Moslem praying on the Terrace-roof of her dwelling.
When the pilgrims began to pour in, Walid and his accomplices were on the watch, posted on all the roads leading to Makkah. Not a single Arab passed along these highways without being warned against Mohammad by the conspirators in ambush. But although a few pilgrims were alarmed at these warnings and feared the spells that they were informed were threatening them, the majority felt their curiosity increasing with regard to this extraordinary man, whose utterances gave rise to such great apprehension among the lords of the city. Thus it came to pass that when the travellers returned to their tribes, they told what they had seen; so that it plainly resulted that the campaign, organised against Mohammad by his enemies, only achieved the purpose of spreading his renown all over Arabia.
In order to add fresh fuel to the fire of their rage, increasing as the Prophet's reputation became established—a result partly due to their involuntary efforts—the idol-worshippers sought every opportunity to heap insults on him. Being all together, one day, in the precincts of the Temple, they worked each other up. 'No! never have we endured from anybody what this man hath made us endure,' they cried out in chorus. At that very moment, Mohammad came on the scene and began to perform the ritual circuits round the Ka'bah. They rushed at him, all at one bound. 'Art thou the man who dareth to insult the gods of our fathers?' they shouted. 'Aye, I am that man!' he replied, undisturbed.
One of the enraged citizens caught hold of the collar of his mantle, and twisting it roughly, tried to strangle him. Abu Bakr, who chanced to be standing near, interfered. 'How now? Would ye kill a man who proclaimeth that Allah is his God?' he said sadly, and freed the Prophet, not without suffering ill-treatment himself, for a portion of his beard was plucked out by Mohammad's assailant.
The danger he had risked in these circumstances did not prevent the Prophet from returning to the Ka'bah to perform his devotions, without letting the furious glances of his assembled adversaries trouble him. Acting under the orders of Abu Jahal, a man fetched some sheeps' entrails from the slaughter-house. He chose those of an animal that had been killed several days before, and while the Prophet was prostrate as he prayed, the rascal covered the nape of his neck and his shoulders with the offal. All those present were seized with such outrageous fits of mirth that they fell seated on the ground, rolling one against the other. As for Allah's Elect, he seemed not even to have noticed the affront offered to him, and continued to pray. It was his daughter Fatimah who, arriving a few moments later, threw the filth far from her father, and railed at the wretches who had belittled themselves by the infliction of such a repulsive insult.
On a par with Abu Jahal, ranking with those who are branded eternally in history's pages on account of their atrocious treatment of the Prophet, was one of his uncles, a son of Abu Muttalib, surnamed Abu Lahab, "The Man Vowed to Hell-fire." Mohammad was preaching one day on the hill of Safa, in the midst of a crowd of inhabitants of that region, when Abu Lahab interrupted him rudely. 'Mayst thou be annihilated!' he bawled; 'thou who hast called us together to listen to such nonsense!' To this insult the following surah of the Qur'an (cxi) replies: "Let the hands of Abu Lahab perish, and let himself perish! * His wealth and his gains shall avail him not. * Burned shall he be at the fiery flame, * And his wife laden with the fire-wood, * On her neck a rope of twisted palm-fibre."
This Surah, quickly becoming renowned, increased Abu Lahab's resentment and probably had even more effect on that of his wife, Umm Jemil, who found herself attacked therein in a way that was as annoying as it was deserved. To be nicknamed "carrier of fire-wood" was past endurance; but had she not, on one occasion, strewn the path of Mohammad with thorny branches; had not her tongue lit up the fires of hatred with the faggots of calumny that she hawked about everywhere? The odious couple resorted shamelessly to the vilest acts, daily throwing heaps of filth on the terrace of Mohammad's house or in front of his door, for he was their neighbour.
Worked up or terrorised by these fanatics, most of the dwellers in Makkah repulsed the Prophet or avoided him. Children and wastrels pursued him with their jibes in the street. He was perfectly indifferent to such provocations. What was it all to him? Nothing more than a passing breeze. He never even seemed to notice the persons who acted thus; he only looked at those he hoped to convert.