The Life of Mohammad, the Prophet of Allah

by Etienne Dinet; Sliman Ben Ibrahim

Budail, having heard from the Prophet's own lips that all he wanted was to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Places and not to wage war against his fellow-countrymen, returned to inform the Quraish. But they had no faith in the Khuzza men whose secret sympathy for Mohammad was known, so they sent him another messenger, Al Halis ibn Alqamah.

'Let the victims be paraded in front of him,' ordered the Prophet when he saw him arrive. When Al Halis had seen the long rows of victims going by with garlands round their necks which were shorn at the parts where their throats would be cut, he thought it would be useless to continue and went back to the Quraish to give them an account of his observations.

'Sit down,' they told him. 'Thou art naught else but a simpleton of the Bedouin tribes and thou dost not understand the cunning of Mohammad who haileth from our part of the country.' Al-Halis got out of temper. 'O Assembly of the Quraish! Ye do not respect the terms of our compact. No one hath a right to drive away from the Temple of Allah the man who cometh to glorify the Most High! By Him who holdeth in His hands the soul of Al-Halis, ye will let Mohammad finish his pious visit in peace; or else we Confederates will break off with you—and at once!' They shrugged their shoulders. 'Pshaw! Let us be until we have achieved what we have planned.' And they charged Ora ibn Masud, a chieftain of the Saquifs, with the mission which, in their judgment, had been badly carried out by the previous messengers. 'O Assembly of the Quraish!' he objected; 'I have hearkened to the bitter words with which ye welcomed the return of your men sent to the enemy. Ye know me by my mother; I am on your side, for I belong to the folks dwelling in the Makkan valley. If ye suspect me in the least, lay your hearts bare ere I depart.'—'Thou art in the right. We know thee. We are not at all distrustful of thee.'

Ora came into the presence of the Prophet and bowed down to him. 'O Mohammad,' he said, 'thou hast gathered together a horde of people of all countries and thou dost come back to thy egg (birthplace) to smash it with their assistance! Now the Quraish have sworn a most solemn oath, to the effect that never, so long as their eyelashes quiver on their eyelids, shalt thou set foot again in Makkah, unless by force of arms. And, by our gods! the scum surrounding thee must flee from thy side, before the sun setteth on another day!'

At these words, a flame of indignation lit up the eyes of the companions standing, the lower half of their faces veiled, behind the Prophet. From out of the group, strode Abu Bakr. He went up to the Infidel and shouted to him: 'Begone and bite the belly of Lat, thine idol! Dost thou think for a moment that we could abandon Allah's Messenger?'—'Who is this man, O Mohammad?' queried Ora.—'The son of Abu Kuhafah.'—'By our gods!' Ora went on, turning to Abu Bakr, 'if I were not bound to thee by a debt of gratitude, I would have rewarded thee according to thy deserts. But, by thine insult, we are quits for the future.'

The messenger now went up to Mohammad, and while speaking to him, plucked familiarly at his beard, as was the custom in those days between people engaged in discussion. 'Take thy hand away from the Prophet's face before I come to rid thee of thine arm!' cried another of the companions. 'Who is this boor?' asked Ora.—'Dost thou not know him?' replied the Prophet with a smile. 'He is thy brother's son, Al Mughairah Shuba.'—'O traitor!' exclaimed Ora to his nephew, 'hast thou so soon forgotten thy crimes that were pardoned thanks to my intervention?' He then continued his conversation with Mohammad who treated him with the respect due to his rank. The Prophet reiterated his statement that his intentions were purely pacific. During his sojourn in the camp of the Believers, Ora was able to see how boundless was their veneration for their chieftain. When the Prophet performed his ablutions, his companions rushed to share the water he had used. If he had his head shaved, not a hair fell to the ground without being picked up and treasured. So Ora, on his return, said to those who had sent him forth: 'I have seen Chosroes in the midst of his sumptuous Persian court; Cæsar, in the proud Senate of Roman patricians; the Negus, at the head of his formidable bodyguard of Abyssinian warriors. Well then, I swear that I have never met with a monarch who, surrounded by the noblemen of his court, held the same position as Mohammad among his companions. And what is more remarkable, contrary to what taketh place round about the mighty, Mohammad's followers expect nothing from him; neither favours, riches, nor honours! That is what I have ascertained. Now act as it pleaseth you.'

Although the Quraish were deeply affected by his declaration, they persisted in their delusion and sent forty or fifty of their partisans to prowl round the Believers' army, with the idea of surprising and capturing a few soldiers of Islam. The Believers were on their guard and it was they who took a certain number of the Infidels prisoners. They were led before the Prophet, but resolved not to belie his own words of peace, he pardoned and freed them, although by having been caught attacking perfidiously, they deserved death.

Just then, Mohammad wanted to send Umar with a message to the noblemen of Makkah, but he made the following reply: 'O Prophet! the Quraish know my feelings towards them as manifested by many inimical acts of mine. I have everything to fear from them, because there is no longer any member of my family in Makkah. But I can show you a man whose influence will be much more efficacious than mine. I mean Usman ibn Affan.'

Mohammad, recognising this to be sound advice, despatched Usman to Abu Sufyan and the noblemen of the city, to assure them that he was actuated by pacific sentiments, and to inform them of his wish to do honour to the "House of Allah" by a pilgrimage. When the Prophet's envoy had finished explaining the object of his mission to the men of Makkah, they replied: 'O Usman! if thou dost desire to perform the ritual circuits of the "Tawaf," we authorise thee to do so.'—'I will not accomplish them unless following in the footsteps of Allah's Messenger.' This answer exasperated the citizens of Makkah who threw Usman into a prison, despite his quality of ambassador. Finding that Usman did not return, the Believers concluded that he had been murdered and they were overwhelmed with the most profound indignation. Mohammad hesitated no longer and proclaimed: 'We will not go away until we have punished the "qawm" of the Infidels for the abominable crime they have just committed!' Umar, acting under the Prophet's orders, cried out with all the strength of his lungs: 'O Believers! come and take the Oath—the Oath! Come while ye invoke the name of Allah!'

The Prophet, seated in the shade of a gum-tree, awaited the coming of the Faithful who went in haste to him. They quivered with enthusiasm, and resolved to follow him blindly even if they had to make war in holy territory. They struck their palms against his to swear fidelity till death. Just then, the news of Usman's murder being denied on the best authority, the Prophet clapped his hands together, so as to take the oath in place of Usman and acknowledge it.