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The Prophet Of Islam & His Biography
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Melad-ul-Nabi (Sallallaho Alaihi Wasallam)
The Prophet of Islam - His
Biography
[Taken from
Introduction to Islam by Muhammad Hamidullah (Centre Culturel
Islamique, Paris, 1969), with some changes to make it more readable. The
changes are marked by pairs of brackets like around this paragraph. Dr.
Hamidullah's present address is: 9 Beaver Court, Wilkes Barre PA,
18702, USA.]
In the annals of men, individuals
have not been lacking who conspicuously devoted their lives to the
socio-religious reform of their connected peoples. We find them in every epoch
and in all lands. In India, there lived those who transmitted to the world the
Vedas, and there was also the great Gautama Buddha; China had its Confucius; the
Avesta was produced in Iran. Babylonia gave to the world one of the greatest
reformers, the Prophet Abraham (not to speak of such of his ancestors as Enoch
and Noah about whom we have very scanty information). The Jewish people may
rightly be proud of a long series of reformers: Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon,
and Jesus among others.
2. Two points are to note: Firstly
these reformers claimed in general to be the bearers each of a Divine mission,
and they left behind them sacred books incorporating codes of life for the
guidance of their peoples. Secondly there followed fratricidal wars, and
massacres and genocides became the order of the day, causing more or less a
complete loss of these Divine messages. As to the books of Abraham, we know them
only by the name; and as for the books of Moses, records tell us how they were
repeatedly destroyed and only partly restored.
Concept of
God
3. If one should judge from the
relics of the past already brought to light of the homo sapiens, one
finds that man has always been conscious of the existence of a Supreme Being,
the Master and Creator of all. Methods and approaches may have differed, but the
people of every epoch have left proofs of their attempts to obey God.
Communication with the Omnipresent yet invisible God has also been recognised as
possible in connection with a small fraction of men with noble and exalted
spirits. Whether this communication assumed the nature of an incarnation of the
Divinity or simply resolved itself into a medium of reception of Divine messages
(through inspiration or revelation), the purpose in each case was the guidance
of the people. It was but natural that the interpretations and explanations of
certain systems should have proved more vital and convincing than others.
3/a. Every system of metaphysical
thought develops its own terminology. In the course of time terms acquire a
significance hardly contained in the word and translations fall short of their
purpose. Yet there is no other method to make people of one group understand the
thoughts of another. Non-Muslim readers in particular are requested to bear in
mind this aspect which is a real yet unavoidable handicap.
4. By the end of the 6th century,
after the birth of Jesus Christ, men had already made great progress in diverse
walks of life. At that time there were some religions which openly proclaimed
that they were reserved for definite races and groups of men only, of course
they bore no remedy for the ills of humanity at large. There were also a few
which claimed universality, but declared that the salvation of man lay in the
renunciation of the world. These were the religions for the elite, and catered
for an extremely limited number of men. We need not speak of regions where there
existed no religion at all, where atheism and materialism reigned supreme, where
the thought was solely of occupying one self with one's own pleasures, without
any regard or consideration for the rights of others.
Arabia
5. A perusal of the map of the
major hemisphere (from the point of view of the proportion of land to sea),
shows the Arabian Peninsula lying at the confluence of the three great
continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. At the time in question. this extensive
Arabian subcontinent composed mostly of desert areas was inhabited by people of
settled habitations as well as nomads. Often it was found that members of the
same tribe were divided into these two groups, and that they preserved a
relationship although following different modes of life. The means of
subsistence in Arabia were meagre. The desert had its handicaps, and trade
caravans were features of greater importance than either agriculture or
industry. This entailed much travel, and men had to proceed beyond the peninsula
to Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, Iraq, Sind, India and other lands.
6. We do not know much about the
Libyanites of Central Arabia, but Yemen was rightly called Arabia Felix.
Having once been the seat of the flourishing civilizations of Sheba and Ma'in
even before the foundation of the city of Rome had been laid, and having later
snatched from the Byzantians and Persians several provinces, greater Yemen which
had passed through the hey-day of its existence, was however at this time broken
up into innumerable principalities, and even occupied in part by foreign
invaders. The Sassanians of Iran, who had penetrated into Yemen had already
obtained possession of Eastern Arabia. There was politico-social chaos at the
capital (Mada'in = Ctesiphon), and this found reflection in all her territories.
Northern Arabia had succumbed to Byzantine influences, and was faced with its
own particular problems. Only Central Arabia remained immune from the
demoralising effects of foreign occupation.
7. In this limited area of Central
Arabia, the existence of the triangle of Mecca-Ta'if-Madinah seemed something
providential. Mecca, desertic, deprived of water and the amenities of
agriculture in physical features represented Africa and the burning Sahara.
Scarcely fifty miles from there, Ta'if presented a picture of Europe and its
frost. Madinah in the North was not less fertile than even the most temperate of
Asiatic countries like Syria. If climate has any influence on human character,
this triangle standing in the middle of the major hemisphere was, more than any
other region of the earth, a miniature reproduction of the entire world. And
here was born a descendant of the Babylonian Abraham, and the Egyptian Hagar,
Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, a Meccan by origin and yet with stock related,
both to Madinah and Ta'if.
Religion
8. From the point of view of
religion, Arabia was idolatrous; only a few individuals had embraced religions
like Christianity, Mazdaism, etc. The Meccans did possess the notion of the One
God, but they believed also that idols had the power to intercede with Him.
Curiously enough, they did not believe in the Resurrection and Afterlife. They
had preserved the rite of the pilgrimage to the House of the One God, the Ka'bah,
an institution set up under divine inspiration by their ancestor Abraham, yet
the two thousand years that separated them from Abraham had caused to degenerate
this pilgrimage into the spectacle of a commercial fair and an occasion of
senseless idolatry which far from producing any good, only served to ruin their
individual behaviour, both social and spiritual.
Society
9. In spite of the comparative
poverty in natural resources, Mecca was the most developed of the three points
of the triangle. Of the three, Mecca alone had a city-state, governed by a
council of ten hereditary chiefs who enjoyed a clear division of power. (There
was a minister of foreign relations, a minister guardian of the temple, a
minister of oracles, a minister guardian of offerings to the temple, one to
determine the torts and the damages payable, another in charge of the municipal
council or parliament to enforce the decisions of the ministries. There were
also ministers in charge of military affairs like custodianship of the flag,
leadership of the cavalry etc.). As well reputed caravan-leaders, the Meccans
were able to obtain permission from neighbouring empires like Iran, Byzantium
and Abyssinia - and to enter into agreements with the tribes that lined the
routes traversed by the caravans - to visit their countries and transact import
and export business. They also provided escorts to foreigners when they passed
through their country as well as the territory of allied tribes, in Arabia (cf.
Ibn Habib, Muhabbar). Although not interested much in the preservation
of ideas and records in writing, they passionately cultivated arts and letters
like poetry, oratory discourses and folk tales. Women were generally well
treated, they enjoyed the privilege of possessing property in their own right,
they gave their consent to marriage contracts, in which they could even add the
condition of reserving their right to divorce their husbands. They could remarry
when widowed or divorced. Burying girls alive did exist in certain classes, but
that was rare.
Birth of
the Prophet
10. It was in the midst of such
conditions and environments that Muhammad was born in 569 after Christ. His
father, 'Abdullah had died some weeks earlier, and it was his grandfather who
took him in charge. According to the prevailing custom, the child was entrusted
to a Bedouin foster-mother, with whom he passed several years in the desert. All
biographers state that the infant prophet sucked only one breast of his
foster-mother, leaving the other for the sustenance of his foster-brother. When
the child was brought back home, his mother, Aminah, took him to his maternal
uncles at Madinah to visit the tomb of 'Abdullah. During the return journey, he
lost his mother who died a sudden death. At Mecca, another bereavement awaited
him, in the death of his affectionate grandfather. Subjected to such privations,
he was at the age of eight, consigned at last to the care of his uncle, Abu-Talib,
a man who was generous of nature but always short of resources and hardly able
to provide for his family.
11. Young Muhammad had therefore
to start immediately to earn his livelihood; he served as a shepherd boy to some
neighbours. At the age of ten he accompanied his uncle to Syria when he was
leading a caravan there. No other travels of Abu-Talib are mentioned, but there
are references to his having set up a shop in Mecca. (Ibn Qutaibah, Ma'arif).
It is possible that Muhammad helped him in this enterprise also.
12. By the time he was
twenty-five, Muhammad had become well known in the city for the integrity of his
disposition and the honesty of his character. A rich widow, Khadijah, took him
in her employ and consigned to him her goods to be taken for sale to Syria.
Delighted with the unusual profits she obtained as also by the personal charms
of her agent, she offered him her hand. According to divergent reports, she was
either 28 or 40 years of age at that time, (medical reasons prefer the age of 28
since she gave birth to five more children). The union proved happy. Later, we
see him sometimes in the fair of Hubashah (Yemen), and at least once in the
country of the 'Abd al-Qais (Bahrain-Oman), as mentioned by Ibn Hanbal. There is
every reason to believe that this refers to the great fair of Daba (Oman),
where, according to Ibn al-Kalbi (cf. Ibn Habib, Muhabbar), the traders
of China, of Hind and Sind (India, Pakistan), of Persia, of the East and the
West assembled every year, travelling both by land and sea. There is also
mention of a commercial partner of Muhammad at Mecca. This person, Sa'ib by name
reports: "We relayed each other; if Muhammad led the caravan, he did not enter
his house on his return to Mecca without clearing accounts with me; and if I led
the caravan, he would on my return enquire about my welfare and speak nothing
about his own capital entrusted to me."
An Order
of Chivalry
13. Foreign traders often brought
their goods to Mecca for sale. One day a certain Yemenite (of the tribe of
Zubaid) improvised a satirical poem against some Meccans who had refused to pay
him the price of what he had sold, and others who had not supported his claim or
had failed to come to his help when he was victimised. Zuhair, uncle and chief
of the tribe of the Prophet, felt great remorse on hearing this just satire. He
called for a meeting of certain chieftains in the city, and organized an order
of chivalry, called Hilf al-fudul, with the aim and object of aiding
the oppressed in Mecca, irrespective of their being dwellers of the city or
aliens. Young Muhammad became an enthusiastic member of the organisation. Later
in life he used to say: "I have participated in it, and I am not prepared to
give up that privilege even against a herd of camels; if somebody should appeal
to me even today, by virtue of that pledge, I shall hurry to his help."
Beginning
of Religious Consciousness
14. Not much is known about the
religious practices of Muhammad until he was thirty-five years old, except that
he had never worshipped idols. This is substantiated by all his biographers. It
may be stated that there were a few others in Mecca, who had likewise revolted
against the senseless practice of paganism, although conserving their fidelity
to the Ka'bah as the house dedicated to the One God by its builder Abraham.
15. About the year 605 of the
Christian era, the draperies on the outer wall of the Ka'bah took fire. The
building was affected and could not bear the brunt of the torrential rains that
followed. The reconstruction of the Ka'bah was thereupon undertaken. Each
citizen contributed according to his means; and only the gifts of honest gains
were accepted. Everybody participated in the work of construction, and
Muhammad's shoulders were injured in the course of transporting stones. To
identify the place whence the ritual of circumambulation began, there had been
set a black stone in the wall of the Ka'bah. dating probably from the time of
Abraham himself. There was rivalry among the citizens for obtaining the honour
of transposing this stone in its place. When there was danger of blood being
shed, somebody suggested leaving the matter to Providence, and accepting the
arbitration of him who should happen to arrive there first. It chanced that
Muhammad just then turned up there for work as usual. He was popularly known by
the appellation of al-Amin (the honest), and everyone accepted his
arbitration without hesitation. Muhammad placed a sheet of cloth on the ground,
put the stone on it and asked the chiefs of all the tribes in the city to lift
together the cloth. Then he himself placed the stone in its proper place, in one
of the angles of the building, and everybody was satisfied.
16. It is from this moment that we
find Muhammad becoming more and more absorbed in spiritual meditations. Like his
grandfather, he used to retire during the whole month of Ramadan to a cave in
Jabal-an-Nur (mountain of light). The cave is called `Ghar-i-Hira' or the cave
of research. There he prayed, meditated, and shared his meagre provisions with
the travellers who happened to pass by.
Revelation
17. He was forty years old, and it
was the fifth consecutive year since his annual retreats, when one night towards
the end of the month of Ramadan, an angel came to visit him, and announced that
God had chosen him as His messenger to all mankind. The angel taught him the
mode of ablutions, the way of worshipping God and the conduct of prayer. He
communicated to him the following Divine message:
With the name of God, the
Most Merciful, the All-Merciful.
Read: with the name of thy Lord Who created,
Created man from what clings,
Read: and thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught man what he knew not. (Quran 96:1-5)
18. Deeply affected, he returned
home and related to his wife what had happened, expressing his fears that it
might have been something diabolic or the action of evil spirits. She consoled
him, saying that he had always been a man of charity and generosity, helping the
poor, the orphans, the widows and the needy, and assured him that God would
protect him against all evil.
19. Then came a pause in
revelation, extending over three years. The Prophet must have felt at first a
shock, then a calm, an ardent desire, and after a period of waiting, a growing
impatience or nostalgia. The news of the first vision had spread and at the
pause the sceptics in the city had begun to mock at him and cut bitter jokes.
They went so far as to say that God had forsaken him.
20. During the three years of
waiting. the Prophet had given himself up more and more to prayers and to
spiritual practices. The revelations were then resumed and God assured him that
He had not at all forsaken him: on the contrary it was He Who had guided him to
the right path: therefore he should take care of the orphans and the destitute,
and proclaim the bounty of God on him (cf. Q. 93:3-11). This was in reality an
order to preach. Another revelation directed him to warn people against evil
practices, to exhort them to worship none but the One God, and to abandon
everything that would displease God (Q. 74:2-7). Yet another revelation
commanded him to warn his own near relatives (Q. 26:214); and: "Proclaim openly
that which thou art commanded, and withdraw from the Associators (idolaters).
Lo! we defend thee from the scoffers" (15:94-5). According to Ibn Ishaq, the
first revelation (n. 17) had come to the Prophet during his sleep, evidently to
reduce the shock. Later revelations came in full wakefulness.
The
Mission
21. The Prophet began by preaching
his mission secretly first among his intimate friends, then among the members of
his own tribe and thereafter publicly in the city and suburbs. He insisted on
the belief in One Transcendent God, in Resurrection and the Last Judgement. He
invited men to charity and beneficence. He took necessary steps to preserve
through writing the revelations he was receiving, and ordered his adherents also
to learn them by heart. This continued all through his life, since the Quran was
not revealed all at once, but in fragments as occasions arose.
22. The number of his adherents
increased gradually, but with the denunciation of paganism, the opposition also
grew intenser on the part of those who were firmly attached to their ancestral
beliefs. This opposition degenerated in the course of time into physical torture
of the Prophet and of those who had embraced his religion. These were stretched
on burning sands, cauterized with red hot iron and imprisoned with chains on
their feet. Some of them died of the effects of torture, but none would renounce
his religion. In despair, the Prophet Muhammad advised his companions to quit
their native town and take refuge abroad, in Abyssinia, "where governs a just
ruler, in whose realm nobody is oppressed" (Ibn Hisham). Dozens of Muslims
profited by his advice, though not all. These secret flights led to further
persecution of those who remained behind.
23. The Prophet Muhammad [was
instructed to call this] religion "Islam," i.e. submission to the will of God.
Its distinctive features are two:
-
A harmonius equilibrium between
the temporal and the spiritual (the body and the soul), permitting a full
enjoyment of all the good that God has created, (Quran 7:32), enjoining at the
same time on everybody duties towards God, such as worship, fasting, charity,
etc. Islam was to be the religion of the masses and not merely of the elect.
-
A universality of the call - all
the believers becoming brothers and equals without any distinction of class or
race or tongue. The only superiority which it recognizes is a personal one,
based on the greater fear of God and greater piety (Quran 49:13).
Social
Boycott
24. When a large number of the
Meccan Muslims migrated to Abyssinia, the leaders of paganism sent an ultimatum
to the tribe of the Prophet, demanding that he should be excommunicated and
outlawed and delivered to the pagans for being put to death. Every member of the
tribe, Muslim and non-Muslim rejected the demand. (cf. Ibn Hisham). Thereupon
the city decided on a complete boycott of the tribe: Nobody was to talk to them
or have commercial or matrimonial relations with them. The group of Arab tribes
called Ahabish, inhabiting the suburbs, who were allies of the Meccans, also
joined in the boycott, causing stark misery among the innocent victims
consisting of children, men and women, the old and the sick and the feeble. Some
of them succumbed yet nobody would hand over the Prophet to his persecutors. An
uncle of the Prophet, Abu Lahab, however left his tribesmen and participated in
the boycott along with the pagans. After three dire years, during which the
victims were obliged to devour even crushed hides, four or five non-Muslims,
more humane than the rest and belonging to different clans proclaimed publicly
their denunciation of the unjust boycott. At the same time, the document
promulgating the pact of boycott which had been hung in the temple, was found,
as Muhammad had predicted, eaten by white ants, that spared nothing but the
words God and Muhammad. The boycott was lifted, yet owing to the privations that
were undergone the wife and Abu Talib, the chief of the tribe and uncle of the
Prophet died soon after. Another uncle of the Prophet, Abu-Lahab, who was an
inveterate enemy of Islam, now succeeded to the headship of the tribe. (cf. lbn
Hisham, Sirah).
The
Ascension
25. It was at thIs time that the
Prophet Muhammad was granted the mi'raj (ascension): He saw in a vision
that he was received on heaven by God, and was witness of the marvels of the
celestial regions. Returning, he brought for his community, as a Divine gift,
the [ritual prayer of Islam, the salaat], which constitutes a sort of communion
between man and God. It may be recalled that in the last part of Muslim service
of worship, the faithful employ as a symbol of their being in the very presence
of God, not concrete objects as others do at the time of communion, but the very
words of greeting exchanged between the Prophet Muhammad and God on the occasion
of the former's mi'raj: "The blessed and pure greetings for God! -
Peace be with thee, O Prophet, as well as the mercy and blessing of God! - Peace
be with us and with all the [righteous] servants of God!" The Christian term
"communion" implies participation in the Divinity. Finding it pretentious,
Muslims use the term "ascension" towards God and reception in His presence, God
remaining God and man remaining man and no confusion between the twain.
26. The news of this celestial
meeting led to an increase in the hostility of the pagans of Mecca; and the
Prophet was obliged to quit his native town in search of an asylum elsewhere. He
went to his maternal uncles in Ta'if, but returned immediately to Mecca, as the
wicked people of that town chased the Prophet out of their city by pelting
stones on him and wounding him.
Migration
to Madinah
27. The annual pilgrimage of the
Ka'bah brought to Mecca people from all parts of Arabia. The Prophet Muhammad
tried to persuade one tribe after another to afford him shelter and allow him to
carry on his mission of reform. The contingents of fifteen tribes, whom he
approached in succession, refused to do so more or less brutally, but he did not
despair. Finally he met half a dozen inhabitants of Madinah who being neighbour
of the Jews and the Christians, had some notion of prophets and Divine messages.
They knew also that these "people of the Books" were awaiting the arrival of a
prophet - a last comforter. So these Madinans decided not to lose the
opportunity of obtaining an advance over others, and forthwith embraced Islam,
promising further to provide additional adherents and necessary help from
Madinah. The following year a dozen new Madinans took the oath of allegiance to
him and requested him to provide with a missionary teacher. The work of the
missionary, Mus'ab, proved very successful and he led a contingent of
seventy-three new converts to Mecca, at the time of the pilgrimage. These
invited the Prophet and his Meccan companions to migrate to their town, and
promised to shelter the Prophet and to treat him and his companions as their own
kith and kin. Secretly and in small groups, the greater part of the Muslims
emigrated to Madinah. Upon this the pagans of Mecca not only confiscated the
property of the evacuees, but devised a plot to assassinate the Prophet. It
became now impossible for him to remain at home. It is worthy of mention, that
in spite of their hostility to his mission, the pagans had unbounded confidence
in his probity, so much so that many of them used to deposit their savings with
him. The Prophet Muhammad now entrusted all these deposits to 'Ali, a cousin of
his, with instructions to return in due course to the rightful owners. He then
left the town secretly in the company of his faithful friend, Abu-Bakr. After
several adventures, they succeeded in reaching Madinah in safety. This happened
in 622, whence starts the Hijrah calendar.
Reorganization of the Community
28. For the better rehabilitation
of the displaced immigrants, the Prophet created a fraternization between them
and an equal number of well-to-do Madinans. The families of each pair of the
contractual brothers worked together to earn their livelihood, and aided one
another in the business of life.
29. Further he thought that the
development of the man as a whole would be better achieved if he co-ordinated
religion and politics as two constituent parts of one whole. To this end he
invited the representatives of the Muslims as well as the non-Muslim inhabitants
of the region: Arabs, Jews, Christians and others, and suggested the
establishment of a City-State in Madinah. With their assent, he endowed the city
with a written constitution - the first of its kind in the world - in which he
defined the duties and rights both of the citizens and the head of the State -
the Prophet Muhammad was unanimously hailed as such - and abolished the
customary private justice. The administration of justice became henceforward the
concern of the central organisation of the community of the citizens. The
document laid down principles of defence and foreign policy: it organized a
system of social insurance, called ma'aqil, in cases of too heavy obligations.
It recognized that the Prophet Muhammad would have the final word in all
differences, and that there was no limit to his power of legislation. It
recognized also explicitly liberty of religion, particularly for the Jews, to
whom the constitutional act afforded equality with Muslims in all that concerned
life in this world (cf. infra n. 303).
30. Muhammad journeyed several
times with a view to win the neighbouring tribes and to conclude with them
treaties of alliance and mutual help. With their help, he decided to bring to
bear economic pressure on the Meccan pagans, who had confiscated the property of
the Muslim evacuees and also caused innumerable damage. Obstruction in the way
of the Meccan caravans and their passage through the Madinan region exasperated
the pagans, and a bloody struggle ensued.
31. In the concern for the
material interests of the community, the spiritual aspect was never neglected.
Hardly a year had passed after the migration to Madinah, when the most rigorous
of spiritual disciplines, the fasting for the whole month of Ramadan every year,
was imposed on every adult Muslim, man and woman.
Struggle
Against Intolerance and Unbelief
32. Not content with the expulsion
of the Muslim compatriots, the Meccans sent an ultimatum to the Madinans,
demanding the surrender or at least the expulsion of Muhammad and his companions
but evidently all such efforts proved in vain. A few months later, in the year 2
H., they sent a powerful army against the Prophet, who opposed them at Badr; and
the pagans thrice as numerous as the Muslims, were routed. After a year of
preparation, the Meccans again invaded Madinah to avenge the defeat of Badr.
They were now four times as numerous as the Muslims. After a bloody encounter at
Uhud, the enemy retired, the issue being indecisive. The mercenaries in the
Meccan army did not want to take too much risk, or endanger their safety.
33. In thc meanwhile the Jewish
citizens of Madinah began to foment trouble. About the time of the victory of
Badr, one of their leaders, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, proceeded to Mecca to give
assurance of his alliance with the pagans, and to incite them to a war of
revenge. After the battle of Uhud, the tribe of the same chieftain plotted to
assassinate the Prophet by throwing on him a mill-stone from above a tower, when
he had gone to visit their locality. In spite of all this, the only demand the
Prophet made of the men of this tribe was to quit the Madinan region, taking
with them all their properties, after selling their immovables and recovering
their debts from the Muslims. The clemency thus extended had an effect contrary
to what was hoped. The exiled not only contacted the Meccans, but also the
tribes of the North, South and East of Madinah, mobilized military aid, and
planned from Khaibar an invasion of Madinah, with forces four times more
numerous than those employed at Uhud. The Muslims prepared for a siege, and dug
a ditch to defend themselves against this hardest of all trials. Although the
defection of the Jews still remaining inside Madinah at a later stage upset all
strategy, yet with a sagacious diplomacy, the Prophet succeeded in breaking up
the alliance, and the different enemy groups retired one after the other.
34. Alcoholic drinks, gambling and
games of chance were at this time declared forbidden for the Muslims.
The
Reconciliation
35. The Prophet tried once more to
reconcile the Meccans and proceeded to Mecca. The barring of the route of their
Northern caravans had ruined their economy. The Prophet promised them transit
security, extradition of their fugitives and the fulfillment of every condition
they desired, agreeing even to return to Madinah without accomplishing the
pilgrimage of the Ka'bah. Thereupon the two contracting parties promised at
Hudaibiyah in the suburbs of Mecca, not only the maintenance of peace, but also
the observance of neutrality in their conflicts with third parties.
36. Profiting by the peace, the
Prophet launched an intensive programme for the propagation of his religion. He
addressed missionary letters to the foreign rulers of Byzantium, Iran, Abyssinia
and other lands. The Byzantine autocrat priest - Dughatur of the Arabs -
embraced Islam, but for this, was lynched by the Christian mob; the prefect of
Ma'an (Palestine) suffered the same fate, and was decapitated and crucified by
order of the emperor. A Muslim ambassador was assassinated in Syria-Palestine;
and instead of punishing the culprit, the emperor Heraclius rushed with his
armies to protect him against the punitive expedition sent by the Prophet
(battle of Mu'tah).
37. The pagans of Mecca hoping to
profit by the Muslim difficulties, violated the terms of their treaty. Upon
this, the Prophet himself led an army, ten thousand strong, and surprised Mecca
which he occupied in a bloodless manner. As a benevolent conqueror, he caused
the vanquished people to assemble, reminded them of their ill deeds, their
religious persecution, unjust confiscation of the evacuee property, ceaseless
invasions and senseless hostilities for twenty years continuously. He asked
them: "Now what do you expect of me?" When everybody lowered his head with
shame, the Prophet proclaimed: "May God pardon you; go in peace; there shall be
no responsibility on you today; you are free!" He even renounced the claim for
the Muslim property confiscated by the pagans. This produced a great
psychological change of hearts instantaneously. When a Meccan chief advanced
with a fulsome heart towards the Prophet, after hearing this general amnesty, in
order to declare his acceptance of Islam, the Prophet told him: "And in my turn,
I appoint you the governor of Mecca!" Without leaving a single soldier in the
conquered city, the Prophet retired to Madinah. The Islamization of Mecca, which
was accomplished in a few hours, was complete.
38. Immediately after the
occupation of Mecca, the city of Ta'if mobilized to fight against the Prophet.
With some difficulty the enemy was dispersed in the valley of Hunain, but the
Muslims preferred to raise the siege of nearby Ta'if and use pacific means to
break the resistance of this region. Less than a year later, a delegation from
Ta'if came to Madinah offering submission. But it requested exemption from
prayer, taxes and military service, and the continuance of the liberty to
adultery and fornication and alcoholic drinks. It demanded even the conservation
of the temple of the idol al-Lat at Ta'if. But Islam was not a materialist
immoral movement; and soon the delegation itself felt ashamed of its demands
regarding prayer, adultery and wine. The Prophet consented to concede exemption
from payment of taxes and rendering of military service; and added: You need not
demolish the temple with your own hands: we shall send agents from here to do
the job, and if there should be any consequences, which you are afraid of on
account of your superstitions, it will be they who would suffer. This act of the
Prophet shows what concessions could be given to new converts. The conversion of
the Ta'ifites was so whole hearted that in a short while, they themselves
renounced the contracted exemptions, and we find the Prophet nominating a tax
collector in their locality as in other Islamic regions.
39. In all these "wars," extending
over a period of ten years, the non-Muslims lost on the battlefield only about
250 persons killed, and the Muslim losses were even less. With these few
incisions, the whole continent of Arabia. with its million and more of square
miles, was cured of the abscess of anarchy and immorality. During these ten
years of disinterested struggle, all thc peoples of the Arabian Peninsula and
the southern regions of Iraq and Palestine had voluntarily embraced Islam. Some
Christian, Jewish and Parsi groups remained attached to their creeds, and they
were granted liberty of conscience as well as judicial and juridical autonomy.
40. In the year 10 H., when the
Prophet went to Mecca for Hajj (pilgrimage), he met 140,000 Muslims
there, who had come from different parts of Arabia to fulfil their religious
obligation. He addressed to them his celebrated sermon, in which he gave a
resume of his teachings: "Belief in One God without images or symbols, equality
of all the Believers without distinction of race or class, the superiority of
individuals being based solely on piety; sanctity of life, property and honour;
abolition of interest, and of vendettas and private justice; better treatment of
women; obligatory inheritance and distribution of the property of deceased
persons among near relatives of both sexes, and removal of the possibility of
the cumulation of wealth in the hands of the few." The Quran and the conduct of
the Prophet were to serve as the bases of law and a healthy criterion in every
aspect of human life.
41. On his return to Madinah, he
fell ill; and a few weeks later, when he breathed his last, he had the
satisfaction that he had well accomplished the task which he had undertaken - to
preach to the world the Divine message.
42. He bequeathed to posterity, a
religion of pure monotheism; he created a well-disciplined State out of the
existent chaos and gave peace in place of the war of everybody against everybody
else; he established a harmonious equilibrium between the spiritual and the
temporal, between the mosque and the citadel; he left a new system of law, which
dispensed impartial justice, in which even the head of the State was as much a
subject to it as any commoner, and in which religious tolerance was so great
that non-Muslim inhabitants of Muslim countries equally enjoyed complete
juridical, judicial and cultural autonomy. In the matter of the revenues of the
State, the Quran fixed the principles of budgeting, and paid more thought to the
poor than to anybody else. The revenues were declared to be in no wise the
private property of the head of the State. Above all, the Prophet Muhammad set a
noble example and fully practised all that he taught to others.
Source:
University Of Southern California
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