to Him in whose
hands the life of Waraqa is that the law of Moses has been bestowed on him
and he is the prophet of this nation! Tell him to stand firm.' Khadija
then returned to the apostle of Allah and informed him of what Waraqa had
said.
When the apostle of Allah
ended his sojourn at Hira he departed to
Mecca
and went first round the Kaba as was his habit. And he was met by Waraqa,
who said, 'Thou wilt be accused of falsehood, thou wilt be persecuted,
exiled, and attacked.' Then Waraqa bent his head towards the apostle and
kissed him on the crown of the head, and the apostle of Allah
departed to his house.
But the
revelations were not continued and the apostle became much
downcast, until Gabriel came to him with a message from Allah saying that
He had not abandoned Muhammad; 'By brightness, and by the night when it is
dark, thy Lord has not forsaken nor hated thee, and the next life will be
better for thee than the first. The Lord will give thee victory in this
world and reward in the next. Did He not find thee an orphan and procure
thee shelter? He found thee erring and guided thee; He found thee needy
and enriched thee.' The message to Muhammad continued: 'Declare the
goodness of thy Lord; declare what has come to thee from Allah, and
declare His bounty and grace in thy mission; mention it, record it, and
pray for manifestations of it.' Accordingly the apostle of Allah began, at
first in secret to those of his family whom he trusted, to promulgate the
gospel bestowed by Allah on him, and on mankind through his agency.
Prayer was made an
ordinance to Muhammad, and accordingly he prayed. The apostle of Allah was
first commanded to make two prayer‑flexions [prostrations] for every
prayer, but later Allah commanded four prayer‑flexions for those who
were at home, although He confirmed the first ordinance of two prayer flexions
for those who were on a journey.
When prayer was made
obligatory to the apostle of Allah, Gabriel came to him when he was in the
highest part of
Mecca
, and spurred his heel into the ground towards the valley; a spring gushed
forth and Gabriel performed religious ablutions. The apostle of Allah
observed how purification for prayers was to be made, and washed himself
likewise. Then Gabriel rose and prayed, and the apostle of Allah did so
after him, and then Gabriel departed. When the apostle of Allah came to
Khadija he performed the religious ablution in her presence to show her
how purity was attained, just as Gabriel had done. And she, too, washed as
she had been shown. Then the apostle prayed as Gabriel had prayed, and
Khadija prayed after him.
Then Gabriel came to him
and held noon‑prayers when the sun passed the zenith; and prayed the
afternoon prayers with him when his shadow was the same length as his own
body. Then he prayed the sunset prayers when the sun disappeared, and the
last evening prayer when the twilight disappeared. Next day he held
morning prayers with the apostle at dawn; then the midday prayers when the
shadow was one with him; and the afternoon prayers when it was twice as
long as he; then the sunset orisons when the sun disappeared, as on the
preceding day. Then he
Prayed with him the last
evening prayers when the first third of the night had elapsed, and lastly
the morning prayers, when the morning dawned but the sun had not yet
risen. Then he said, 'O Muhammad! The time of prayer is between thy
prayers of yesterday and today.'
The first man to believe in
the apostle of Allah, to pray with him t his prophetic mission, was Ali,
who at that time was ten years old. Even before Islam, Allah had favoured
him by allowing him to live under the protection of the apostle of Allah.
The Quraysh had been visited by severe famine, and, as Abu Talib had a
numerous family, the apostle of Allah went to another uncle, al‑Abbas
‑ who was among the wealthiest of the tribe and said, 'Your brother
Abu Talib has a large family and you must be aware from what scarcity the
people are suffering. Come therefore with me, and we shall ease him of his
burden. I shall take one of his sons, and do you take another under your
care? Al-Abbas agreed, and they went to Abu Talib and said, “We wish to
alleviate your troubles until the people are released from their
distress.' Accordingly, the apostle of Allah took Ali and pressed him to
his heart, and al‑Abbas took Jafar.
Ali remained with
the apostle of Allah and followed him, believed in him, and accepted the
truth of his doctrines. When the time of prayer was at hand, the apostle
of Allah habitually went out to the valleys of
Mecca
, and took Ali with him, unknown to his father Abu Talib or to his people;
and they prayed together and returned in the evening. This continued for
some time, until one day Abu Talib happened to discover them at prayer and
asked the apostle of Allah, 'What religion is this I see you practising?'
'This is the religion of
Allah, and of His angels, of , and of our father Abraham. Allah has sent
me with this religion, as an apostle to His servants; and you, my uncle,
are the most worthy on whom I could bestow advice and invitation to
guidance; you are the most worthy to comply in it and to aid me
therein.' But Abu Talib said, 'I cannot abandon the religion of my
forefathers and what they believed in; but no harm shall be done to you as
long as I live.' It is also said that he
asked Ali, 'What religion
is this thou believest in?' and Ali replied, 'I believe in the apostle of
Allah, and that his revelation is true. I pray with him, and I follow
him.' His father said, 'He has called thee only to what is good; therefore
obey him.'
Next, Zayd, the manumitted
slave of the apostle of Allah, made his profession of Islam, being the
second man who did so. The youth Zayd had arrived from
Syria
as a slave, and the nephew of Khadija said to her, 'Select any of these
slaves you wish, as a present.' She chose Zayd and took him away, but when
the apostle saw him he asked for him. Khadija agreed, and the apostle of
Allah gave him his liberty and adopted him as his son. (This was before
the apostle had received the revelation.) Meanwhile, the father of Zayd
mourned‑for him and wept for his loss; but at last he found his son
with the apostle of Allah. The apostle said to Zayd, 'Remain with me if
you wish, or depart with your father if you wish', and Zayd replied, 'I
shall abide with you!' Accordingly he never parted from the apostle until
Allah bestowed his mission on him. Zayd then professed Islam.
Next Abu Bakr, called
Assidiq ('The True'), made his profession of Islam, confessing it
publicly. The apostle of Allall later said, 'I have preached Islam to no
one who did not hesitate, consider, and contradict, save Abu Bakr, who
neither hesitated nor was perplexed.' Abu Bakr invited the people to
believe in Allah the most high and glorious, and in His apostle. He was
popular with his people, amiable, and compassionate, and was unusually
well acquainted with Quraysh genealogy, and with whatever was good or evil
therein. He was a merchant, of humane and kindly disposition, so that the
people of his tribe sought after his company more than that of any other
man, on account of his knowledge, his scrupulous honesty, and his friendly
conversation. He now invited to Islam all the people who trusted in him,
and associated with him.
At his invitation Uthman
made profession of Islam, as well as al‑Zubayr, Abdul‑Rahman,
Sad b. Abu Waqqas, and Talha. Abu Bakr went with them to the apostle of
Allah and they made their profession of Islam and prayed. These eight men
preceded all others in Islam; they prayed, they believed in the apostle of
Allah, and accepted as true the revelation which had come to him from
Allah. Soon several men and women had made their profession of Islam and
it was much discussed in
Mecca
. Then Allah commanded his apostle to make public the revelation and to
invite the people to accept it; hitherto, for the three years since his
first revelation, it had been kept secret by the apostle. Allah
said 'Publish that which thou hast been commanded, and turn away from the
idolaters.'
When the apostle began to
spread Islam among his people as Allah had commanded him, they did not
gainsay him until he began to abuse their idols; but when he had done
this, they accused him of seeking power, denied his revelation, and united
to injure him. The companions of the apostle of Allah went into the
valleys to pray, unknown to the people; and once, whilst Sad and several
companions of the apostle were at prayer, they were discovered by
idolaters who heaped insults upon them, condemned their deeds, and
provoked them to fight. Then Sad struck an idolater with the jawbone of a
camel, and wounded him; and this was the first blood shed in Islam.
But Abu Talib, uncle of the
apostle, defended him. Several nobles of the Quraysh, including Utba and
Abu Sufyan, went to Abu Talib and said, 'Your nephew has insulted our gods
and condemned our religion. He considers our young men to be fools, and
our fathers to have erred. You must either restrain him or allow us free
action against him, since your religion is the same as ours, opposed to
his.' But the apostle continued to preach the religion of Allah and to
seek conversions, and the people hated him. Again they went to Abu Talib
and said, 'You are aged, noble, and highly respected among us, and
we have already asked you to prohibit your nephew from offending us. But
you have not prohibited him, and, by Allah, we shall not overlook his
insults unless you guarantee his future good behaviour. Otherwise, we
shall fight both him and you.' After this they departed, and Abu
Talib was much grieved by the enmity of his tribe; but he could not
surrender or desert the apostle of Allah.
After this visit, Abu Talib
sent for the apostle and said, 'Consider my life and yours, and do not
burden me with what I cannot bear.' The apostle of Allah feared from these
words that his uncle, being too weak, had determined to desert him and he
replied, 'If they were to place the sun in my right and the moon in my
left hand, I would not abandon my mission.' Then tears started in his eyes
and he wept. But when he turned to depart Abu Talib said, 'Nephew! Go, and
speak what you wish. By Allah! I shall never fail you.'
And the nobles went once
more to Abu Talib and offered him the brilliant youth Umara in exchange
for Muhammad, but he replied, 'It is a wicked thing you propose, that you
give me your son to feed, and I give you mine to kill! This shall never
be.'
Then the Quraysh incited
each other to enmity towards the companions of the apostle of Allah, and
persecuted them, and endeavoured to lead them astray from their religion.
But Allah protected His apostle and Abu Talib, and Abu Talib gathered his
friends around him.
When the season of
pilgrimage was at hand, the Quraysh assembled to agree on the attitude
they should display about the apostle. They asked, 'Shall we call him a
soothsayer?' but al‑Walid, the chief, replied, 'He is not a
soothsayer. We have seen soothsayers; he does not murmur and rhyme as they
do.' They continued, 'Then we shall say that he is possessed by djinns.'
He replied, 'He is not possessed. We have seen lunatics and know them. He
does not gasp, nor roll his eyes, nor mutter.' They said, 'Then we shall
say that he is a poet. 'Al‑Walid replied, 'He is not a poet. We know
all the poets and their styles. He is not a poet.' They asked, 'Then what
shall we say?' Al‑Walid replied, 'You cannot say any of these
things, for it will be known that they are false. The best will be to say
that he is a sorcerer, because he has come with words which are sorcery
and which separate a man from his father or from his brother, or from his
wife, or from his family.'
When the season of the
pilgrimage arrived, the Quraysh sat by the roadside and allowed no man to
pass without warning about Muhammad. And the Arab pilgrims carried
away from
Mecca
news of the apostle of Allah, so that his fame spread over the whole
country.
When Islam began to spread
in
Mecca
, the Quraysh imprisoned its believers or sought to turn them away
from Islam. The nobles sent for Muhammad in order to justify
themselves, and the apostle of Allah hastened to them in the hope that
they had conceived a favourable opinion of what he had told them. But they
only accused him once more of seeking riches and power. This he denied,
and reaffirmed his mission from Allah. Then they said, 'You know that no
people are in greater want of land, of and of food than we are. Ask the
Lord who has sent you to take away these mountains which confine us and to
level out the country, to cause rivers to gush forth like the rivers of
Syria
, resurrect our ancestors that we may ask them whether what you say is
true or false. If they declare you to be truthful and if you do what we
have asked, we shall believe you and shall know that Allah has sent
you to be an apostle.' He replied, 'I have not been sent to you with this,
but I have brought to you from Allah the revelation He has sent. If you
reject it, I appeal in this affair to Allah, that He decide between me and
you.'
They continued, 'Ask, then,
your Lord to send an angel to bear witness to your veracity. Ask
Him to give you gardens, and treasures of gold and silver to enrich you;
we know you go now to the markets to procure food as we procure it. Then
we shall know your rank and station with Allah.' The apostle of Allah
said, 'I shall not do this, nor ask for this. I was not sent to you for
this; but Allah has sent me as a bearer of glad tidings and a
preacher.'
They went on, 'Then cause
the heavens to fall upon us, for we shall not believe you unless you do
something miraculous.'
The apostle of Allah
replied, 'This is the choice of Allah! If He wishes He will do it.' Then
they said, 'We shall not cease to persecute you until we destroy
you or you destroy us. We shall not believe you until you come with Allah
and all the angels.'
So the apostle of Allah
returned home, sad and downcast with disappointment in his people and
their estrangement from him. When the apostle had left them, Abu Jahl
said, 'I now make a vow to Allah, that I shall wait for him tomorrow with
a stone as large as I can carry and when he prostrates himself in prayer,
I shall smash his head with it! After that you may either surrender me or
defend me.' They replied, 'We shall never surrender you!' Next morning,
Abu Jahl took a stone as he had said, and waited for the apostle of Allah,
who arrived and prayed as usual at
Mecca
with his face towards the Kaba and
Syria
beyond. Abu Jahl approached him; but suddenly he turned back and fled, his
countenance altered, so frightened that his hands could not hold the
stone. 'When I approached,' he said, 'a stallion‑camel appeared
before me with a skull, a collar bone, and teeth the like of which I have
never seen. It rushed to devour me.'
Later, Utba, who was a
prince among the Quraysh, said, 'Shall I speak to Muhammad so that he may
cease to trouble us?' They said, 'Yes, go and speak to him.' So Utba went
to Muhanimad, and said, 'You have disturbed our concord; listen to my
proposal and consider it, that you may perchance accept a part thereof. If
property be your desire in this affair, we shall collect as much of it as
will make you the richest of us; but if dignity be your object, we shall
make you our prince so that no affair, will be decided without you; and if
you want to be a king, we shall make you our king; but if this be a spirit
who visits you and you are unable to repel it, we shall find a physician
for you and give him money till he cures you of it.' The apostle of Allah
listened and then recited to him a verse from the Koran, and Utba returned
to his companions, saying, 'I have heard words the like of which I have
never heard. This is neither poetry, nor sorcery, nor soothsaying. Do not
interfere with this man or his vocation but let him alone. The words which
I have heard will spread far and wide. If others should kill him, you will
be rid of him, but if he conquers the Arabs, then his power will be your
power, and his glory your
glory, so that you will through him become the happiest of people.' But
they thought him bewitched.
After this, the Quraysh
sent al‑Nadr, a bitter enemy of Muhammad, and Uqba to the Jewish
priests in Medina with instructions to ask about the apostle, for they
said the Jews 'are possessors of the first book [the Pentateuch] and have
knowledge about prophets which we have not'. The Jewish priests told them,
'Ask him three questions which we shall give you. If he answers them obey
him, for he is a prophet; but if not, then he is a pretender, and you may
deal with him as you think proper.”
Al-Nadr and Uqba returned
to Mecca and told the people what the priests had said, and they said to
the apostle, 'Inform us about the young men who passed away in ancient
times, because their case is wonderful; tell us also about the
traveller who went from the east to the west of the earth, and tell us
about the soul and what it is!' The
apostle of Allah replied: 'I shall tell you tomorrow.'
Two weeks, however, passed
and the apostle received no revelation from Allah and no visit from
Gabriel, and the people began to murmur against him. At last Gabriel came
and the apostle of Allah said, 'Thou hast remained away from me so
long that I became troubled by evil imaginings!' Gabriel 'We descend only
by command of thy Lord! To Him belongs the present, the past, and whatever
is between them. Nor is thy Lord ever forgetful.' And Gabriel brought a
revelation from Allah in the form of the Sura known as The Cave. Part
of the revelation contained a warning that 'We will surely reduce whatever
is on earth to dust and desolation. To Me you must return, and I shall
requite everyone according to his works; do not therefore be distressed or
grieved about what thou seest or hearest on earth.'
Then Gabriel told the
apostle the answer concerning the young men whose case was wonderful.
'Verily they were young believed in the Lord and We increased our guidance
and We fortified their hearts, and they said "Our Lord is the Lord of
heaven and earth, we shall invoke no other god him, for that would be to
utter sacrilege." And they took refuge in a cave from those who
worshipped idols; and thou mightest have seen the sun, when it rose, pass
from their cave to the right, and when it went down it left them on the
left hand, and they were in the centre thereof. This is one of the signs
of Allah that will satisfy thy questioners. An onlooker would have thought
the youths to be awake, though they were sleeping; and their rulers said,
"We shall build a place of worship over them. " '
'And the men dwelt in their
cave three hundred years, and nine more. Say, "Allah knows best how
long they remained. He possesses the secret of the heavens and of the
earth. How well He sees and hears! They have no other master besides Him,
and He makes no one His associate in judgment." '
Gabriel continued by
warning Muhammad: 'Say not of anything "I shall do this
tomorrow", without adding "If Allah willeth it". Namely,
never say as thou hast done in this instance "I shall inform you
tomorrow", but reserve the will of Allah. Remember thy Lord if thou
knowest not an answer, and say "Perhaps my Lord will guide me to the
information about which you have asked". Thou knowest not what Allah
will decide.
Then Gabriel told the
apostle of Dhul‑Qarnayn [possibly another name for Alexander the
Great], the traveller who was gifted like no other man, and to whom the
roads were opened so that he travelled to the east and the west, even to a
place where the people scarcely understood the sound of the voice, and he
built a rampart faced with molten brass.
'They will ask thee also
about the spirit. Say "The spirit stems from the command of my Lord,
and as to knowledge, ye have yet received but little of it."
When the apostle of Allah
gave the people these replies, they were convinced of the truth of his
position as a prophet, but envy prevented them from following him, and
they continued in their unbelief, attempting to mock the apostle because
they feared they would be defeated in honest argument.
Whenever the apostle of Allah recited the Koran aloud
in his devotions, they refused to listen to him, save some who approached
secretly and stayed only as long as they were not observed by the
Quraysh. The injunction from Allah, 'Do not utter thy prayers too loud nor
too low, but keep a balance between them' was given the apostle because of
such men; prayer must not be too loud, or the people would go away; and
not too low, lest he who listened by stealth and who might in some measure
profit by it, would not be able to hear.
On a certain occasion,
however, when the companions of the apostle of Allah were assembled, they
said, 'The Quraysh have never heard this Koran publicly spoken. Who is the
man who will let them hear it?' Abdullah replied, I will!' but they said,
We fear they will injure you. It should be a man whose people
can defend him against the
tribe.' Abdullah insisted, 'Let me do it.
Allah will protect me!' Accordingly, he made his appearenc e next morning at daylight,
and spoke: 'In the name of Allah the merciful, the compassionate! The
merciful who taught the Koran”. The Quraysh asked, 'What says that son
of a slave-woman?
Then they leapt up and belaboured him, but he continued to recite
as much of the Koran as Allah willed, and afterwards returned to his
companions. 'The enemies of Allah never seemed to me to be more despicable
than now,' he said. If you wish,I shall serve them in the same way
tomorrow!' But they said, 'Let it suffice! You have caused them to hear
what they dislike”.
The followers of Muhammad
were often subjected to torture and some gave up their belief through
weakness, some because of their great sufferings; but others were
protected and strengthened by Allah so that they remained steadfast.
Bilal, a slave to one of
the Banu Jumah, was of a pure heart and sincere in his profession of
Islam. He was dragged out by Ummaya when the midday sun was hot and thrown
on his back out in the
valley
of
Mecca
. A great stone was placed on his breast, and he was told, 'Remain thus
until you expire, or until you renounce Muhammad and worship
al‑Lat and al‑Uzza.' But during all this pain he merely
repeated, 'One God! One!' Abu Bakr chancing to pass by on a day when Bilal
was suffering thus, said to his torturer, Ummaya, 'Do you not fear Allah?'
but he replied, 'You have corrupted the slave! You can pull him out from
under his burden!' Abu Bakr said, 'I shall do so; I have a black
boy, smarter and stronger in your faith than this; I shall give him to you
in exchange.' Accordingly Abu Bakr gave Ummaya his slave and took Bilal,
whom he presented with his freedom, as he did six other slaves who
professed Islam.
The idolaters so tormented
many companions of the apostle of Allah that their apostasy from Islam was
excusable. 'I'hey used to beat a man and to make him suffer hunger and
thirst until he was unable to sit upright, such was his agony, and he
would finally succumb to temptation and agree to all they asked of him.
They would say to him, 'Al‑Lat and al‑Uzza are your gods as
well as Allah', and he would agree. They went so far that, when even a
dung‑beetle happened to crawl by, they exclaimed, 'This is your
god!' and he would agree in order to be rid of them and of his pain.
When the apostle of Allah
saw the distress which his companions suffered, while he himself enjoyed
comparative immunity under the protection of Allah and of his uncle Abu
Talib, and that he was unable to save them, he said, 'If you were to go to
the country of the Abyssinians, you would do well; there is a king there
under whom no one is persecuted; it is a country of truth where you can
remain until Allah grants you deliverance from the miseries of the
present.' So the companions of the apostle of Allah emigrated for fear of
temptation, flying for refuge, and those who emigrated were
eighty‑three in number. Among them was Ubaydullah, one of the 'four
inquirers'.
These and similar events
had occurred over a period of several years,
the Quraysh becoming progressively more bitter about Muhammad. The
apostle himself had too much moral protection from such elders as Abu
Talib to suffer more than unpleasantness at their hands: there was little
physical violence, and his attackers confined themselves mainly to slander
and sneers.
The Quraysh now sent a
deputation to the Negus of
Abyssinia
asking for the return of the fugitives ('the first emigrants'), but the
Negus chose to shelter them. Meanwhile, at
Mecca
, the faith continued to spread.
Rukana, the strongest of
the Quraysh in physical power, happened one day to be with Muhammad
in one of the passes, and the latter addressed him thus, 'Will you not
fear Allah, and accept the revelation which I offer you?' He replied, 'If
I knew what you say to be true, I would follow you!' The apostle of Allah
asked, 'Will you know my statements to be true if I prostrate you to the
ground?.' Rukana said, 'Yes', and the apostle continued, 'Then rise that I
may throw you down.' Accordingly Rukana rose to the attack, but as soon as
the apostle of Allah assailed him, he fell to the ground helpless. After a
while, he said, 'Once more, o Muhammadl' But he was knocked down And the
apostle of Allah said, 'I shall show you something wonderful still, if you
will promise to fear Allah and to follow my religion. I shall call out to
this tree here and it will come to me.' Accordingly he called it, and it
approached till it stood fast before the apostle of Allah; then he said to
the tree, “Return to thy place!” and
it returned to its place.
While the apostle of Allah
was at
Mecca
twenty or so Christians arrived to visit him from
Abyssinia
, having heard of his fame. They found him in the mosque, and sat down
with him and conversed and asked questions. After they had asked their
questions, and been answered, the apostle of Allah invited them to become
believers in Allah the most high and glorious, and recited to them the
Koran. As they listened, tears flowed from eyes and they believed in him
and in his truth.
One day a slave girl saw
Abu Jahl insult the apostle who made no reply; when, shortly afterwards,
Hamza ‑ a great hunter, who was also uncle and foster‑brother
of Muhammad ‑ returned from chase with his bow hanging from his
shoulder, she told him of the event. Hamza was filled with great wrath
‑ because Allah had predestined him for great favours ‑ and
hastened away to punish Abu Jahl. Approaching him, he struck him a fearful
blow saying, 'Dare you insult him, when I am of his religion and say what
he says? Return my blow if you are able ! Several witnesses rose to aid
Abu Jahl, but he exclaimed, 'Let Hamza alone for I have insulted his
nephew shamefully.' Hamza then completed his profession of Islam, begun in
the haste of passion, by following the advice of the apostle in all the
ordinances, and after this the Quraysh realized that Muhammad had
even stronger protection and so ceased their worst incitement,
Another valuable convert
at this time was Umar, hitherto a vociferous
enemy of the apostle.
When the deputation of
Quraysh returned disappointed from
Abyssinia
, the tribe decided to counteract Muhammad's influence by forming a league
against him and his followers. They applied economic and social sanctions,
forbade trade with him, and banned the Believers from marrying Quraysh
women. This boycott had some success and the apostle lived almost in a
state of siege for close on three years, except during the period of
pilgrimage. All he could do was consolidate the faith of those who were
with him. At last, however, the ban was lifted through the influence of
several Quraysh who, though not Believers, sympathized with their plight.
The apostle was now fifty years of age.
The apostle, by the orders
of Allah, continued patiently, confidently, and lovingly to preach to his
people, despite their accusations of falsehood, their insults, and their
mockeries. The worst mockers were five in number, and after these men had
persisted in their wickedness for some time, and had heaped their
mockeries upon the apostle of Allah, the following verse was revealed:
'We shall suffice thee against the mockers who worship another god with
Allah; they will know.'
Gabriel came to the apostle
of Allah whilst these five were circumambulating the Kaba, and the apostle
of Allah rose and stood by the side of Gabriel. When the first mocker
passed by Gabriel threw a green leaf into his face, and he became blind.
Then another passed to whose abdomen he pointed, and the man was attacked
by dropsy, of which he died. When the third approached he pointed to the
scar of a wound on the mocker's heel which had been inflicted years ago,
and this wound opened again and killed him. When the fourth passed by he
pointed to the sole of his foot, and afterwards a thorn penetrated it and
the. man died. When the fifth mocker passed by he pointed to his head and
it began to ferment with poison and he died.
Khadija, the wife of the
apostle, and Abu Talib, his uncle and protector died in the same year, and
after that calamities followed in losing his wife the apostle of Allah
lost his faithful supporter in Islam, and in losing his uncle he lost his
defender against the people. This happened three years before the
emigration to
Medina
. After the death of Abu Talib the Quraysh insults upon the apostle of
Allah which they would not attempted during his life, and one of the fools
among the Quraysh even went so far as to strew dust on his head. The
apostle went with the dust on his head to his own house, and one of his
daughters washed it off and wept; but the apostle of Allah said, “Do not
weep daughter Allah will protect thy father.' And he added, 'The Quraysh
would do nothing disagreeable to me until Abu Talib died.'
Once, when Muhammad had
asked the nobles 'Will you say is “There is no god but Allah?" and
abandon whatever you worship besides Him?' Abu Talib had said,
'Nephew! In my opinion you have asked them to do something extraordinary!'
When Abu Talib uttered these words the apostle of Allah conceived hope for
him and exclaimed, ' Then, uncle! Pronounce that phrase, and it will
procure you redemption on the day of resurrectionl' When he perceived
Muhammad's anxiety to convert him Abu Talib said, 'O son of my brother, if
I feared not such curses as will fall upon you and the sons of your father
after I am dead, and that the Quraysh would suppose I had submitted from
fear of death, I would pronounce it just to please you’.
When Abu Talib was on his
deathbed, al‑Abbas saw him move his lips and, having bent
towards him, said to Muhammad, By Allah! My brother has uttered the phrase
which you desired him to speak.' But the apostle of Allah replied, 'I did
not hear it.' And Abu Talib died.
After the death of Abu
Talib, when the apostle began to meet with such persecution from the
Quraysh as he never had before, out to al‑Taif [the nearest city of
importance] in search of aid and protection from the Thaqif, in the hope
that they would accept the revelation he brought from Allah. He went out
to them quite alone.
He sat down with the three
brothers who were the princes of the Thaqif and invited them to Allah, and
told them he had come to ask their aid in the propagation of Islam, and
their support against those of his people who opposed him. But one of the
men said he would tear up the cloth which covered the Kaba if Allah had
sent him; and the second man said, 'Could Allah find no better to send
except you?' and the third man complained, 'I shall never speak to you!
For, if you are an apostle of Allah, your dignity is too great for me to
contradict you; and if you are lying, there is no necessity for me to
speak to you.'
So the apostle of Allah
left them, in despair of receiving any aid from the Thaqif. He said to
them, 'Since you have done what you have done, at least keep my request
secret', for he was unwilling
that his people should hear of the matter lest they be further incensed
against him. The three princes did not keep silent, however, but
encouraged their slaves to curse him and to shout after him, so that he
was compelled to take refuge in an orchard belonging to Utba and Shayba,
both of whom were there at the time. The rabble of Thaqif withdrew and
the apostle of Allah sat down in the shade of a vine while Utba and Shayba
looked on.
When he felt himself safe
the apostle cried, 'O Allah! To thee I complain of my weakness, lack of
resource, and helplessness before men. O most merciful Allah! Thou art the
Lord of the weak! Thou art my Lord! If Thy wrath is not upon me, I care
not for persecution; I fly for refuge to the light of Thy countenance,
which illuminates darkness and regulates this world and the next. There is
neither might nor power except with Thee!
Utba and Shayba were moved
with compassion for the apostle and told their Christian slave, Addas, to
pluck a bunch of grapes, place it in a dish, and take it to him. Addas
placed the dish before the apostle of Allah, telling him to eat, and the
apostle put his hand into the dish, said, 'In the name of Allah!’ and
began to eat. Addas gazed at him and said, 'These are words uncommon to
the people of this country', and the apostle of Allah asked him from which
country he came and what was his religion; Addas replied, 'I am a
Christian from
Nineveh
.' The apostle of Allah said, From the town of the pious Jonah? He is my
brother; he is a prophet and I am a prophet! and Addas bowed down and
kissed the head, the hands, and the feet of the apostle.
Addas returned to the
brothers they said, 'Woe betide you! Why did you kiss the head of that
man, and his hands, and his feet? He replied, 'O my masters! There is no
finer man on earth than he! He has told me what none but a prophet can
know', but they said, 'Let him not turn you away from your religion for it
is better than his.'
Then the apostle of Allah
returned to
Mecca
, but his people more violent in their resistance and opposition, save
only a few poor people who believed in him. He was in the habit of
presenting himself at the time of seasonal fairs to the Arab
tribes, in the following manner. He would stand before the Arab
encampments and say, 'I am an apostle from Allah to you and command you to
adore Allah and not to bestow this adoration on any other; to renounce the
worship of idols; to believe me, His apostle, and to defend me that I may
explain to you the revelation with which Allah has sent me.' But
sometimes there stood behind him a shrewd‑looking,
well‑dressed man, wearing a cloak, and with a lock of hair on each
cheek, who addressed the people as soon as the apostle of Allah had
ended his discourse. “This man” he would say, “invites you to cast
off al‑Lat and al-Uzza,your allies among the djinns, in favour of
his own invention and falsehood! Neither obey nor hear him!” This man
was Abu Lahab, an uncle of the prophet.
For some time the apostle
had little success with the tribes, although in the case of the Banu Amir
one man among them said, “By Allah! If I could take this man away from
the Quraysh and have him on my side I could eat up all the Arabs with
him!” He went on 'If we pay homage to your religion, and Allah aids you
to victory, what then?' and Muhammad replied, 'The dominion is
Allah's! He placeth it where He willeth.' And the man exclaimed, 'If you
expect us to make ourselves targets for the Arabs but offer us no
certainty of dominion in the case of victory, we have no need of your
religion!' So they rejected him.
But when the Banu Amir
returned home they went, as was their custom, to tell an aged sheikh what
had taken place during the pilgrimage. When they went to him that year
they told him, 'A fellow of the Quraysh came to us, saying that he is a
prophet. He asked us to defend him, to join him, and to take him to our
country.' The sheikh placed his hands upon his head, saying, 'Could it
have been otherwise? Can the escaped bird be caught again? I swear that no
Ismaili ever falsely claimed to be a prophet. He spoke truth. Where was
your sense? It had deserted you.'
The apostle of Allah never
failed to attempt the conversion of any man of note or position who came
to
Mecca
.
When Abul‑Haysar came
to Mecca with members of his tribe, seeking an alliance with the Quraysh,
the apostle of Allah heard about the visit, sat down with the men, and
said,' Are you willing to accept something better than that which you have
come for?,' They asked what that might be and he replied, 'I am an apostle
of Allah, sent by Him to mankind in order to invite them to adore Allah
and none other; and He has revealed a scripture to me
.' Then he told them of Islam, and recited the Koran,
and one young man said, 'By Allah! This is something better than what we
came for!” But Abul‑Haysar threw a clod of earth at the boy and
bade him be silent. The young man died some months later, and people who
were present told how he never ceased to speak of the name and virtues of
Allah even at the very moment of his death. They had no doubt that he was
a Muslim because he had learnt the tenets of Islam during his single
meeting with the apostle of Allah.
When Allah at last decided that the moment had
arrived to glorify His prophet, and to fulfil His promise to him, the
apostle of Allah went forth during the season of pilgrimage, as was his
custom, to introduce himself to the Arab tribes, and met a small company
of the Khazraj whom Allah had destined for favour.
When the apostle of Allah met them at al‑Aqaba
he asked, 'Are you allies of the Jews?' and they said, 'Yes.' They sat
down with him and he invited them to believe in Allah, expounded Islam and
recited the Koran. Now, Allah had ensured that the Jews
who lived in the country of the Khazraj, and who were of the
scripture (whereas the Khazraj themselves were polytheists and idolaters),
should always say whenever a quarrel broke out between them and the
Khazraj, 'A prophet will soon be sent and we shall become his followers
and kill you with his aid.” So when the apostle of Allah spoke to
these men of the Khazraj and invited them to believe in Allah they said to
one another, 'This is the
prophet with whom the Jews have threatened us. We must forestall them
and join him before they do.'
Accordingly they accepted Islam, saying, 'We have left our people,
for there is no tribe so divided by enmity and wickedness as they.
Perhaps Allah will unite them through you. We shall go to them and urge them to accept your views and
this religion, so that, if Allah unites them around you, none will be more
exalted than yourself.' Then they returned to their country as believers.
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