11- The Trinity
Muhammad and his followers (and consequently his
biographers) found the doctrine of the Trinity far from clear and often
referred to Mary, mother of Jesus, as the third of the Trinity.
The apostle said to them, 'Resign yourself to the will of Allah' [he
presumably meant 'Profess Islam', but the three leaders took the
injunction at its face value], and they replied, 'We did so before
thee”. 'You lie! said
Muhammad. 'You say that Allah has a son, you worship the cross, and you
eat the flesh of pigs; these prohibit you from submission.'
Then Allah revealed the Sura known as The Family
of Imran which begins by refuting the Christian Trinity, and
proclaiming omnipotence and one‑ness of Allah. There is no god but
He, the Living, the Eternal who cannot die; but Jesus died and was
crucified. Allah has sent down the Koran, the criterion of truth and
falsehood in matters of difference over Jesus and others. Those who
disbelieve the directions of Allah will suffer grievous punishment; for
Allah is mighty and avenging. Nothing is hidden from Allah on earth or in
heaven and He knows what the Christians intend with their claims that
Jesus is Lord and God. But Allah formed Jesus in the womb – this the
Christians do not deny ‑ as He formed other human beings; how, then,
can Jesus be god?
It is Allah who has sent down the scripture with
clear and categorical verses at the core. But other verses are obscure and
convoluted and can be explained in several ways; and these are
Sent by Allah to test men. Those in whose hearts
there is perversity expound their own interpretation of them as if it
were categorical truth, or clothe their own inventions in the obscurity of
the verses. But truthful men balance the clear verses with the obscure and
thus the parts of the scripture clarify each other; the argument is plain,
the justification becomes evident, falsehood is removed, and unbelief is
defeated.
Although Allah gave Jesus powers of various kinds (on
the basis of which the Christians believe him to be God), it was in order
to ma ke
him a sign to mankind, to furnish them with proofs of his prophetic
mission. But Allah held back many manifestations of His dominion and
power, such as the succession of day by night and night by day, and
bringing forth the living from the the dead and the dead from the living.
Over none of these matters did He give power to Jesus, but all of these
would have been at his disposal had he been God; instead, he fled from
kings, from country to country.
Then Allah explained to them the origins of Jesus.
Allah selected Adam and Noah, and the family of Abraham and the family of
Imran above all other men, in successive generations. The wife of Imran
dedicated the child in her womb to Allah and when she was delivered of it
she said, 'O Lord, I have brought forth a daughter. I have called her
Mary, and I commend her and her issue to Thy protection.' Allah accepted
her graciously, and made her grow to a goodly woman. Then the angels said
to her: 'Allah has chosen thee and has purified thee. He has chosen thee
above all other women. Bend down to the Lord and worship!' She said:
'Lord! How can I have a child when no man has touched me.' He said: 'Allah
createth what He pleaseth, Then He said: 'We shall teach him the
scripture, and wisdom and the Torah' ‑ which had been with them from
the time of Moses ‑'and the gospel. And he will be an apostle to the
children of
Israel
, saying, "I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. Allah is my
Lord and your Lord, and I shall heal those who are blind from birth, and
lepers. And I shall revive the dead with the permission of Allah, and will
tell you of what you eat, and what you store up in your houses. Herein
will be a sign for you that I am an apostle from Allah, if ye are
believers in the Torah."'
Allah took Jesus to Himself when they had determined
to kill him. 'They devised a stratagem, and Allah devised a stratagem but
Allah is the best deviser of stratagems.' Allah lifted him up and purified
him; 'the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam, whom He
created of dust, saying 'Be” And he was. I created Adam of dust, without
the intervention of man or woman, and he became ‑ like Jesus ‑
flesh, blood, hair, and skin. So the creation of Jesus without a man is no
more wonderful than that of Adam.'
After hearing this, the Christians said to Muhammad,
'Allow us to consider the matter and let us then return to tell you what
we mean to do.' Then they discussed in private and Abdul Masih said: 'You
know that Muhammad is an inspired prophet; and no nation ever cursed a
prophet without its chiefs dying, and the number of its children
diminishing. If you do this, you will perish; but if you do not curse him
and yet wish to stay in your own religion, then take leave of the man and
return to your own country. ' Accordingly, they went to the apostle and
said to him, “We have decided to leave you in your religion, and to
remain in our own; but send one of your companions with us and let him
judge among us concerning all differences of property that may arise; for
we are impressed with you.' The apostle of Allah agreed to their request.
Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr and now Muhammad's
youthful wife told how 'When the apostle arrived in Medina, whose
climate was unlike Mecca, fever was more prevalent than in any other place
on earth, and the companions suffered and fell sick with it. Allah,
however, guarded His prophet.' Abu Bakr and his
two freedmen caught the fever, and Aisha 'went there and paid them
a visit; at that time veils had not yet been commanded to us. They were
stricken with violent fever, and when I asked my father "How art
thou?" he replied, "A man may rise with his family in the
morning, but death may be nearer to him than his
sandal‑strings." I decided my father knew not what he said, and
went to his two freedmen; but they, too, spoke in riddles. So I told the
apostle of Allah what I had heard them say, and he explained that they
were delirious because of their high temperature and fever. The apostle
prayed to Allah: “Make Medina as dear to us as Thou hast made
Mecca
, or more dear. Bless everything therein, and carry this epidemic away to
another place.",
While this fever raged the apostle's followers were
so weak that to pray sitting down. He visited them while they were praying
thus and told them, 'The prayer of a seated man has only half the value of
a prayer performed standing!' So the Muslims forced themselves, in spite
of their weak and shaky condition, to pray standing, that they might gain
merit.
A year after his arrival in
Medina
, and thirteen years after his ‘call’, the apostle of Allah prepared
himself for war in obedience to the command of Allah that he should attack
the idolaters. He was then fifty‑three years old.
Religious hostility and a measure of personal
resentment against the Quraysh idolaters were deeply implanted in the mind
of the apostle. He had sworn vengeance against them and, now that his
followers were settled in
Medina
, he felt the time had come to make good his threats.
Not far from
Medina
was the main caravan route which the Quraysh used in their trade with the
north. Frankincense, silk, precious metals and leather passed regularly
back and forth between
Mecca
,
Syria
, Abyssinia, and the
Yemen
. The prizes were too rich not to add an irresistible weight to basically
religious and political impulses. And attack on the caravans of the
Quraysh meant an attack on what was simultaneously their weakest and most
valued link.
This was the first occasion on which the white banner
of Muhammad was seen. Muhammad sent out from
Medina
sixty or eighty of the Emigrants, led by Ubayda; none of the Helpers
accompanied them. They rode as far as the water in the Hijaz and there
found a great trading caravan of Quraysh from
Mecca
. There was no battle, but Sad shot an arrow which was the first arrow
shot in Islam. Then the parties separated. Two men fled from the
Unbelievers to join the Muslims; these were al‑Miqdad and Utba.
At the same time, the apostle sent his uncle, Hamza,
with thirty riders to the sea‑coast at al‑Is; there they met a
party of three hundred men from
Mecca
, led by Abu Jahl, but a man named Majdi ‑who was on good terms with
both sides ‑mediated between them and they separated without coming
to blows. Hamza also bore a white banner which had been tied on by
Muhammad, and some say that this was the first time the banner was seen;
but his expedition and that of Ubayda occurred at the same time and this
has caused the confusion.
The apostle himself next went forth in search of the
Quraysh and reached Buwat, in the direction of Radwa. But he returned to
Medina
without encountering his enemies and remained in
Medina
for some weeks before he again went forth. He passed through the valley of
the Banu Dinar, then through Fayfau‑l-Khabar, then halted under a
tree in the
valley
of
Ibn Azhar
. Food had been prepared for him nearby; there he prayed, and there his
mosque is. He and his companions ate, and the very spot on which his
cooking‑vessel stood is still known. He continued his journey until
he reached al‑Ushayra in the
valley
of
Yanbu
and remained there for a month, forming alliances with neighbouring
tribes along the sea‑coast, before returning to
Medina
. He encountered no enemies, the caravan from
Mecca
‑
commanded by Abu Sufyan ‑ having passed before he reached
al‑Ushayra.
When he returned from the expedition to al‑Ushayra,
the apostle remained at
Medina
for only ten nights before he had to sally out against one Kurz, who had
plundered the herds of
Medina
. He marched as far as the
valley
of
Safawan
in the region of Badr, but was unable to overtake Kurz, and returned to
Medina
, where he remained for a further two months. This was the first
expedition to Badr.
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