Wednesday 23 March 2011

Spirit of Islam

--

"The Spirit of Islam" [Ed]

By Justice Syed Ameer Ali (1849–1928)

[Rev. 2010 Al Olonzo]


# Chapter 1: MOHAMMED THE PROPHET

[Arabic poem]

THESE lines, untranslatable in their beauty, do not in the least exaggerate the sweetness of disposition, the nobility of diameter, of the man whose life, career, and teachings we propose to describe in the following pages. At the dawn of the seventh century of the Christian era, in the streets of Mecca might often be seen a quiet thoughtful man, past the meridian of life, his Arab mantle thrown across his shoulders, his tilsan drawn low over his face; sometimes gently sauntering, sometimes hurrying along, heedless of the passers-by, heedless of the "gay scenes around him, deeply absorbed in his own thoughts, yet withal never forgetful to return the salutation of the lowliest, or to speak a kindly word to the children who loved to throng around him. This is al-Amin, "the trusty."

He has so honourably and industriously walked through life, that he has won for himself from his compatriots the noble designation of the true and trusty. But now, owing to his strange preaching, his fellow-townsmen are beginning to look suspiciously upon him as a wild visionary, a crazed revolutionist, desirous of levelling the old landmarks of society, of doing away with their ancient privileges, of making them abandon their old creeds and customs.

Mecca was, at this time, a city of considerable importance and note among the townships of Arabia, both from its associations and its position. Situated in a low-lying valley stretching north to south, bordered on the west by a range of hills, on the east by high granite rocks, the Kaba in its centre, its regular and paved streets, its fortified houses, its town-hall opening on to the platform of the temple, the city presented an unusual appearance of prosperity und strength. The guardianship of the Kaba, originally an appanage of the children of Ishmael, had, in consequence of the Babylonian attack, passed into the hands of the Jurhamites. The combination of the secular and religious power enabled the chiefs of the Banu-Jurham to assume the title of malik or king. In the early part of the third century the Jurhamites were overwhelmed by the irruption of a Kahtanite tribe, called the Bani-Khuzaa, who, issuing from Yemen, possessed themselves of Mecca and the southern parts of Hijaz. In the meantime the race of Ishmael, which had suffered so terribly at the hands of the Babylonian king, was gradually regaining its former strength. Adrian, one of the descendants of Ishmael who flourished about the first century before Christ, had, like his ancestor, married the daughter of the Jurhamite chief, and established himself at Mecca, and his son Maad became the real progenitor of the Ishmaelites inhabiting Hijaz and Nejd. Fihr, surnamed Koreish, a descendant of Maad, who flourished in the third century, was the ancestor of the tribe which gave to Arabia, her prophet and legislator.

The Khuzaites remained in possession of the temple, and of all the pre-eminence it conferred on them, for more than two centuries. Upon the death of Holayl, the last of the Khuzaite chiefs, Kossay, a descendant of Fihr, who had married Holayl's daughter, drove the Khuzaites out of Mecca, and possessed himself of the entire power, both secular and religious, in the city, and thus became the virtual ruler of Hijaz. We now arrive on absolutely historical grounds.

[ Note: Kossay was the fifth in descent from Fihr, and was born about 398. The word Koreish is derived from Karash, to trade, as Fihr and his descendants were addicted to commerce. ]

Kossay appears to have made himself the master of Mecca about the middle of the fifth century of the Christian era, and he at once set himself to the task of placing the administration of the city upon an organized basis. Until Kossay's time, the different Koreishite families had lived dispersed in separate quarters, at considerable distances from the Kaba, and the extreme sanctity they attached to the temple had prevented their erecting any habitation in its neighbourhood. Perceiving the dangers to which the national pantheon was exposed from its unprotected condition, he induced the Koreish to settle in its vicinity, leaving a sufficient space free on the four sides of the temple for the faithful (circumambulation).

The families, to whom the lands were allotted, dwelt in strongly fortified quarters. Kossay built for himself a palace, the door of which opened on the platform of the temple. This palace was called the - Dar-un-Nedwu, "the council hall" where, under the presidency of Kossay, public affairs were discussed and transacted. To this hall, no man under the age of forty, unless a descendant of Kossay, could gain admission. Here also were performed all civil functions. At the Dar-un-Nedwa, the Koreishites, when about to engage in a war, received from the hands of Kossay the standard, Him, Kossay himself attached to the end of a lance a piece of white stuff, and handed it or sent it by one of his sons to the Koreishite chiefs. This ceremony, called the Akd-ul-liwa, continued in vogue from the time of its inauguration by Kossay until the very end of the Arab empire. Another of Kossay's institutions endured much longer.

By representing to the Koreish the necessity of providing food for the poor pilgrims who annually visited Mecca, and by impressing on them the duties of hospitality, Kossay succeeded in making them submit to the payment of an annual poor- tax, called the Rifada, which he applied in feeding the poorer pilgrims during the Ayyam-i-Mina, the day of the sacrificial feast, and the two following days which they passed at Mina. This usage continued after the establishment of Islam, and was the origin of the distribution of food which was made at Mina each year during the pilgrimage, in the name of the caliphs and the sultans, their successors. The words nedwa, liwa and rifada denote the functions exercised by Kossay, being the right of convoking and presiding at the council of the nation, of bestowing the standard, - the symbol of military command, - and of levying imposts, raised for the purpose of supplying food to the pilgrims. With these dignities, Kossay also held the administration of the water supplied by the wells in Mecca and its neighbourhood (sikaya), and the custody of the keys of the Kaba (hijaba), with the ministration to the worship of the gods. Kossay thus united in his own person all the principal religious, civil, and political functions. He was king, magistrate, and chief pontiff. His power, which was almost royal, threw great lustre on the tribe of Koreish, of whom he was the acknowledged chief, and from his time the Koreish acquired a marked preponderance among the other descendants of Ishmael. Kossay died at an advanced age, about the year 480.

He had in his lifetime designated his eldest son Abduddar as his successor, and after his death the son succeeded quietly, and without dispute, to the high position of the father. Upon the death of Abduddar, serious disputes broke out between his grandchildren and the sons of Abdmanaf, his brother. The various clans and their allies and neighbours ranged themselves on opposite sides. The dispute, however, was amicably settled for the time. By the compromise thus effected, the sikaya and the rifada wore intrusted to Abdus Shams, the son of Abdmanaf, whilst the hijaba, nedwa, and liwa remained in the hands of the children of Abduddar.

Abdus Shams, who was comparatively a poor man, transferred the duties, which had been intrusted to him to his brother Hashim, a man of great consequence as well as riches among the Koreish. Hashim was the receiver of the tax imposed on the Koreishites by Kossay for the support of the pilgrims, and the income derived from their contributions joined to his own resources, was employed in providing food to the strangers who congregated at Mecca during the season of the pilgrimage.

Like the majority of the Meccans, Hashim was engaged in commerce. It was he who founded among the Koreishites the custom of sending out regularly from Mecca two caravans, one in winter to Yemen, and the other in summer to Syria. Hashim died in the course of one of his expeditions into Syria, in the city of Ghazza, about the year 510, leaving an only son, named Shayba, by an Yathrebite lady of the name of Salma. The charge of the rifada and the sikaya passed, upon his death, to his younger brother Muttalib, who had won for himself a high place in the estimation of his compatriots, and the noble designation of al-Faiz (the generous) by his worth and munificence. Muttalib brought Shayba, the white-haired youth, from Yathreb to Mecca. Mistaking Shayba for a slave of Muttalib, the Meccans called him Abdul Muttalib; and history recognises the grandfather of the Prophet under no other name than that of Abdul Muttalib, ' the slave of Muttalib."

[ Note: Of the sons of Abd-i-Manaf, Hashim died first, at Qhazza; then died Abd ush Shams at Mecca; then Muttalib at Kazwan; and lastly, Naufal, some time after Muttalib, at Silman, in Irak.]

Muttalib died at Kazwan, in Yemen, towards the end of 520, and was succeeded by his nephew, Abdul Muttalib, as the virtual head of the Meccan commonwealth. The government of Mecca was at this time vested in the hands of an oligarchy composed of the leading members of the house of Kossay. After the discovery of the sacred well of Zemzem by Abdul Muttalib, and the settlement of the disputes regarding its superintendence, the governing body consisted of ten senators, who were styled Sharifs. These decemvirs occupied the first place in the State, and their offices were hereditary in favour of the eldest member, or chief, of each family. These dignities were -

(1.) The Hijaba, the guardianship of the keys of the Kaba, a sacerdotal office of considerable rank. It had been allotted to the house of Abduddar, and at the time when Mecca was converted to Islam it was held by Osman, son of Talha.

(2.) The Sikaya, or the intendance of the sacred wells of Zemzem, and of all the water destined for the use of the pilgrims. This dignity belonged to the house of Hashim, and was held at the time of the conquest of Mecca by Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet.

(3.) The Diyat, or the civil and criminal magistracy, which had, for a long time, belonged to the house of Taym-ibn-Murra. and at the time of the Prophet's advent was held by Abdullah-ibn-Kuhafa, surnamed Abu Bakr.

(4,) The Sifareth, or legation. The person to whom this office belonged was the plenipotentiary of the State, authorised to discuss and settle the differences which arose between the Koreish and the other Arab tribes, as also with strangers. This office was held by Omar.

(5.) The Liwa, or the custody of the standard under which the nation marched against its enemies. The guardian of this standard was the general-in-chief of all the forces of the State. This military charge appertained to the house of Ommeyya, and was held by Abu Sufian, the son of Harb, the most implacable enemy of Mohammed.

(6.) The Rifada, or the administration of the poor tax. Formed with the alms of the nation, it was employed to provide food for the poor pilgrims, whether travellers or residents, whom the State regarded as the guests of God. This duty, after the death of Abu Talib, upon whom it had devolved after Abdul Muttalib, was transferred to the house of Naufal, son of Abd-i-Manaf, and was held at the time of the Prophet by Harith, son of Amr.

(7.) The Nedwa, the 'presidency of the national assembly. The holder of this office was the first councillor of the State, and under his advice all public acts were transacted. Eswad, of the house of Abduluzza, son of Kossay, held this dignity at the time of the Prophet.

(8.) The Khaimmeh, the guardianship of the council chamber. This function, which conferred upon the incumbent the right of convoking the assembly, and even of (tailing to arms the troops, was held by Khalid, son of Walid, of the house of Yakhzum, son of Marra.

(9.) The Khazina, or the administration of the public finances, belonged to the house of Hassan, son of Kab, and was held by Harith, son of Kais.

(10.) The Ezlam, the guardianship of the divining arrows by which the judgment of the gods and goddesses was obtained. Safwan, brother of Abu Sufian, held this dignity. At the same time it was an established custom that the oldest member exercised the greatest influence, and bore the title of Kais or Syed, chief and lord par excellence. Abbas was at the time of the Prophet the first of these senators. In spite, however, of this distribution of privilege and power, the personal character and influence of Abdul Muttalib gave him an undoubted pre-eminence.

The venerable patriarch, who had, in accordance with the custom of his nation, vowed to the deities of the Kaba the sacrifice of one of his male children, was blessed with a numerous progeny. And in fulfilment of his vow he proceeded to offer up to the inexorable gods of his temple the life of his best beloved son, Abdullah.

But this was not to be. The sacrifice of the human life was commuted, by the voice of the Pythia attached to the temple, to a hundred camels thenceforth the fixed wehrgeld, or price of blood.

[ Note: Abdul Muttalib had twelve sons and six daughters. Of the sons, Harith, born towards 528, was the eldest; the others were Abduluzza, alias Aba Lahab, the persecutor of the Prophet; Abdmanaf, better known as Abu Talib (540-620); Zobair and Abdullah (545), born of Fatima, daughter of Amr, the Makhzumi; Dhirar and Abbas (566-652), born of Nutayla; Mukawwim, surnamed al-Ghaydak (the liberal), and Hamzah, born of Hala. The daughters were Atika, Omayma, Arwa, Barra, and Umm-Hakim, surnamed al-Baydba (white), by Fatima, and Safiya, born of Hala, who married Awwam, the grandfather of the famous Abdullah -ibn-Zobair, who played such an important part in the history of Islam. The names of the two other sons of Abdul Muttalib are not known, probably because they left no posterity. ]

Abdullah was married to Amina, a daughter of Wahb, the chief of the family of Zohri. The year following the marriage of Abdullah was full of momentous events. At the beginning of the year the whole of Arabia was startled by an event which sent a thrill through the nation. Abraha al-Arsham, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen, had built a church at Sana, and was anxious to divert into his own city the wealth which the sanctity of the Kaba attracted to Mecca. The desecration of the church by a Meccan furnished him with an ostensible motive, and he marched a large army to the destruction of the temple, himself riding at the head of his troops on a magnificently caparisoned elephant. The sight of the huge animal striding solemnly in the midst of the vast force so struck the imagination of the Arabian tribes, that they dated an era from this event, and named it as the era of the Elephant (570). On the approach of the Abyssinians, the Koreish, with their women and children, retired to the neighbouring mountains, and from there watched the course of affairs, hoping all the while that the deities of the Kaba would defend their dwelling-place. The morning dawned brightly as the Abyssinians advanced towards Mecca, when, lo and behold, say the traditionists, the sky was suddenly overcast by an enormous flight of small birds, swallows, which poured small stones over the ill-fated army.

These stones, penetrating through the armour of men and horses, created terrible havoc among the invaders. At the same time the flood-gates of heaven were opened, and there burst forth torrents of rain, carrying away the dead and dying towards the sea.

Abraha fled to Sana covered with wounds, and died there soon after his arrival. Ibn-Hisham, after narrating this prodigy, adds, "it was in the same year that small-pox manifested itself for the first time in Arabia." This indication explains the miracle," says Caussin de Perceval. One can well understand the annihilation of Abraha's army by some terrible epidemic, similar to the fate which overtook Sennacherib, to which was joined perhaps one of those grand downpours of rain which often produce terrible inundations in the valley of Mecca.

Shortly after this event, Abdullah died in the course of a journey to Yathreb, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. And, a few days after, the afflicted wife gave birth to a son who was named Mohammed. Mohammed was born on 12th of Rabi I., in the year of the Elephant, a little more than fifty days after the destruction of the Abyssinian army, or the 29th of August 570 [ - towards the end of the fortieth year of the reign of Kesra Andshirvan, and the end of the year 880 of the era of the Seleucidae].

His birth, they say, was attended with signs and portents from which the nations of the earth could know that the Deliverer had appeared. The rationalistic, historian smiles, the religious controversialist, who, upon 'a priori' reasoning, accepts without comment the accounts of the wise men following the star, scoffs at these marvels. To the critical student, whose heart is not devoid of sympathy with earlier modes of thought, and who is not biased with preconceived notions, "the portents and signs" which the Islamist says attended the birth of his Prophet are facts deserving of historical analysis. We moderns perceive, in the ordinary incidents in the lives of nations and individuals, the current of an irresistible law; what wonder then that 1300 years ago they perceived in the fall of a nation's memorial the finger of God, pointing to the inevitable destiny, which was to overtake it in its iniquity. In accordance with the custom of the Arabs, the child was confided during his early infancy to a Bedouin woman of the tribe of Bani-Saad, a branch of the Hawazin, and upon being returned by her to his mother, was brought up by Amina with the tenderest care.

But she died not long after, and the doubly-orphaned child was thus thrown upon the care of his grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, who, during the few years that he survived the mother, watched his grandson with the utmost tenderness. But nothing could make up for the loss of that parental care and love which are the blessings of childhood. His father had died before he was born. He was bereft of his mother when only six years of age, and this irreparable loss made a deep impression on the mind of the sensitive child. Three or four years later he lost his grandfather also. Abdul Muttalib died towards the year 579 AC shortly after his return from a journey to Sana, where he had gone as the representative of the Koreish to congratulate the son of Saif zu'l Yezen on his accession to the throne of the Tobbas, with the help of the Persians.

[ Note: Of the two duties of the Sikaya and Rifada held by Abdul Muttalib, the Sikaya, with the custody of the Zemzem, passed to his son Abbas. The second devolved on Abu Talib, who enjoyed at Mecca great authority and consideration. Abu Talib, however, did not transmit the Rifada to his children. This dignity was transferred, upon his death, to the branch of Naufal, son of Abd-i-Manaf; ,and at the time
Mecca surrendered to the Prophet, Harith, the son of Amr, and the grandson of Naufal, exercised, as we have said before, the functions of the Rifada.]

With the death of Abdul Muttalib opens another epoch in the life of the orphan. On his death-bed the old grandfather had confided to Abu Talib the charge of his brother's child, and in the house of Abu Talib Mohammed passed his early life. We can almost see the lad with his deep wistful eyes, earnest and thoughtful, looking, as it were, into futurity, moving about in the humble unpretentious household of his uncle, or going often into the desert to look upon the beauteous face of nature; sweet and gentle of disposition, painfully sensitive to human suffering, thin pure-hearted child of the desert was the beloved of his small circle, and there ever existed the warmest attachment between uncle and nephew. "The angels of God had opened out his heart, and filled it with light." His early life was not free from the burden of labour. He had often to go into the desert to water the flocks of his uncle. The princely munificence of Hashim and Abdul Muttalib had told upon the fortunes of their heirs, and the Hashimites, owing to the lack of means, were fast losing their commanding position.

The duty of providing the pilgrims with food was given up to the rival branch of Ommeyya, who had always entertained the bitterest jealousy towards the children of Hashim.

He was but a child when the "Sacrilegious Wars " the Ghazwat-al-Fijar, which continued with varying fortunes and considerable loss of human life for a number of years broke out at Okadh, between the Koreish and the Bani-Kinana on one side, and the Baru-Hawazin on the other. Okadh lies between Tayef and Nakhla, three short journeys from Mecca. At this place, famous in Arab history, was held a great annual fair in the sacred month of Zu'lkada when it was forbidden to engage in war or shed human blood in anger, "a sort of God's truce." Other fairs were held at Majna near Marr-uz-Zuhran, not far from Mecca, and at Zu'l Mejaz at the foot of Mount Arafat; but the gathering at Okadh was a great national affair.

Here in the sacred month, when all enmity and tribal vendetta was supposed to lie buried for the time, flowed from all parts of Arabia and even more distinct lands, the commerce of the world. Here came the merchants of "Araby the blest," of Hijaz, of Nejd; the poet-heroes of the desert; and the actors, often disguised from the avengers of blood in masks or veils, to recite their poems and win the applause of the nations gathered there, Okadh was "the Olympia of Arabia;" here they came, not for trade only, but to sing of their prowess, of their glory, to display their poetical and literary talents. The Kasidas which won the admiration of the assembled multitude were inscribed in letters of gold (Muzahabat, golden), and hung up in the national pantheon as a memorial to posterity. [Hence also called the Muallakat, or suspended poems.]

During these weeks Okadh presented a gay scene of pleasure and excitement. But there was another side to the picture also. The dancing women, like their modern representatives the almas and ghawazin of Egypt, moving from tent to tent exciting the impetuous son of the desert by their songs and their merriment; the congregation of Corinthians, who did not even pretend to the calling of music; the drunken orgies, frequently ending in brawls and bloodshed; the gaming-tables, at which the Meccan gambled from night till morning; the bitter hatred and ill-feeling evoked by the pointed personalities of rival poets, leading to sudden affrays and permanent and disastrous quarrels, deepened the shadows of the picture, and made a vivid impression on the orphan child of Amina.

During the interval between the first and second of those fratricidal wars, named sacrilegious from the violation of the sanctity of the month in which all quarrel was forbidden, Mohammed accompanied his uncle and guardian on one of his mercantile journeys to Syria.

[ Note: Abu Talib, like his father and grandfather, carried on a considerable trade with Syria and Yemen. He transported to Damascus, to Basra, and other places in Syria the dates of Hijaz and Hijr and the perfumes of Yemen, and in return brought back with him the products of the Byzantine empire.]

Here was opened before him a scene of social misery and religious degradation, the sight of which never faded from his memory. Silently and humbly, with many thoughts in his mind, the solitary orphan boy grew from childhood to youth and from youth to manhood.

Deeply versed in the legendary lore of his nation, education in the modern sense of the term he had none. With all his affection for his people, in his ways and mode of thought he seemed far removed from them, isolated in the midst of a chaotic society with his eyes fixed intently on the moving panorama of an effete and depraved age. The lawlessness rife among the Meccans, the sudden outbursts of causeless and sanguinary quarrels among the tribes frequenting the fairs of Okadh, the immorality and scepticism of the Koreish, naturally caused feelings of intense horror and disgust in the mind of the sensitive youth.

In the twenty-fifth year of his age, Mohammed travelled once more into Syria as the factor or steward of a noble Koreishite lady named Khadija, a kinswoman of his. The prudence with which he discharged his duties made a favourable impression on Khadija, which gradually deepened into attachment. A marriage, which proved a singularly happy one, was soon after arranged between Mohammed and his noble kinswoman, and was solemnised amidst universal rejoicings. In spite of the disparity of age between Mohammed and his wife, who was much the senior of her husband, there always existed the tenderest devotion on both sides.

This marriage "brought him that repose and exemption from daily toil which he needed in order to prepare his mind for his great work. But beyond that it gave him a loving woman's heart, that was the first to believe in his mission, that was ever ready to console him in his despair, and to keep alive within him the thin flickering flame of hope when no man believed in him, not even himself, and the world was black before his eyes."

Khadija is a notable figure, an exemplar among the womanhood of Islam. The calumny which is levelled at Mohammed's system, that it has degraded the female sex, is sufficiently refuted by the high position which his wife and youngest daughter, our "Lady of Light" occupy in the estimation of the Islamist. Khadija bore Mohammed several children three sons and four daughters; but the sons all died in infancy, and their loss, which wrung the heart of the bereaved father so tenderly and devotedly attached to them, supplied the hostile Koreish later with an abusive epithet [“abtar”] to apply to the Prophet [ al-abtar, literally without a tail; in its secondary sense, one without issue].

The daughters long survived the new Dispensation. With the exception of an occasional appearance in public when the exigencies of his position or the necessities of the city of his birth demanded it, the next fifteen years after his marriage is a silent record of introspection, preparation, and spiritual communion.

Since the death of Abdul Muttalib authority in Mecca had become more or less divided. Each of the senators enjoyed a somewhat limited authority, and among the different functions there was no such institution as a magistracy to insure the peaceable enjoyment by individuals of their rights and property. The ties of blood and family esprit de corps, afforded some degree of protection to each citizen against injustice and spoliation, but strangers were exposed to all kinds of oppression. They would often find themselves robbed, not only of their goods and chattels, but also of their wives and daughters. A famous poet of the name of Hanzhala of the tribe of Bani Kayn, better known as Abu Ttamahan, was publicly robbed in the streets of Mecca, notwithstanding that he had entered the city as a client of a Koreishite notable, Abdullah ibn Judaan. Another similar act of lawlessness brought matters to a crisis. At the instance of Mohammed the descendants of Hashim and of Muttalib and the principal members of the family of Zuhra and Taym bound themselves by a solemn oath to defend every individual, whether Meccan or stranger, free or slave, from any wrong or injustice to which he might be subjected in Meccan territories, and to obtain redress for him from the oppressor. This chivalrous league received the name of the Hilf-al-Fuzul, or the Federation of the Fuzul, in memory of an ancient society instituted with a similar object among the Jurham, and composed of four personages, named Fazl, Fazal, Muftazzal, and Fuzail, collectively Fuzul. Mohammed was the principal member of this new association, which was founded about 595, shortly after his marriage.

The League of the Fuzul exercised efficient protection over the weak and oppressed, and during the first year of its institution the simple threat of its intervention was sufficient to repress the lawlessness of the strong, and to afford redress to the helpless. The League continued to exist in full force for the first half-century of Islam. It was some years after the establishment of the Hilf-ul-Fuzul, and towards the commencement of the seventh century of the Christian era, that an attempt was made by Osman, son of Huwairis, backed by Byzantine gold, to convert Hijaz into a Roman dependency. His attempt failed chiefly through the instrumentality of Mohammed, and Osman was obliged to fly into Syria, where he was subsequently poisoned by Amr, the Ghassanide prince. In 605, when Mohammed was thirty five, the Koreish took in hand the reconstruction of the Kaba. In the course of this work a dispute among the different families engaged in the building of the temple, which at one time seemed likely to lead to great bloodshed, was happily settled by the ready intervention of Mohammed. These are all we know of his public acts within these fifteen years. His gentle sweet disposition, his austerity of conduct, the severe purity of his life, his scrupulous refinement, his ever-ready helpfulness towards the poor and the weak, his noble sense of honour, his unflinching fidelity, his stern sense of duty had won him, among his compatriots, the high and enviable designation of al-Amin, the Trusty.

It was at this period that he tried to discharge some portion of the debt of gratitude and obligation he owed his uncle Abu Talib, by charging himself with the education of Ali, one of his sons. Abu Talib's endeavour to maintain the old position of his family had considerably straitened his circumstances. Mohammed, rich by his alliance with Khadija, and Abbas, the brother of Abu Talib, were the most opulent citizens of Mecca. During a severe famine which afflicted the country, Mohammed persuaded his uncle Abbas, to adopt one of the sons of Abu Talib, whilst he adopted another. Thus Abbas took Jaafar; Mohammed, Ali, and Akil remained with his father. Mohammed had lost all his sons in early infancy. In the love of Ali he found some consolation for their loss; and the future marriage of the son of Abu Talib with the youngest daughter of Mohammed, Fatima, sealed the bond of love and devotedness, Mohammed about this time set an example to his fellow-citizens by an act of humanity which created a salutary effect upon his people.

A young Arab of the name of Zaid, son of Harith, was brought as a captive to Mecca by a hostile tribe, and sold to a nephew of Khadija, who presented the young lad to her. Mohammed obtained Zaid as a gift from Khadija, and immediately enfranchised him. This kindness on the one side gave rise to absolute devotion on the other, and the Arab boy could not be induced, even by his own father, to return to his tribe or forsake Mohammed.

Thus passed the fifteen years of trial and probation, years marked by many afflictions and yet full of sympathy with human suffering and sorrow.

Before him lay his country, bleeding and torn by fratricidal wars and intertribal dissensions, his people sunk in barbarism, addicted to obscene rites and superstitions, and, with all their desert virtues, lawless and cruel His two visits to Syria had opened to him a scene of unutterable moral and social desolation; rival creeds and sects tearing each other to pieces, wrangling over the body of the God they pretended to worship, carrying their hatred to the valleys and deserts of Hijaz, and rending the townships of Arabia with their quarrels and bitterness. The picture before him was one of dreary hopelessness. The few who, abandoning their ancient beliefs, were groping in the dark for some resting-place, represented a general feeling of unrest.

Note: Four men, Zaid, Waraka, Obaidullah and Osman, abandoning the fetichism of their countrymen, had betaken themselves to a search for the true faith. Zaid was the principal person among them. Before the prophet retired into the wilderness, like Jesus, to commune with God, he had come in contact with Zaid, and learnt to esteem his abhorrence of idolatry. When Zaid's cousin asked the Prophet in later times to supplicate divine mercy for him, Mohammed, who would not pray for his own grandfather, as he had died in idolatry, willingly did so for Zaid.]

In their minds there was nothing capable of appealing to the humanity beyond themselves.

Mohammed's soul was soaring aloft, trying to peer into the mysteries of creation, of life and death, of good and evil, to find order out of chaos. And God's words uttered to his soul became at last the lifegiving power of the world. For years after his marriage it had been his wont to betake himself, sometimes with his family, at other times alone, for prayer and meditation to a cave on the Mount Hira, "a huge barren rock, torn by cleft and hollow ravine, standing out solitary in the full white glare of the desert sun, shadowless, flowerless, without well or rill."

[ Note: Mount Hira is now called the Mount of Light. It was the month of Ramazan in which Mohammad usually spent at Hira in prayer and the succour of the poor and famished wayfarers of the desert. Some say it was month of Rajab.]

Solitude had indeed become a passion with him. Here in this cave he often remained whole nights plunged in profoundest thought, deep in communion with the unseen yet all-pervading God of the Universe.

Slowly the heaven and earth fill with predestined vision and command. A voice seems to issue even from the inanimate objects around him, the stones and rocks and trees, calling on him to fulfil the task an Almighty Power was directing him to undertake. Can the poetry of the soul go further? The mental visions and the apparitions of angels at these moments were the bright though gradual dawnings of those truths with which he was to quicken the world into life. Often in the dark and benighted pathways of concrete existence, the soul of every great man has been conscious of unrealised yet not unseen influences, which have led to some of the happiest achievements of humanity. From Samuel, that ancient seer, wild and awful as he stands, deep in the misty horizon of the past, to Jesus in the wilderness, pondering over the darksome fate of his people and the magnitude of his work, listening to the sweet accents of the God of Truth, from Jesus to Mohammed in the solitude of his mountain retreat, there is no break in the action of these influences. In the still hours of the night, in the sweet calmness of the early dawn, in the depth of solitude, when no human sympathy is near, a voice comes to him from heaven, gently as the sough of the morning breeze: "Thou art the man, Thou art the Prophet of God;" or, when wrapt in thought it comes in mighty waves : "Cry in the name of thy Lord." The over-wrought mind at these moments raises a vision before the eye, a vision of the celestial ministrants who are believed to form the inedium of intercommunication between the God of Heaven and the man on earth.

Professor Muller: "The Father of Truth chooses His own prophets, and He speaks to them in a voice stronger than the voice of thunder. It is the same inner voice through which God speaks to all of us. That voice may dwindle away, and become hardly audible; it may lose its divine accent, and sink into the language of worldly prudence; but it may also from time to time assume its real nature with the chosen of God, and sound in their ears as a voice from heaven."

Johnson in Oriental Religions: "The natural relations of Mahomet's vast conception of the personality of God with the atmosphere of his age," says a great writer, "is the only explanation of that amazing soberness and self-command with which he entertained his all-absorbing visions;" and then adds, "it could not have been accidental that the one supreme force of the epoch issued from the solitudes of that vast peninsula round which the tides of empire rose and fell. Every exclusive prophetic claim in the name of a sovereign will has been a cry from the desert.

"The symbolic meaning given to Arabia by the withdrawal of the Christian apostle to commune with a power above flesh and blood, in Mahomet became more than a symbol. Arabia was itself the man of the hour, the prophet of Islam its concentrated word. To the child of her exalted traditions, driven by secret compulsion out into the lonely places of the starry night, his mouth in the dust, the desert spoke without reserve." One night "the night of power and excellence" when a divine peace rests on creation, and all nature is lifted up towards its Lord in the middle of that night the book was opened to the thirsting soul.


Whilst lying self-absorbed, he is called by a mighty voice, surging like the waves of the ocean, to cry. Twice the Voice called, and twice he struggled and waived its call. But a fearful weight was laid on him, and an answer was wrung out of his heart. "Cry!" called out the Voice for the third time. And he said, "What shall I cry?" Came the answer : "Cry in the name of thy Lord!"

[ Note: In chapter 96 "Ikra" is usually rendered into " read"]

When the Voice had ceased to speak, telling him how from minutest beginnings man had been called into existence and lifted up by understanding and knowledge of the Lord, who is most beneficent, and who by the pen had revealed that which men did not know, Mohammed woke from his trance, and felt as if the words spoken to his soul had been written in his heart. A great trembling came upon him, and he hastened home to his wife, and said, "Khadija! What has happened to me?" He lay down, and she watched by him. When he recovered from his paroxysm he said, "Khadija! He of whom one would not have believed it (meaning himself) has become either a soothsayer (Kahin) or one possessed mad." She replied, "God is my protection, Abul Kasim! (a name of Mohammed, derived from one of his boys), He will surely not let such a thing happen unto thee; for thou speakest the truth, dost not return evil for evil, keepest faith, art of a good life, and kind to thy relations and friends.

"And neither art thou a babbler in the market-places. What has befallen thee? Hast thou seen aught terrible? "Mohammed replied, "Yes." And he told her what he had seen. Whereupon she answered and said, "Rejoice, dear husband, and be of good cheer. He in whose hands stands Khadija's life is my witness that thou wilt be the prophet of this people." Then she arose and went to her cousin Waraka, son of Naufal, who was old and blind, and "knew the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians." When she told him what she had heard, he cried out, "Kuddus, Kuddus, Holy, holy! Verily this is the Namus-i-akber who came to Moses. He will be the prophet of his people. Tell him this. Bid him be of brave heart." [ Note: The word Namus in Arabic is a messenger, one who communicates a secret message.]

In the midst of the wreck of empires and nations, in the wild turmoil of tribes and clans, there was a voice in the air east and west, north and south that God's message was close at hand: the shepherd was nigh who was to call back the erring flock into the Master's fold. It had spoken to the heart of Waraka.

And when the two men met subsequently in the streets, the blind old reader of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, who had searched in them for consolation and found none, but who knew of the promise held out to mankind of a Deliverer, spoke of his faith and trust.

"I swear by Him in whose hand Waraka's life is," said the old man, "God has chosen thee to be the prophet of this people. The Namus-i-Akber has come to thee. They will call thee a liar, they will persecute thee, they will banish thee, they will fight against thee. Oh, that I could live to those days! I would fight for thee." And he kissed him on his forehead. These words of hope and trust brought comfort to the troubled soul.

And then followed a period of waiting for the voice to come again, the inspiration of Heaven to fall once more on the anxious mind.

We can appreciate the spiritual throes, the severe mental conflicts, the doubts, hopes, and misgivings which alternately wrung the heart of Mohammed, when we are told that before he had himself realised his mission he was driven to the verge of self-destruction, when the angel of God recalled him to his duty to mankind.

It spoke to the poor grieved heart, agitated by doubt and fear, of hope and trust, of the bright future when he should see the people of the earth crowding into the one true faith. Saved by the gracious monition, he hurries home from the desert, exhausted in mind and body, to the bosom of his devoted wife, praying only to be covered from the overwhelming Presence.

His was not the communion with God of those egoists who bury themselves in deserts or forests, and live a life of quietude for themselves alone. His was the hard struggle of the man who is led onwards by a nobler destiny towards the liberation of his race from the bondage of idolatry. His destiny was unfolded to him when, wrapt in profound meditation, melancholy and sad, he felt himself called by that Voice from heaven which had called those who had gone before him, to arise and preach. "O thou, enwrapped in thy mantle, arise and warn, and glorify thy Lord." [Koran, chapter 74]

And he arose and girded himself for the work to which he was called. Thenceforth his life is devoted to humanity. Preaching with unswerving purpose amidst frightful persecutions, insulted and outraged, he held on in his path of reproof and reform. Khadija was the first to accept his mission. She was the first to believe in the revelation, to abandon the idolatry of her people, and to join with him in purity of heart in offering up prayers to the All-Merciful. Not only was she the first to believe in him and his divine message, but in the struggle which was to follow she was his true consoler; and "God" says tradition, "comforted him through her when he returned to her, for she roused him up again and made his burden more light to him, assuring him of her own faith in him, and representing to him the futility of men's babble."

In the beginning Mohammed opened his soul only 612 to those who were attached to him, and tried to wean them from the gross practices of their forefathers. After Khadija, Ali was the next disciple. Often did the Prophet go into the depths of the solitary desert around Mecca, with his wife and young cousin, that they might together offer up their heartfelt thanks to the God of all nations for His manifold blessings. Once they were surprised in the attitude of prayer by Abu Talib, the father of Ali.

And he said to Mohammed, "son of my brother, what is this religion that thou art following?" "It is the religion of God, of His angels, of His prophets, and of our ancestor Abraham," answered the Prophet "God has sent me to His servants to direct them towards the truth; and thou, my uncle, art the most worthy of all. It is meet that I should thus call on thee, and it is meet that thou shouldst accept the truth and help in spreading it."

"Son of my brother," replied Abu Talib, in the true spirit of the sturdy old Semite, "I cannot abjure the religion of my fathers; but by the Supreme God, whilst I am alive none shall dare to injure thee." Then turning towards Ali, his son, the venerable patriarch inquired what religion was his. "Father," answered Ali, "I believe in God and His Prophet, and go with him." "Well, son," said Abu Talib, "he will not call thee to aught save what is good, wherefore thou art free to cleave unto him."

Soon after Zaid, the son of Harith, who notwithstanding his freedom had cast in his lot with Mohammed, became a convert to the new faith. He was followed by a leading member of the Koreishite community of the name of Abdullah, son of Abu Kuhafa, who afterwards became famous in history as Abu Bakr. A member of the important family of Taym-ibn-Murra, a wealthy merchant, a man of clear, calm judgment, at the same time energetic, prudent, honest, and amiable, he enjoyed great consideration among his compatriots. He was but two years younger than the Prophet, and his unhesitating adoption of the new faith was of great moral effect.

[ Note: Before his conversion to Islam, Abu Bakr was called Abdul Kaba, "servant of the Kaba".]

Five notables followed in his footsteps, among them Osman, son of Affan, of the family of Ommeyya, who afterwards became the third caliph; Abdur Rahman, son of Auf; Saad, son of Abi Wakkas, afterwards the conqueror of Persia; Zobair, son of Awwam and nephew of Khadija, presented themselves before the Prophet and accepted Islam at his hands. Several proselytes also came from the humbler walks of life. It is a noble feature in the history of the Prophet of Arabia, and one which strongly attests the sincerity of his character, the purity of his teachings and the intensity of his faith and trust in God, that his nearest relations, his wife, his beloved cousin, and intimate friends, were most thoroughly imbued with the truth of his mision and convinced of his inspiration. Those who knew him best, closest relations and dearest friends, people who lived with him and noted all his movements, were his sincere and most devoted followers.

If these men and women, noble, intelligent, and certainly not less educated than the fishermen of Galilee, had perceived the slightest sign of earthliness, deception, or want of faith in the teacher himself, Mohammed's hopes of moral regeneration and social reform would all have been dashed to pieces in a moment. They braved for him persecutions and dangers; they bore up against physical tortures and mental agony, caused by social excommunication, even unto death. Would this have been so had they perceived the least backsliding in their master? But even had these people not believed in Mohammed with such earnest faith and trust, it would furnish no reason for doubting the greatness of his work or the depth of his sincerity. For the influence of Jesus himself was least among his nearest relations. His brothers never believed in him, and they even went so far as once to endeavour to obtain possession of his person, believing him to be out of his mind.

Even his immediate disciples were not firm in their convictions. Perhaps this unsteadiness may have arisen from weakness of character, or it may have resulted, as Milman [ in History of Christianity] thinks, from the varying tone of Jesus himself; but the fact is undeniable.'' This intense faith and conviction on the part of the immediate followers of Mohammed is the noblest testimony to his sincerity and his utter self-absorption in his appointed task.

For three weary long years he laboured thus quietly to wean his people from the worship of idols. But polytheism was deeply rooted among them; the ancient cult offered attractions which the new faith in its purity did not possess. The Koreish had vested interests in the old worship; and their prestige was involved in its maintenance.

Mahommed had thus to contend, not only with the heathenism of his city sanctified by ages of observance and belief, but also with the opposition of the oligarchy which ruled its destinies, and with whom, like the generality of their people, superstition was allied to great scepticism. With these forces fighting against him, little wonder that the life and death struggle of the three years drew only thirty followers. But the heart of the great teacher never failed. Stedfast in his trust in the Almighty Master whose behests he was carrying out, he held on.

Hitherto he had preached quietly and unobtrusively. His compatriots had looked askance at him, had begun to doubt the sanity of al-Amin, thought him crazed or "possessed," but had not interfered with his isolated exhortations. He now determined to appeal publicly to the Koreish to abandon their idolatry. With this object he convened an assembly on the hill of Safa, and there spoke to them of the enormities of their crimes in the sight of the Lord, their folly in offering adoration to carved idols. He warned them of the fate that had overtaken the races which had passed unheeded the words of the preachers of bygone days, and invited them to abjure their old impious worship, and adopt the faith of love and truth and purity.

But the mockers mocked his words, laughed at the enthusiasm of young Ali, and departed with taunts and scoffs on their lips and fear in their hearts at the spirit of revolution which had risen in their midst. Having thus failed to induce the Koreish to listen to the warnings of Heaven, he turned his attention to the strangers visiting the city for trade or pilgrimage. To them he endeavoured to convey God's words. But here again the Koreish frustrated his efforts. When the pilgrims began to arrive on the environs of the city, the Koreishites posted themselves on the different routes and warned the strangers against holding any communication with Mohammed, whom they represented as a dangerous magician. This machination led, however, to a result little expected by the Meccans. As the pilgrims and traders dispersed to their distant homes, they carried with them the news of the advent of the strange, enthusiastic preacher, who at the risk of his own life was calling aloud to the nations of Arabia to abjure the worship of their fathers.

If the Koreish were under the impression that Mohammed would be abandoned by his own kith and kin, they were soon undeceived by a scathing denunciation hurled at them by Abu Talib. The old patriarch, who had refused with characteristic persistency to abandon his ancient creed, or to adopt the new faith, rebelled at the injustice and intolerance of his compatriots towards the reformer, and with true desert chivalry he deplored, in a poem which lies embalmed in history, the enormities of the Koreish towards one who was the benefactor of the orphan and the widow the al-Amin, who never failed in word or deed; and declared that the children of Hashim and of Muttalib would defend the innocent with their lives. About the same time an Yathrebite chief wrote to the Koreish of Mecca, and, holding up the examples of bygone ages, exhorted them not to embroil themselves with civil dissensions and warfare. He advised them to give a hearing to the new preacher; "An honourable man has adopted a certain religion, why persecute him? for it is only the Lord of the heaven who can read the heart of man!" His counsel had some effect, and occasioned a change of tactics, among the Koreish, For a time, accordingly, calumnies and vilifications, exasperating contumelies and petty outrages were substituted for open and violent persecution.

The hostile Koreish stopped the Prophet from offering his prayers at the Kaba; they pursued him wherever he went; they covered him and his disciples with dirt and filth when engaged in their devotions. They incited the children and the bad characters of the town to follow and insult him. They scattered thorns in the places which he frequented for devotion and meditation. In this act of refined cruelty the lead was always taken by Umm-i-Jamil, the wife of Abu Lahab, one of Mohammed's uncles. She was the most inveterate of his persecutors. Every place, which he or his disciples frequented for devotion, she covered with thorns. This exasperating conduct brought down upon her the designation of being "the bearer of faggots" (hammalat-al-hateb) [to hell].

Amidst all these trials Mohammed never wavered. Full of the intensest confidence in his mission, he worked on steadily. Several times he was in imminent danger of his life at the hands of the Koreish. On one occasion he disarmed their murderous fury by his gentle and calm self-control. But persecution only added to the strength of the new faith, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," is a truth not confined to one creed. The violence of the Koreish towards Mohammed, their burning and bitter intolerance, led to the conversion of the redoubtable Hamza, the youngest son of Abdul Muttalib. This intrepid warrior, - brave, generous, and true, whose doughty sword was held in dread by all the Koreish, about this time came to the Prophet, adopted his faith, and became thenceforth a devoted adherent of Islam, and eventually laid down his life in the cause.

Amidst all this persecution Mohammed never ceased calling to the nation so wedded to iniquity to abandon their evil ways and abominations. He threw his heart and soul into his preachings. He told them in burning words, which seared into the hearts of his listeners, the punishment which had lighted on the tribes of Ad and Thamud who had heeded not the warnings of God's messengers, of the outpouring of Heaven's wrath at the iniquities of Noah's people. He adjured them by the wonderful sights of nature, by the noon-day brightness, by the night when she spreadeth her veil, by the day when it appeareth in glory, to listen to the warning before a like destruction came upon them. He told them of the day of reckoning, when the deeds done by men in this world shall be weighed before the Eternal Judge, when the children who had been buried alive shall be asked for what crime they had been put to death, and when heaven and earth shall be folded up and none be near but God. He spoke to them of the rewards and punishments of the Hereafter, describing to his materialistic people the joys of Paradise and the pains of hell "with all the glow of Eastern imagery." He told them what the unbelievers were like "They are like unto one who kindleth a fire, and when it hath thrown its light on all around him, God taketh away the light and leaveth him in darkness, and they cannot see."

"Deaf, dumb, blind, therefore they shall not retrace their steps." "They are like those who, when there cometh a storm-cloud of heaven big with darkness, thunder, and lightning, thrust their fingers into their ears because of the thunder-clap for fear of death. God is round about the infidels." "The lightning almost snatcheth away their eyes; so oft as it gleameth on them, they walk on in it; but when darkness closeth upon them, they stop; and if God pleased, of their ears and of their eyes would He surely deprive them: verily God is Almighty."

"As to the infidels, their works are like the mirage on the plain, which the thirsty [traveller] thinketh to be water, and then when he cometh thereto, he findeth it [to be] nothing; but he findeth God round about him, and He will fully pay him his account; for swift in taking an account is God." "Or as the darkness over a deep sea, billows riding upon billows below, and clouds above; one darkness over another darkness; when a man stretcheth forth his hand he is far from seeing it; he to whom God doth not grant light, no light at all hath he."

The people were awestruck, and conversions grew frequent. The Koreish were now thoroughly alarmed; Mohammed's preaching betokened a serious revolutionary movement. Their power and prestige were at stake.

They were the custodians of the idols whom Mohammed threatened with destruction; they were the ministers of the worship which Mohammed denounced, their very existence depended upon their maintaining the old institutions intact. If his predictions were fulfilled, they would have to efface themselves as a nation pre-eminent among the nationalities of Arabia. The new preacher's tone was intensely democratic; in the sight of his Lord all human beings were equal. This levelling of old distinctions was contrary to all their traditions. They would have none of it, for it boded no good to their exclusive privileges. Urgent measures were needed to stifle the movement before it gained further strength.

They accordingly decided upon an organised system of persecution. In order, however, not to violate their law of vendetta, each family took upon itself the task of strangling the new religion within its own circle. Each household tortured its own members, or clients, or slaves, who were supposed to have attached themselves to the new faith. Mohammed, owing to the protection of Abu Talib and his kinsmen, Abu Bakr and a few others, who were either distinguished by their rank or possessed some influential friend or protector among the Koreish, were, for the time, exempt from immediate violence. The others were thrown into prison, starved, and then beaten with sticks. The hill of Ramdha and the place called Batha became thus the scenes of cruel tortures. The men or women whom the Koreish found abandoning the worship of their idol-gods, were exposed to the burning heat of the desert on the scorching sand, where, when reduced to the last extremity by thirst, they were offered the alternative of adoring the idols or death.

Some recanted only to profess Islam once more when released from their torments; but the majority held firmly to their faith. Such a one was Billal, the first Muezzin of Islam. His master, Ommeyya, son of Khallaf, conducted him each day to Batha when the heat of the sun was at its greatest, and there exposed him barebacked with his face to the burning sun, and placed on his chest an enormous block of stone. "There shalt thou remain until thou art dead," Ommeyya used to say, "or thou hast abjured Islam." As he lay half-stifled under his heavy weight, dying with thirst, he would only answer, "Ahadoon, ahadoon," "one [God], one."

This lasted for days, until the poor sufferer was reduced to the verge of death, when he was ransomed by Abu Bakr, who had in like manner purchased the liberty of six other slaves. They killed with excruciating torments Ysar and Samiya his wife; they inflicted fearful tortures on Ammar their son. Mohammed was often an eye-witness to the sufferings of his disciples, sufferings borne with patience and fortitude as became martyrs in the cause of truth. And these were not the only martyrs in the early history of Islam.

Like the Pharisees tempting Jesus, the Koreish came to Mohammed with temptations of worldly honour and aggrandisement, to draw him from the path of duty. One day, says the chronicler, he was sitting in the Kaba, at a little distance from an assembly of the antagonistic chiefs, when one of them, Otba, son of Rabia, a man of moderate views, came to him and said, "O son of my brother, thou art distinguished by thy qualities and thy descent. Now thou hast sown division among our people, and cast dissension in our families; thou denouncest our gods and goddesses; thou dost tax our ancestors with impiety. We have a proposition to make to thee; think well if it will not suit thee to accept it." "Speak, father of Walid,"

[ Note: Walid being a son of Otba. It was usual, and is so even now, among the Arabs to call a man as the father of so-and-so, instead of using his own name, as a mark of consideration. Whilst hospitality was regarded as a great virtue, charity was considered a weakness among the Arabs; and a future life, an old woman's fable.]

He said the Prophet, "I listen, son of my brother" Commenced Otba: "If thou wishest to acquire riches by this affair, we will collect a fortune larger than is possessed by any of us; if thou desirest honours and dignity, we shall make thee our chief, and shall not do a thing without thee; if thou desirest dominion, we shall make thee our king; and if the spirit (demon) which possesses thee cannot be overpowered, we will bring thee doctors and give them riches till they cure thee." And when he had done, "Hast thou finished, father of Walid?" asked the Prophet. "Yes," replied he. "Then listen to me." "I listen," he said. "In the name of the most merciful God." commenced the warner, "this is a revelation from the most Merciful: a book, the verses whereof are distinctly explained, an Arabic Koran, for the instruction of people who understand; bearing good tidings, and denouncing threats: but the greater part of them turn aside, and hearken not thereto. And they say, 'Our hearts are veiled from the doctrine to which thou invitest us; and there is a deafness in our ears, and a curtain between us and thee: wherefore act thou as thou shalt think fit; for we shall act according to our own sentiments.' Say, 'verily I am only a man like you. It is revealed unto me that your God is one God: wherefore direct your way straight unto Him; and ask pardon of Him for what is past.' And woe be to the idolaters, who give not the appointed alms, and believe not in the life to come! But as to those who believe and work righteousness, they shall receive an everlasting reward." When the Prophet finished this recitation, he said to Otba, "Thou hast heard, now take the course which seemeth best to thee."

Profoundly afflicted by the sufferings of his disciples, whose position, as time went on, became more and more unbearable, he advised them to seek a refuge in the neighbouring Christian kingdom of Abyssinia, where ruled a pious sovereign, till God in His mercy wrought a change in the feelings of the Koreish. He had heard of the righteousness of this Christian sovereign, of his tolerance and hospitality, and was certain of a welcome for his followers.

Some immediately availed themselves of the advice, and sailed, to the number of fifteen, to the hospitable shores of the Negus (Najashi). This is called the first flight in the history of Islam, and occurred in the fifth year of Mohammed's mission (615). These emigrants were soon joined by many more of their fellow-sufferers and labourers in the cause of truth, until their number amounted to eighty -three men and eighteen women. But the untiring hostility of the Koreish pursued them even here. They were furious at the escape of their victims, and sent deputies to the king to demand the delivery of these refugees that they might be put to death. They stated the chief charges against the poor fugitives to be the abjuration of their old religion, and the adoption of a new one. The Negus sent for the exiles, and inquired of them whether what their enemies had stated was true.

"What is this religion for which you have abandoned your former faith" asked the king, "and adopted neither mine nor that of any other people?" - Jaafar, son of Abu Talib, and brother of Ali, acting as spokesman for the fugitives, spoke thus: "king, we were plunged in the depth of ignorance and barbarism; we adored idols, we lived in unchastity; we ate dead bodies, and we spoke abominations; we disregarded every feeling of humanity, and the duties of hospitality and neighbourhood; we knew no law but that of the strong, when God raised among us a man, of whose birth, truthfulness, honesty, and purity we were aware; and he called us to the unity of God, and taught us not to associate anything with Him; He forbade us the worship of idols; and enjoined us to speak the truth, to be faithful to our trusts, to be merciful, and to regard the rights of neighbours; he forbade us to speak evil of women, or to eat the substance of orphans; he ordered us to fly vices, and to abstain from evil; to offer prayers, to render alms, to observe the fast.

"We have believed in him, we have accepted his teachings and his injunctions to worship God, and not to associate anything with Him. For this reason our people have risen against us, have persecuted us in order to make us forego the worship of God and return to the worship of idols of wood and stone and other abominations. They have tortured us and injured us, until finding no safety among them, we have come to thy country, and hope thou wilt protect us from their oppression."

The demands of the Koreish were scouted by the king, and the deputies returned in confusion to Mecca.

Whilst the disciples of Mohammed were seeking safety in other lands from the persecution of their enemies, he himself stood bravely at his post, and amidst every insult and outrage pursued his mission.

Again they came to him with promises of honour and riches, to seduce him from his duty; the reply was as before, full of life, full of faith: "I am neither desirous of riches nor ambitious of dignity nor of dominion; I am sent by God, who has ordained me to announce glad tidings unto you. I give you the words of my Lord; I admonish you. If you accept the message I bring you, God will be favourable to you both in this world and in the next; if you reject my admonitions, I shall be patient, and leave God to judge between you and me." They mocked him, scoffed at him, tried by insidious questions to expose the fallacy of his teachings.

His simple trust and sublime faith in his Master rose superior to all their materialistic scepticism. They asked for miracles to prove his mission. They asked him to cause wells and rivers to gush forth, to bring down the heaven in pieces, to remove mountains, to have a house of gold erected, to ascend to heaven by a ladder.

It was a repetition of the old story, with this difference, that in the case of Jesus, His own followers insisted upon His performing miracles to satisfy them of the truth of His mission. "His immediate disciples" says Professor Momerie, "were always misunderstanding Him and His work: wanting Him to call down fire from heaven; wanting Him to declare Himself king of the Jews; wanting to sit on His right hand and on His left hand in His kingdom; wanting Him to show them the Father, to make God visible to their bodily eyes; wanting Him to do, and wanting to do themselves, anything and everything that was incompatible with His great plan. This was how they treated Him until the end. When that came, they all forsook Him, and fled."

To these unsatisfied, lukewarm spirits, whose craving for wonders was no less strong than that of the Koreish, and who afterwards clothed the revered figure of Jesus in a mist, a legacy which even modern idealistic Christianity cannot shake off, the Master was wont to reply, at times angrily, that it was an evil and adulterous age which sought after a sign, and that no sign should be given to it; and that if a man believed not in Moses and the prophets, he would not repent even though one rose from the dead.

It must be said to the credit of the disciples of the Arabian teacher, that they never called for a miracle from their master. They - scholars, merchants, and soldiers looked to the moral evidences of his mission. They ranged themselves round the friendless preacher at the sacrifice of all their worldly interests and worldly hopes, and adhered to him through life and death with a devotion to his human personality to which there is scarcely a parallel in the history of the world.

In an age when miracles were supposed to be ordinary occurrences at the beck of the commonest saint, when the whole atmosphere was surcharged with supernaturalism, not only in Arabia, but in the neighbouring countries where civilisation had made far greater progress, the great Pioneer of rationalism unhesitatingly replies to the miracle-seeking heathens "God has not sent me to work wonders; He has sent me to preach to you. My Lord be praised! Am I more than a man sent as an apostle? .... Angels do not commonly walk the earth, or God would have despatched an angel to preach His truth to you. I never said that Allah's treasures are in my hand, that I knew the hidden things, or that I was an angel.... I who cannot even help or trust myself, unless God pleaseth." ... No extraordinary pretensions, no indulgence in hyperbolical language, no endeavour to cast a glamour round his character or personality."

"I am only a preacher of God's words, the bringer of God's message to mankind," repeats he always. From first to last no expression escapes him "which could be construed into a request for human worship;" from first to last there is unvarying soberness of expression, which, considering the age and surroundings, is more than marvellous; from first to last the tone is one of simple, deep humility before the Creator. And in the moment of his greatest exaltation the feeling is one of humble, sweet thankfulness: "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

"Whatsoever is in heaven and on earth praises God the King, the Holy One, the Almighty, the All-wise. It is He who out of the midst of the illiterate Arabs has raised an apostle to show unto them His signs, and to sanctify them, and to teach them the Scripture and the Wisdom, them who before had been in great darkness.... This is God's free grace, which He giveth unto whomsoever He wills. God is of great mercy!"

Disclaiming every power of wonder-working, the Prophet of Islam ever rests the truth of his divine commission entirely upon his teachings. He never resorts to the miraculous to assert his influence or to enforce his warnings. He invariably appeals to the familiar phenomena of nature as signs of the divine presence. He unswervingly addresses himself to the inner consciousness of man, to his reason, and not to his weakness or his credulity. Look round yourself: is this wonderful world, the sun, moon, and stars, holding their swift silent course in the blue vault of heaven, the law and system prevailing in the universe; the rain-drops falling to revive the parched earth into life; the ships moving across the ocean, beladen with what is profitable to mankind; the beautiful palm covered with its golden fruit, are these the handiwork of your wooden or stone gods?

"Fools! do you want a sign, when the whole creation is full of the signs of God. The structure of your body, how wonderfully complex, how beautifully regulated; the alternations of night and day, of life and death; your sleeping and awaking; your desire to accumulate from the abundance of God; the winds driving abroad the pregnant clouds as the forerunners of the Creator's mercy; the harmony and order in the midst of diversity; the variety of the human race, and yet their close affinity; fruits, flowers, animals, human beings themselves, are these not signs enough of the presence of a master mind?

To the Prophet of Islam, nature in itself is a revelation and a miracle.

"There is a tongue in every leaf,
A voice in every rill,
A voice that speaketh everywhere,
In flood and fair, through earth and air,
A voice that's never still."

[ Note: (Arabic quote) "Every blade that springs from the earth bears testimony to the unity of God".]

The Prophet of monotheism is pre-eminently the Prophet of nature. His ethical appeal and his earnest assertion of divine unity are founded upon the rational and intellectual recognition of all-pervading order, of the visible presence of one Mind, one Will, regulating, guiding, and governing the universe. His grandest miracle is the Book in which he has poured forth with an inspired tongue all the "revelations of nature, conscience, and prophecy." Ask you a greater miracle than this, unbelieving people! than to have your vulgar tongue chosen as the language of that incomparable Book, one piece of which puts to shame all your golden poesy and suspended songs to convey the tidings of universal mercy, the warnings to pride and tyranny!

But to all his exhortations the Koreish turned a deaf ear. They were blind to the signs of God, blind to the presence of a Divine Personality in nature, deaf to the call of the seer to come back to righteousness, to forego the crimes and abominations of antiquity. Their answer to him breathes a fierce animosity paralleled only by the darkest days of Arian or Pelagian persecution in Christendom. "Know this, Mohammed," said they, "we shall never cease to stop thee from preaching till either thou or we perish."

During this interval occurred an incident which has been differently construed by the Moslem historians and the Christian biographers of the Prophet. One day, in one of his prophetic trances, Mohammed was reciting within the Kaba some verses which now form part of the fifty-third chapter of the Koran. When he came to the words, "What think ye of al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manah? the third besides," an idolater who was present on the occasion, and whom tradition has converted into the devil, anxious to avert the threatened denunciation, called out, "They are exalted damsels, and their intercession with God may be hoped for."

These words were supposed to form part of the Prophet's revelation. And the Koreish, overjoyed either at the trick or at Mohammed's supposed concession, hastened to express their willingness to come to terms. When Mohammed learnt what had happened, he immediately proclaimed the words, "They are nought but empty names, which you and your fathers have invented."

This is the version given by Mahommedan historians and traditionists. According to the Christian biographers, the incident is supposed to indicate a momentary desire on the part of the prophet to end the strife with the Koreish by some compromise. The bigot calls it "a lapse" and "a fall"; but the generous and unbiased historian considers the episode as throwing additional lustre on the Prophet of Arabia. Persecution was becoming fiercer and fiercer every day, the sufferings of his followers were increasing, and the whole city was up in arms against them.

The sight of his poor disciples afflicted him deeply; his weary struggle with the Arabian idolatry filled him with grief. What wonder that a momentary thought crossed his mind to end the conflict by making a slight concession to the bigotry of his enemies. "And so Mohammed made his first and last concession. He recited a revelation to the Koreish, in which he spoke respectfully of the three moon-goddesses, and asserted that their intercession with God might be hoped for: 'Wherefore bow down before God and serve Him;' and the whole audience, overjoyed at the compromise, bowed down and worshipped at the name of the God of Mohammed, the whole city was reconciled to the double religion. But this dreamer of the desert was not the man to rest upon a lie. At the price of the whole city of Mecca he would not remain untrue to himself. He came forward and said he had done wrong, - the devil had tempted him. He openly and frankly retracted what he had said; and as for their idols, they were but empty names which they and their fathers had invented.'"

''Western biographers have rejoiced greatly over 'Mohammed's fall.' Yet it was a tempting compromise, and few would have withstood it. And the life of Mohammed is not the life of a god, but of a man; from first to last it is intensely human. But if for once he was not superior to the temptation of gaining over the whole city, and obtaining peace where before had been only bitter persecution, what can we say of his manfully thrusting back the rich prize he had gained, freely confessing his fault, and resolutely giving himself over again to the old indignities and insults?

If he was once insincere and who is not? How intrepid was his after sincerity! He was untrue to himself for a while, and he is ever referring to it in his public preaching with shame and remorse; but the false step was more than atoned for by his magnificent recantation."

Upon the promulgation that Lat, Uzza, and Manah were but empty names, the persecution burst out anew with redoubled fury.

Supported, however, by a firm conviction in divine assistance, and upheld by the admonitions of the heavenly voice within, conveyed to him by the ministrators of heavenly mercy, he continued his preaching undeterred by the hostility of his enemies, or by the injuries they inflicted upon him. In spite of all opposition, however, slowly but surely the new teachings gained ground. The seeds of truth thus scattered could not fail to fructify. The wild Arab of the desert, the trading citizen of distant townships who came to the national fair, heard the words of the strange man whom his enemies thought possessed, listened to the admonitions in which he poured forth his soul, listened with awe and wonder to his denunciations of their divinities and of their superstitions, of their unrighteousness, of their evil ways, and carried back to their far-off homes new light and new life, even unconsciously to themselves. And the satires, the ill-names his enemies heaped upon Mohammed, only tended to make his words more extensively known.

The Meccans, on their side, were by no means quiet. Several times the Koreish sent deputations to Abu Talib, asking him to stop his nephew from preaching against their religion. At first Abu Talib turned them away with soft and courteous words. But as Mohammed persisted in his fiery denunciations against their godlessness and impiety, they expelled him from the Kaba where he was wont to preach latterly, and then came in a body to his uncle, " We respect thy age and thy rank," said they, "but our respect for thee has bounds, and verily we can have no further patience with thy nephew's abuse of our gods, and his ill words against our ancestors; wherefore do thou either prevent him from so doing, or thyself take part with him, so that we may settle the matter by fight until one of the two parties is exterminated."

Having thus spoken, they departed. Abu Talib was unwilling to separate himself from his people, neither did he like abandoning his nephew to the idolaters. Sending for Mohammed, he informed him of the speech of the Koreish, and begged him to renounce his task. Mohammed thought his uncle wished to withdraw his protection; but his high resolve did not fail him even at this moment. Firmly he replied: "my uncle, if they placed the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left, to force me to renounce my work, verily I would not desist therefrom until God made manifest His cause, or I perished in the attempt." But overcome by the thought of desertion by his kind protector, he turned to depart. Then Abu Talib called aloud: "Son of my brother, come back;"and he came. And Abu Talib said: "Say whatsoever thou pleasest; for by the Lord, I shall not abandon thee, nay, never." The Koreish made another attempt to persuade Abu Talib to deliver up his nephew to them. They offered in exchange a young man of the family of Makhzum, but it was of no avail. The declared intention of Abu Talib to support his nephew excited their fury, and they renewed their menaces of violence.

The venerable patriarch appealed to the sense of honour of the Bani-Hashim and Bani-Muttalib, the kinsmen of Mohammed, to protect a distinguished member of their family from falling a victim to the hatred of rival clans. And the appeal was nobly responded to, with the solitary exception of the squint-eyed Abu Lahab, "the father of flame," as the sequel will show.

At this time the new faith gained a valuable adherent in Omar, whose energy of character made him an important factor in the future commonwealth of Islam. His services to the religion of Mohammed have engraved his name on the pages of history, A distinguished member of the family of Adi-ibn-Kaab, and the son of the Khattab, notorious for the persecution of the Moslems, he was hitherto a violent opponent of Islam, and the bitterest adversary of the Prophet. His conversion is said to have been worked by the magic effect on his mind of a chapter of the Koran which he heard recited in his sister's house, where he had gone in a furious rage and with murderous intent. Struck with the words which he had heard, he went straight to the Prophet with the naked sword in his hand with which he had meant to slay Mohammed and his disciples, causing considerable consternation among the assembly of the Faithful listening to the Preacher. He kissed the master's hand, and then demanded to be taken into the fold of God; and heartfelt thanks went up to heaven from the Moslems for the grace that had fallen on Omar. After his conversion he became one of the bulwarks of the faith.

Islam need no more hide its head in byways and corners, go about in concealment, or offer its prayers to God in secret and trepidation. Besides a large following taken from the humbler walks of life, there were now gathered round the Prophet a chosen band of apostles, consisting, not of ignorant folk, but of men of energy, talent, and worth, like Hamza, Abu Bakr, and Omar.

And though Ali was in his youth, he was fast rising into prominence.

These important adhesions gave heart to the Moslems, and they now ventured to perform their devotions in public. The Koreish, who were at first thunderstruck at the conversion of Omar, saw the gravity of the situation. And yet they waited to strike the decisive blow.

The return of the deputies, however, from Abyssinia, and the announcement of their unsuccessful mission, roused them to frenzy. They determined at last to exterminate with one stroke the entire clan of Hashim and Muttalib. With that purpose they, in the 7th year of the mission, towards the end of 616, formed a league against the descendants of Hashim and Muttalib. They bound themselves by a solemn document, which was deposited in the Kaba, not to enter into any contract of marriage with the Hashimites, or to buy and sell with them. The Hashimites and Muttalibites, Mussulmans as well as idolaters, were struck with dismay, and fearful that this might be the prelude to some other attack, judged it safer to abandon their houses dispersed in the city, and concentrate themselves at one point. They betook themselves accordingly to the Shi-b (or quarter) of Abu Talib, a long, narrow mountain defile on the eastern skirts of Mecca, cut off by rocks or walls from the city, except for one narrow gateway, Abu Lahah alone remained aloof, and ranged himself on the side of the enemy.

They lived in this defensive position with Mohammed in their midst for nearly three years, beleaguered by the Koreish, and subjected to every privation. The provisions which they had carried with them were soon exhausted, and the cries of the starving children could be heard outside. Probably they would have entirely perished but for the occasional help they received surreptitiously from less bigoted compatriots. Some of the chiefs, however, were beginning to be ashamed of their injustice. Towards the tenth year of the mission (619), Hisham, son of Amr, who took a lively interest in the Hashimites, tried to bring about a reconciliation between the Koreishites and the two families of Hashim and Muttalib. He succeeded in winning over Zobair, son of Abu Ommeyya, to his side; and, seconded by him and others, the pact was annulled, and the two families were taken back to the enjoyment of the communal rights, and were allowed to return to Mecca.

During the period Mohammed was shut up in the Shi-b with his kinspeople, Islam made no progress outside. In the sacred months, when violence was considered a sacrilege, the Teacher would come out of his prison and endeavour to obtain hearers among the pilgrims; but the squint-eyed "Father of the Flame" followed him about, and made his words nought by calling him "a liar and a Sabean."

The year which followed is called in the history of Islam "the year of mourning" for the loss of Abu Talib and Khadija, who followed each other to the grave within a short interval. In Abu Talib, Mohammed, lost the guardian of his youth, who had hitherto stood between him and his enemies. The death of Khadija was a severe blow. When none believed in him, when he himself had not yet awakened to the full consciousness of his mission, and his heart was full of doubts, when all around him was dark and despairing, her love, her faith had stood by him. "She was ever his angel of hope and consolation." To the end of his life he retained the tenderest recollection of her love and devotion.



# Chapter 2: THE HEGIRA


THE children of Ommeyya and other hostile clans, actuated as much by their attachment to the old cult as by their jealousy of and hatred towards the Hashimites, considered this a favourable opportunity to crush out Islam in Mecca; and the death of Abu Talib, whose personal influence and character had restrained their fury within some limits, became the signal for the Koreish to redouble their persecutions.

Weighed down by the loss of his venerable protector and of his cherished wife, hopeless of turning the Koreish from idolatry, with a saddened heart, and yet full of trust, he determined to turn to some other field for the exercise of his ministry. Mecca had rejected the words of God, hapless Tayef may listen to them. Accompanied by his faithful servant Zaid, he arrived among the Thakif. He spoke to them about his mission; told them about their iniquities, and called them to the worship of God. His words caused a storm of indignation: Who was this crazy man, said they, who invited them to abandon the beautiful divinities they worshipped with such lightness of heart and such freedom of morals?

They drove him from the city; and the rabble and the slaves followed, hooting and pelting him with stones until the evening, when they left him to pursue his way alone. Wounded and bleeding, footsore and weary, he betook himself to prayer under the shade of some palm trees, which afforded a welcome shelter to the thirsty and famished wayfarer. Raising his hands towards heaven, he cried: "Lord! I make my complaint unto Thee, out of my feebleness, and the vanity of my wishes. I am insignificant in the sight of men. Thou most merciful! Lord of the weak! Thou art my Lord! Do not forsake me. Leave me not a prey to strangers, nor to mine enemies. If Thou art not offended, I am safe. I seek refuge in the light of Thy countenance, by which all darkness is dispersed, and peace comes here and hereafter. Let not Thy anger descend on me; solve my difficulties as it pleaseth Thee. There is no power, no help, but in Thee."

Mohammed returned to Mecca sorely stricken in heart. He lived here for some time, retired from his people, preaching occasionally, but confining his efforts mainly to the strangers who congregated in Mecca and its vicinity during the season of the annual pilgrimage, hoping, as Tabari expresses it, to find among them some who would believe in him, and carry the truth to their people.

One day, whilst thus sadly but yet hopefully working among these half-traders, half-pilgrims, he came upon a group of six men from the distant city of Yathreb conversing together. He asked them to sit down and listen to him; and they sat down and listened. Struck by his earnestness and the truth of his words, they became his proselytes (620); and returning to their city, they spread the news, with lightning rapidity, that a Prophet had risen among the Arabs who was to call them to God, and put an end to their dissensions, which had lasted for centuries.

The next year these Yathrebites returned, and brought six more of their fellow-citizens as deputies from the two principal tribes who occupied that city. On the self-same spot which had witnessed the conversion of the former six, the newcomers gave in their adhesion to Mohammed. This is called the first pledge of Akaba, from the name of the hill on which the conference was held. [ Note: This pledge is also called the "Pledge of Women". The second pledge, in which the deputies of Yathreb took an oath to assist the Moslems, even by arms, against the attacks and outrages of their enemies. ]

The pledge they took was as follows:

"We will not associate anything with God; we will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor fornication; we will not kill
our children; we will abstain from calumny and slander; we will obey the Prophet in everything that is right; and we will be faithful to him in weal and sorrow"

After the pledge, they returned home with a disciple of Mohammed to teach them the fundamental doctrines of the new religion, which rapidly spread among the inhabitants of Yathreb. The interval which elapsed between the first and second pledge is remarkable as one of the most critical periods of Mohammed's mission. The sublime trust of Mohammed in God, and the grandeur of his character, never stand forth more prominently than at this period. He was sad at the sight of his people so sternly wedded to idolatry; but his sorrow was assuaged by the hope that the truth would in the end prevail. He might not live to see it; but as surely as darkness flies before the rays of the sun, so surely falsehood will vanish before truth.

Regarding this epoch, a few words of unconscious admiration escape even the lips of Muir: "Mahomet, thus holding his people at bay, waiting, in the still expectation of victory, to outward appearance defenceless, and with his little band, as it were, in the lion's mouth, yet trusting in His Almighty power whose messenger he believed himself to be, resolute and unmoved, presents a spectacle of sublimity paralleled only in the sacred records by such scenes as that of the prophet of Israel, when he complained to his Master, 'I, even I only, am left'"

This period of anxious waiting is also remarkable for that notable vision of the Ascension which has furnished worlds of golden dreams for the imaginative genius of poets and traditionists. They have woven beautiful and gorgeous legends round the simple words of the Koran: "Praise be to Him who carried His servant by night from the sacred temple to the temple that is more remote, whose precincts We have blessed, that We might show him some of our signs! for He is the Hearer, the Seer." And again: "And remember We said to thee. Verily, thy Lord is round about mankind; We ordained the vision which We showed thee." In spite of the beautiful garb in which the traditionists have dressed this wonderful incident, "it is still a grand vision full of glorious imagery, fraught with deep meaning."

The following year (622), the Yathrebites who had adopted the new religion repaired to Mecca, to the number of seventy-five, in company with their idolatrous brethren, to invite the Prophet to their city; but the idolaters had no knowledge of the intention of their companions. In the stillness of night, when all hostile elements appeared slumbering, these pioneers of the new faith met under the hill which had witnessed the first pledge.

Mohammed appeared among them, accompanied by his uncle Abbas, who, though not a convert, yet took a warm interest in the progress of Islam. He opened the conference, and vividly described to the Yathrebites the risk they incurred by adopting Islam and inviting its teacher to their city. They replied with one voice, that they adopted the religion fully conscious of the dangers that surrounded them.

"Speak, Prophet of God," said they, "and exact any pledge for thyself and thy Lord." The Prophet began, as was his wont, by reciting several passages of the Koran; he then invited all present to the service of God, and dwelt upon the blessings of the new dispensation. The former pledge was repeated, that they would worship none but God; that they would observe the precepts of Islam; that they would obey Mohammed in all that was right, and defend him and his, even as they would their women and children.

"And," said they, "if we die in the cause of God, what shall be our return?" "Happiness hereafter," was the reply. "But," said they, "thou wilt not leave us in the hour of prosperity to return to thy people?" The Prophet smiled and said: "Nay, never; your blood is my blood; I am yours, you are mine" "Give us then thy hand;" and each one placing his hand on the Prophet's hand, swore allegiance to him and his God. Scarcely had the compact been concluded, when the voice of a Meccan, who had been watching this scene from a distance, came floating on the night air, striking a sudden panic into the self-denying hearts there assembled. The firm words of Mohammed restored their presence of mind.

Mohammed then selected twelve men from among them men of position, pointed out to him by the voice of the people as his delegates (Nakibs) Thus was concluded the second pledge of Akaba.

[ Note: Seventy-five people, men and women, took part in this pledge. This event occurred in the month of Zu'l-Hijja, and the Prophet stopped at Mecca throughout the remainder of this month and Muharrarn and Safar. In Rabi I. he left for Medina.]

The Meccan spy had already spread the news of this conference through the city. Astounded at the temerity of Mohammed and his followers, the Koreish proceeded in a body to the caravan of the Yathrebites to demand the men who had entered into the pledge with him. Finding no clue, however, as to the persons who had taken part at the meeting, they allowed the caravan to depart unmolested. But this apparent moderation on the part of the Koreish formed only a prelude to a furious persecution of Mohammed and his disciples. The position of the latter became every day more and more perilous. The Prophet, fearing a general massacre, advised his followers to seek immediate safety at Yathreb; whereupon about one hundred families silently disappeared by twos and threes from Mecca and proceeded to Yathreb, where they were received with enthusiasm. Entire quarters of the city thus became deserted; and Otba, the son of Rabia, at the sight of these vacant abodes, once so full of life, "sighed heavily," and recited the old verse: "Every dwelling-place, even if it has been blessed ever so long, will one day become a prey to unhappiness and bitter wind;" "And," he sorrowfully added, "all this is the work of the son of our brother, who has scattered our assemblies, ruined our affairs, and created dissension amongst us."

As it was with Jesus, so it was with Mohammed; only with this difference, that in one case the Teacher himself says: "Think not that I came to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword: for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." In Mohammed's case it was one of his most persevering opponents who accused him of creating dissension in families.

Throughout this period, when the storm was at its height, and might at any moment have burst over his head, Mohammed never quailed. All his disciples had left for Yathreb; alone he remained bravely at his post, with the devoted Ali and the venerable Abu Bakr.

Meanwhile the clouds were gathering fast. Fearful of the escape of the Prophet, an assembly of the Koreish met in all dispatch in the town-hall (Dar-un-Nedwa), and some chiefs of other clans were invited to attend. The matter had become one of life and death. Stormy was the meeting, for fear had entered their hearts. Imprisonment for life, expulsion from the city, each was debated in turn. Assassination was then proposed; but assassination by one man would have exposed him and his family to the vengeance of blood.

The difficulty was at last solved by Abu Jahl, who suggested that a number of courageous men, chosen from different families, should sheath their swords simultaneously in Mohammed's bosom, in order that the responsibility of the deed might rest upon all, and the relations of Mohammed might consequently be unable to avenge it. This proposal was accepted, and a number of noble youths were selected for the sanguinary deed.

As the night advanced, the assassins posted themselves round the Prophet's dwelling. Thus they watched all night long, waiting to murder him when he should leave his house in the early dawn, peeping now and then through a hole in the door to make sure that he still lay on his bed. But, meanwhile, the instinct of self-preservation, the instinct which had often led the great Prophet of Nazareth to evade his enemies, had warned Mohammed of the danger. In order to keep the attention of the assassins fixed upon the bed, he put his own green garment upon the devoted and faithful Ali, bade him lie on his bed. "and escaped, as David had escaped, through the window." He repaired to the house of Abu Bakr; and they fled together unobserved from the inhospitable city of their birth. They lay hid for several days in a cavern of Mount Thour, a hill to the south of Mecca.

The fury of the Koreish was now unbounded. The news that the would-be assassins had returned unsuccessful, and Mohammed had escaped, aroused their whole energy. Horsemen scoured the country. A price was set upon Mohammed's head. Once or twice the danger approached so near that the heart of old Abu Bakr quaked with fear. "We are but two," said he. "Nay," said Mohammed, "we are three; God is with us;" and He was with them. After three days the Koreish slackened their efforts. All this time Mohammed and his companion were sustained by food brought to them at night by a daughter of Abu Bakr. On the evening of the third day the fugitives left the cavern, and, procuring with great difficulty two camels, endeavoured to reach Yathreb by unfrequented paths. But even here the way was full of danger.

The heavy price set upon Mohammed's head had brought out many horsemen from Mecca, and they were still diligently seeking for the helpless wanderer. One, a wild and fierce warrior, actually caught sight of the fugitives and pursued them.

Again the heart of Abu Bakr misgave him, and he cried, "We are lost." "Be not afraid," said the Prophet, "God will protect us." As the idolater overtook Mohammed, his horse reared and fell. Struck with sudden awe, he entreated the forgiveness of the man whom he was pursuing, and asked for an attestation of his pardon. This was given to him on a piece of bone by Abu Bakr.

The fugitives continued their journey without further molestation, and after three days' journeying reached the territories of Yathreb. It was a hot day in June, 622 of the Christian era, when Mohammed alighted from his camel upon the soil which was thenceforth to become his home and his refuge. A Jew watching on a tower first espied him and thus were the words of the Koran fulfilled: "They, to whom the Scriptures have been given, recognise him as they do their own children." "Mohammed and his companion rested for a few days at a village called Koba, situated only two miles to the south of Yathreb, and remarkable for its beauty and fertility.

Here he was joined by Ali, who had been severely maltreated by the idolaters after their disappointment at Mohammed's escape. Ali fled from Mecca anct journeyed on foot, hiding himself in the daytime and travelling only at night, lest lie should fall into the hands of the Koreish.

The Banu-Amr-bin-Auf, to whom the village belonged, requested Mohammed to prolong his stay amongst them. But the duty of the Prophet lay before him; and he proceeded towards Yathreb, attended by a numerous body of his disciples. He entered the city on the morning of a Friday, 16th of Rabi I., corresponding with the 2nd of July 622.

Thus was accomplished the Hijrat, called in European annals "the flight of Mohammed," from which dates the Mahommedan calendar.


[ Note: The "Hejira," or the era of the Hijrat, was instituted seventeen years later by the second Caliph. The commencement, however, is not laid at the real time of the departure from Mecca, which happened on the 4th of Rabi I, but on the first clay of the first lunar month of the year, viz. Muharram which day, in the year when the era was established, fell on the 15th of July. But though Omar instituted the official era, the custom of referring to events as happening before or after the Hijrat originated, according to some traditions, with the Prophet himself; this event naturally marking the greatest crisis in the history of his mission. The twelve Moslem months are: Muharram (the sacred month), Safar (the month of departure), Rabi I. (first month of the spring), Rabi II. (second month of the spring), Jamadi I. (first dry month), Jamadi II. (second dry month), Rajjab (respected, called often Rajjab-al-Murajjab), Shabari (the month of the budding of trees), Ramazau (month of heat), Shawwal (month of junction), Zul-Kada (month of truce, rest, or relaxation), Zul Hijja (month of pilgrimage). The ancient Arabs observed the lunar year of 354 days, 8 hours, 48 seconds, divided into twelve months of 29 and 30 days alternately. In order to make them agree with the solar year of their neighbours, the Greeks and the Romans, and also in order to make the months fall in the right season, they added a month every third year. This intercalation was called Nasl; and although it was not perfectly exact, it served to maintain a sort of correlation between the denomination of the months and the seasons. Since the suppression of the Nasl, on account of the orgies and various heathen rites observed in the intercalary years, the names of the months have no relation to the seasons. ]



# Chapter 3: THE PROPHET AT MEDINA


FEW Mussulmans of the present day understand the full import of the mystical verses quoted at the head of this chapter, but all appreciate the deep devotion to the grand seer implied in those words. And this devotion is not one which has twined itself round a mythical ideal, or has grown with the lapse of time. From the moment of his advent into Yathreb he stands in the full blaze of day the grandest of figures upon whom the light of history has ever shone. The minutest details of his life are carefully noted and handed down to posterity, to become crystallised often against the spirit of his own teachings, which aimed at the perpetual growth of the human race. We have seen this wonderful man as an orphan child who had never known a father's love, bereft in infancy of a mother's care, his early life so full of pathos, growing up from a thoughtful childhood to a still more thoughtful youth. His youth as pure and true as his boyhood; his manhood as austere and devout as his youth. His ear ever open to the sorrows and sufferings of the weak and the poor; his heart ever full of sympathy and tenderness towards all God's creatures. He walks so humbly and so purely, that men turn round and point, there goes al-Amin, the true, the upright, the trusty.

A faithful friend, a devoted husband; a thinker intent on the mysteries of life and death, on the responsibilities of human actions, the end and aim of human existence, he sets himself to the task of reclaiming and reforming a nation, nay, a world, with only one loving heart to comfort and solace him. Baffled, he never falters; beaten, he never despairs. He struggles on with indomitable spirit to achieve the work assigned to him. His purity and nobleness of character, his intense and earnest belief in God's mercy, bring round him ultimately many a devoted heart; and when the moment of the severest trial comes, like the faithful mariner, he remains stedfast at his post until all his followers are safe, and then betakes himself to the hospitable shore: such we have seen him.

We shall see him now the king of men, the ruler of human hearts, chief, lawyer, and supreme magistrate, and yet without any self-exaltation, lowly and humble. His history henceforth is merged in the history of the commonwealth of which he was the centre. Henceforth the preacher who mended with his own hands his clothes, and often went without bread, was mightier than the mightiest sovereigns of the earth.

"Mohammed had shown men what he was; the nobility of his character, his strong friendship, his endurance and courage, above all, his earnestness and fiery enthusiasm for the truth he came to preach, these things had revealed the hero, the master whom it was alike impossible to disobey and impossible not to love. Henceforward it is only a question of time.

As the men of Medina come to know Mohammed, they too will devote themselves to him body and soul; and the enthusiasm will catch fire and spread among the tribes, till all Arabia is at the feet of the Prophet of the one God. 'No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting' He had the gift of influencing men, and he had the nobility only to influence them for good."

Medina the "illuminated" the city of many names is situated about eleven days' journey to the north of Mecca. Now a walled city of considerable strength, in those days it was completely open and exposed to outside attacks until the Prophet made the famous moat as a defence against the Koreishites. The city is said to have been established by an Amalekite chief, whose name it bore until the advent of the Prophet. In early times Yathreb and its environs were inhabited by the Amalekites; these are said to have been overwhelmed and destroyed by successive colonies of Jews, who, flying before Babylonian and Greek and Roman persecutors or avengers, entered Arabia and established themselves in the northern part of Hijaz. The most important of these colonies were the Banu-Nadhir at Khaibar, the Banu-Kuraizha at Fidak, the Banu-Kaynuka near Medina itself. Living in fortified cantons, they had domineered over the neighbouring Arab tribes, until the establishment of two Kahtanite tribes, Aus and Khazraj at Yathreb. These two tribes, who yielded at first some sort of obedience to the Jews, were able to reduce them to a state of clientage. Before long, however, they commenced quarrelling among themselves, and it was only about the time when the Prophet announced his mission at Mecca that, after long years of decimating warfare, they had succeeded in patching up a peace.

Such was the political condition of Yathreb when the Prophet made his appearance among the Yathrebites. With his advent a new era dawned upon the city. The two tribes of Aus and Khazraj, forgetting their inveterate and mortal feuds in the brotherhood of the faith, rallied round the standard of Islam and formed the nucleus of the Moslem commonwealth. The old divisions were effaced, and the noble designation of Ansar (Helpers) became the common title of all who had helped Islam in its hour of trial. The faithful band which had forsaken their beloved birthplace, and every tie of home, received the name of Muhajerin (Emigrants or Exiles).

In order to unite the Ansar and Muhajerin in closer bonds, the Prophet established a brotherhood between them, which linked them together in sorrow and in happiness, Yathreb changed its ancient name, and was henceforth styled Medinat un-Nabi, the city of the Prophet, or shortly, Medina, the city. A mosque was soon built, in the erection of which Mohammed assisted with his own hands; and houses for the accommodation of the emigrants rose apace.

Two brothers, who owned the land on which it was proposed to build the mosque, had offered it as a free gift; but as they were orphans, the Prophet paid them the price at which it was valued. The building was simple in form and structure, suited to the unostentatious religion he taught. The walls were of brick and earth, and the roof of palm leaves. A portion of the mosque was set apart as a habitation for those who had no home of their own. Everything in this humble place of worship was conducted with the greatest simplicity. Mohammed preached and prayed standing on the bare ground or leaning against a palm tree, and the devoted hearts around him beat in unison with his soul-stirring words.

"He who is not affectionate to God's creatures and to his own children," he would say, "God will not be affectionate to him. Every Moslem who clothes the naked will be clothed by God in the green robes of Paradise. " In one of his sermons he thus dwelt on the subject of charity: "When God created the earth, it shook and trembled, until He put mountains upon it to make it firm. Then the angels asked, 'God, is there Anything in Thy creation stronger than these mountains?' And God replied, 'Iron is stronger than the mountains, for it breaks them." And is there anything in Thy creation stronger than iron? 'Yes; fire is stronger than iron, for it melts it.' ' Is there anything in Thy creation stronger than fire?' ' Yes; water, for it quenches fire.' 'Lord, is there anything in Thy creation stronger than water?'

"'Yes; wind, for it overcomes water and puts it in motion.' 'Oh, our Sustainer, is there anything in Thy creation stronger than wind?' 'Yes; a good man giving alms; if he give with his right hand and conceal it from his left, he overcomes all things.'"

His definition of charity embraced the wide circle of kindness: "Every good act," he would say, "is charity. Your smiling in your brother's face is charity; an exhortation addressed to your fellow men to do virtuous deeds is equal to alms-giving. Putting a wanderer in the right path is charity; assisting the blind is charity; removing stones and thorns and other obstructions from the road is charity; giving water to the thirsty is charity."
"A man's true wealth hereafter is the good he does in this world to his fellowmen. When he dies, people will ask, What property has he left behind him? But the angels, who examine him in the grave, will ask, What good deeds hast thou sent before thee?"

"O Prophet!" said one of his disciples, "my mother, Umm Sad, is dead; what is the best alms I can give away for the good of her soul? " "Water!" replied Mohammed, bethinking himself of the panting heats of the desert.

"Dig a well for her, and give water to the thirsty," The man digged a well in his mother's name, and said, "This is for my mother, that its blessings may reach her soul." "Charity of the tongue," says Irving, "that most important and least cultivated of charities, was likewise earnestly inculcated by Mahomet." Abu Jariya, an inhabitant of Basrah, coming to Medina, and being convinced of the apostolic office of Mohammed, begged of him some great rule of conduct. "Speak evil of no one," answered the Prophet. "From that time," says Abu Jariya, "I never abused any one, whether freeman or slave."

The teachings of Islam extended to the courtesies of life. "Make a salam (or salutation) to the dwellers of a house on entering and leaving it. "Return the salute of friends and acquaintances, and wayfarers on the road. He who rides must be the first to make the salute to him who walks; he who walks to him who is sitting; a small party to a large party, and the young to the old."



# Chapter 4: THE HOSTILITY OF THE KOREISH AND THE JEWS


AT this time there were three distinct parties in Medina. The Muhajerin (the Exiles) and the Ansar (the Helpers) formed the kernel of Islam. Their devotion to the Prophet was unbounded. The Exiles had forsaken their homes, and abandoned, contrary to all Arab traditions, the ties of kith and kin, in the cause of the faith. They had braved all sufferings, withstood all temptations in the service of the Lord. Many of them had come to the city of safety without means. .They had been received with open arms by the Medinite converts, who in many cases shared their worldly goods with the poorer of the new-comers.

The brotherhood of faith, so wisely established by the Prophet, whilst it prevented the growth of jealousy, gave rise to a generous emulation, both among the Ansar and the Muhajerin, as to who would bring the greatest sacrifice in the service of God and His Prophet. The enthusiasm and earnestness with which these men and women devoted themselves to the new awakening, the zeal with which they laid down their lives, was a manifestation such as had not been seen since the best days of the Christian phase of religious development. The second, and at first by no means an unimportant party, was composed principally of lukewarm converts to the faith, who retained an ill-concealed predilection for idolatry; and was headed by Abdullah-ibn-Ubbay, a chief of some position in the city, who aspired to the kinghood of Medina. With this object he had gathered round him, like Abu Sufian at Mecca, a strong body of partizans. Everything was ripe for him to seize the reins of power, when the arrival of the Prophet upset his designs. The popular enthusiasm compelled him and his followers to make a nominal profession of Islam; but, ever ready as they were to turn against the Moslems at the least opportunity, they were a source of considerable danger to the new-born commonwealth, and required unceasing watchfulness on the part of the Prophet. Towards them he always showed the greatest patience and forbearance, hoping in the end to win them, bver to the faith. And this expectation was fully justified by the result. With the death of Abdullah-ibn-Ubbay his party, which has been stigmatised as the party of the Munafikin (the disaffected or hypocrites), disappeared from view. But the Jews, who may be said to have formed the third party, constituted the most serious element of danger. They had close business connections with the Koreish, and their ramifications extended into various parts hostile to the new faith. At first they were inclined to look with some favour on the preachings of Mohammed. He could not, of course, be their promised Messiah, but perhaps a weak dreamer, a humble preacher, dependent upon the hospitality of their old enemies, now their patrons, the Aus and Khazraj, might become their avenger, help them in conquering the Arabs, and found for them a new kingdom of Judah.

With this aim in view, they had joined with the Medinites in a half-hearted welcome to the Prophet. And for a time they maintained a pacific attitude. But it was only for a time; for barely a month had gone by before the old spirit of rebellion, which had led them to crucify their prophets, found vent in open seditions and secret treachery. One of the first acts of Mohammed after his arrival in Medina was to weld together the heterogeneous and conflicting elements of which the city and its suburbs were composed, into an orderly confederation.

With this object he had granted a charter to the people, by which the rights and obligations of the Moslems inter se, and of the Moslems and Jews, were clearly defined. And the Jews, borne down for the moment by the irresistible character of the movement, had gladly accepted the pact. This document, which has been carefully preserved in the pages of Ibn-Hisham, reveals the man in his real glory a mastermind, not only of his own age, as Muir calls him, but of all ages. No wild dreamer he, bent upon pulling down the existing fabrics of society, but a statesman of unrivalled powers, who in an age of utter and hopeless disintegration, with such materials and such polity as God put ready to his hands, set himself to the task of reconstructing a State, a commonwealth, a society upon the basis of universal humanity.

"In the name of the most merciful and compassionate God," says this first charter of freedom of conscience. "given by Mohammed, the Prophet, to the Believers, whether of the Koreish or of Yathreb, and all individuals of whatever origin who have made common cause with them, all these shall constitute one nation." Then, after regulating the payment of the Diat [blood money] by the various clans, and fixing some wise rules regarding the private duties of Moslems as between themselves, the document proceeds thus:

"The state of peace and war shall be common to all Moslems; no one among them shall have the right of concluding peace with, or declaring war against, the enemies of his co-religionists. The Jews who attach themselves to our commonwealth shall be protected from all insults and vexations; they shall have an equal right with our own people to our assistance and good offices: the Jews of the various branches of Awf, Najjar, Harith, Jashm, Thalaba, Aus, and all others domiciled in Yathreb, shall form with the Moslems one composite nation; they shall practise their religion as freely as the Moslems; the clients and allies of the Jews shall enjoy the same security and freedom; the guilty shall be pursued and punished; the Jews shall join the Moslems in defending Yathreb (Medina) against all enemies; the interior of Yathreb shall be a sacred place for all who accept this charter; the clients and allies of the Moslems and the Jews shall be as respected as the patrons; all true Moslems shall hold in abhorrence every man guilty of crime, injustice, or disorder; no one shall uphold the culpable, though he were his nearest kin."

Then, after some other provisions regarding the internal management of the State, this extraordinary document concluded thus: "All future disputes between those who accept this charter shall be referred, under God, to the Prophet."

A death-blow was thus given to that anarchic custom of the Arabs, which had hitherto obliged the aggrieved and the injured to rely upon his own or his kinsmen's power in order to exact vengeance, or satisfy the requirements of justice. It constituted Mohammed the chief magistrate of the nation, as much by his prophetic function as by a virtual compact between himself and the people..

The Jewish tribes of the Bani-Nadhir, Banu-Kuraizha, and Banu-Kamuka, settled in the vicinity of Medina, were not at first included in this charter; but after a short time they, too, gratefully accepted its terms.

No kindness or generosity, however, on the part of the Prophet would satisfy the Jews; nothing could conciliate the bitter feelings with which they were animated. Enraged that they could not use him as their instrument for the conversion of Arabia to Judaism, and that his belief was so much simpler than their Talmudic legends, they soon broke off, and ranged themselves on the side of the enemies of the new faith. And when asked which they referred, idolatry or Islam, they, like many Christian controversialists, declared they preferred idolatry, with all its attendant evils, to the creed of Mohammed. They reviled him; they "twisted their tongues" and mispronounced the Koranic words and the daily prayers and formulae of Islam, rendering them meaningless, absurd, or blasphemous; find the Jewish poets and poetesses, of whom there existed many at the time, outraged all common decency and the recognised code of Arab honour and chivalry by lampooning in obscene verse the Moslem women.

But these were minor offences. Not satisfied with insulting the women of the Believers and reviling the Prophet, they sent out emissaries to the enemies of the State, the protection of which they had formally accepted. The Koreish, who had sworn Mohammed's death, were well acquainted, thanks to the party of Abdullah-ibn-Ubbay and the faithless Israelites, with the exact strength of the Moslems. They also knew that the Jews had accepted Mohammed's alliance only from motives of temporary expediency, and that the moment they showed themselves in the vicinity of Medina the worshippers of Jehovah would break away from him and join the idolaters.

And now came the moment of severest trial to Islam. Barely had the Prophet time to put the city in a state of defence and organise the Believers, before the blow descended upon him. Medina itself was honeycombed by sedition and treachery. And it now became the duty of Mohammed to take serious measures to guard against that dreaded catastrophe which a rising within, or a sudden attack from without, would have entailed upon his followers. He was not simply a preacher of Islam; he was also the guardian of the lives and liberties of his people.

As a Prophet, he could afford to ignore the revilings and the gibes of his enemies; but as the head of the State, "the general in a time of almost continual warfare," when Medina was kept in a state of military defence and under a sort of military discipline, he could not overlook treachery. He was bound by his duty to his subjects to suppress a party that might have led, and almost did, lead to the sack of the city by investing armies. The safety of the State required the proscription of the traitors, who were either sowing the seeds of sedition within Medina or carrying information to the common enemy. Some half a dozen were placed under the ban, outlawed, and executed. We are, however, anticipating the course of events in referring to these executions.

The Koreish army was afield before Mohammed received God's command to do battle to His enemies. He who never in his life wielded a weapon, to whom the sight of human suffering caused intense pain and pity, and who, against all the canons of Arab manliness, wept bitterly at the loss of his children or disciples, whose (Character ever remained so tender and so pathetic as to cause his enemies to call him womanish, this man was now compelled, from the necessities of the situation, and against his own inclination, to repel the attacks of the enemy by force of arms, to organise his followers for purposes of self-defence, and often to send out expeditions to anticipate treacherous and sudden onslaughts. Hitherto Arab warfare consisted of sudden and murderous forays, often made in the night or in the early morn; isolated combats or a general melee, when the attacked were aware of the designs of the attacking party. Mohammed, with a thorough knowledge of the habits of his people, had frequently to guard against these sudden onslaughts by sending forth reconnoitring parties. The Meccans and their allies commenced raiding up to the very vicinity of Medina, destroying the fruit trees of the Moslems, and carrying away their flocks.

A force, consisting of a thousand well-equipped men, marched under the noted Abu Jahl, "the Father of Ignorance," towards Medina to destroy the Islamites, and to protect one of their caravans bringing munitions of war. The Moslems received timely notice of the movement, and a body of three hundred disciples proceeded at once to forestall the heathens by occupying the valley of Bedr, upon which Abu Jahl was moving.

When Mohammed saw the infidel army arrogantly advancing into the valley, raising his hands towards heaven, like the prophets of Israel, he prayed that the little band of the Faithful might not be destroyed: "Lord, forget not Thy promise of assistance.Lord, if this little band were to perish, there will be none to offer unto Thee pure worship."

Three of the Koreish advanced into the open space which divided the Moslems from the idolaters, and, according to Arab usage, challenged three champions from the Moslem ranks to single combat. Hamza, Ali, and Obaidah accepted the challenge, and came out conquerors. The engagement then became general.

At one time the fortunes of the field wavered, but Mohammed's appeal to his people decided the fate of the battle. "It was a stormy winter day. A piercing blast swept across the valley." It seemed as if the angels of heaven were warring for the Moslems. Indeed, to the earnest minds of Mohammed and his followers, who, like the early Christians, saw God's providence "in all the gifts of nature, in every relation of life, at each turn of their affairs, individual or public," to them those blasts of wind and sand, the elements warring against the enemies of God, at that critical moment appeared veritable succour sent from heaven; as angels riding on the wings of the wind, and driving the faithless idolaters before them in confusion. The Meccans were driven back with great loss; many of their chiefs were slain; and Abu Jahl fell a victim to his unruly pride. A large number remained prisoners in the hands of the Moslems, but only two of them were executed.

They had been noted for their virulent animosity towards the followers of the new faith, and by the laws of war among the Arabs they now paid the penalty of their conduct. The rest of the prisoners, contrary to all the usages and traditions of the Arabs, were treated with the greatest humanity. The Prophet gave strict orders that respect should be paid to their misfortunes, and that they should be treated with kindness. The Moslems, to whose care he confided them, faithfully obeyed his instructions. They shared their own food with the prisoners, giving them the bread which formed the best part of their repast, and contenting themselves with dates alone.

The division of the spoil gave rise to sharp dissensions among the Moslem soldiery. For the present, Mohammed calmed their disputes by dividing it equally amongst all. But as such dissensions among an unruly people were likely to lead to mischief, the Prophet, with a view to prevent all future quarrels over spoil acquired in war, promulgated a special ordinance, which is incorporated in the chapter of the Koran entitled al-Anfal (the Spoils).

By this law the division of the spoils was left to the discretion of the chief of the commonwealth; a fifth being reserved for the public treasury for the support of the poor and indigent. The remarkable circumstances which led to the victory of Bedr, and the results which followed from it, made a deep impression on the minds of the Moslems. They firmly believed that the angels of heaven had battled on their side against the unbelieving host.

The few simple touches in the Koran which bring into vivid prominence the poetic element involved in the conception of the angels fighting the battle of the Lord, will not yield in beauty or sublimity to the most eloquent words of the Psalmist. Indeed, the same poetic character is perceptible in both of them. Probably Mohammed, like Jesus and other teachers, believed in the existence of intermediate beings, celestial messengers from God to man. The modern disbelief in angels furnishes no reason for ridiculing the notions of our forefathers. Our disbelief is as much open to the name of superstition as their belief; only one is negative, the other positive. What we, in modern times, look upon as the principles of nature, they looked upon as angels, ministrants of heaven.

Whether there exist intermediate beings, as Locke thinks, between God and man, just as there are intermediate beings between man and the lowest form of animal creation, is a question too deep to be fathomed by the human intellect. Mohammed also, like Jesus, probably believed in the existence of the Principle of Evil as a personal entity. But an analysis of his words reveals a more rationalistic element, a subjective conception clothed in language suited for the apprehension of his followers. When somebody asked him where Satan lived, he replied, "In the heart of man."

The belief in angels and devils has given rise to an extraordinary number of legends both in Islam and in Christianity. The saints of heaven and angels fight for the Christian. The Moslem tries as much as possible to leave the saints to themselves, and only accepts the assistance of angels in the battles of life. Tradition converts the Pharisee who tempted Jesus, into the veritable Prince of Hell.



# Chapter 5: HOSTILITY OF THE JEWS AND ARABS


SUCCESS is always one of the greatest criterions of truth. Even in the early days of Christianity, the good Pharisee said, "Let them alone; if these men be false, they will come to nought, or else you yourselves shall perish." If Constantine had not seen, or fancied he had seen, the notable cross in the heavens; if he had not marched to success under its auspices; if it had not led him on to victory and to the throne, we can hardly conceive; what would have been the fate of Christianity.

What the victory of Bedr was for Islam, the victory of the Milvian Bridge was for Christianity. It thenceforth ruled from the throne of the Caesars.

For the Moslems the victory of Bedr was indeed most auspicious. It was not surprising that they, like the Israelites or Christians of yore, saw the hand of Providence in their success over the idolaters. Had the Moslems failed, we can imagine what their fate would have been a universal massacre.

Whilst Mohammed was engaged in this expedition he lost one of his favourite daughters, Rukaiya, married to Osman, who had only recently returned from the Abyssinian exile. But the desire for revenge with which the idolaters were burning allowed him no time to indulge in domestic sorrow. As soon as all the Koreishite prisoners had returned home, Abu Sufian issued forth from Mecca with two hundred horsemen, vowing solemnly never to return until he had avenged himself on Mohammed and his followers. Scouring the country to within a few miles of Medina, he came down with a fell swoop on the unprepared Moslems, slaying the people, ravaging the date-groves which furnished the staple food of the Arabs, The Meccans had provided themselves with bags of "sawik" for the foray. As soon, however, as the Moslems sallied forth from Medina to avenge the murders, the Meccans turned bridle and fled, dropping the bags in order to lighten their beasts: whence this affair was derisively called by the Moslems, Ghazivat us-sawik, "the battle of the meal-bags."

It was on this occasion that an incident happened (April 624) to the Prophet which has been exceedingly well told by Washington Irving. Mohammed was sleeping one day alone at the foot of a tree, at a distance from his camp, when he was awakened by a noise, and beheld Durthur, a hostile warrior, standing over him with a drawn sword. "O Mohammed" cried he, "who is there now to save thee?" "God!" replied the Prophet. The wild Bedouin was suddenly awed, and dropped his sword, which was instantly seized upon by Mohammed. Brandishing the weapon, he exclaimed in turn, "Who is there now to save thee, Durthur?" "Alas, no one!" replied the soldier.

"Then learn from me to be merciful." So saying, he returned the sword, The Arab's heart was overcome; and in after years he proved one of the staunchest adherents of the Prophet.

Osman was one of the earliest believers, and he was the first of the Muhajerin who died at Medina, and was interred at Baki, a suburb of Medina, where lie buried a number of illustrious and saintly people, whose tombs are up to the present day venerated by the Moslems.

Ali had been betrothed to Fatima several days before the expedition to Bedr, but the marriage was only celebrated three months later, Ali being in his twenty-first, and Fatima in her fifteenth year.

But this skirmish between the idolaters and the Moslems, like others which followed, proved only a prelude to the great drama that was about to be enacted. The idolaters were burning for revenge. They (26th April 624) made formidable preparations for another war upon the Moslems. Their emissaries succeeded in obtaining the assistance of the tribes of Tihama and Kinana, and their united forces soon amounted to three thousand well-equipped soldiers (of whom seven hundred were mailed warriors), animated with but one desire, that of revenge. This army was as formidable to the petty tribes of Arabia as the multitudinous hordes of Xerxes to the Grecian States.

Marching under the command of the relentless Abu Sufian, and meeting with no opposition from any side, they took up a well-chosen position to the north-east of Medina, where only the hill of Ohod and a valley separated them from the devoted city. From this safe vantage-ground they ravaged the fields and fruit groves of the Medinites. Forced by the enthusiasm of his followers, and by their fury at the destruction of their property, Mohammed marched out of Medina with a thousand men. The ill-concealed enmity of the Jews led to the defection of Abdullah-ibn-Ubbay, the leader of the Munafikin (the Hypocrites), with three hundred of his followers. This desertion reduced the strength of Mohammed's small force to seven hundred men, who only possessed two horses amongst them. But still this gallant band marched steadily forward. Advancing quietly through groves of fruit trees, they soon gained the hill of Ohod. They passed the night in the defile, and in the morning, after offering prayers as they stood in arms, they debouched into the plain. Mohammed now took up his position immediately under the hill.

Posting a few archers on a height behind the troops, he gave them strict injunctions not to abandon their place whatever happened, but to harass the cavalry of the enemy and protect the flanks of the Moslems. The idolaters, confident in their numbers, marched down into the plain with their idols in the centre of their army, and the wives of the chiefs chanting their war-songs and Inciting their timbrels.

The first violent onslaught of the Koreish was bravely repulsed by the Moslems, led by Hamza, who, taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy, dashed into the midst of the Koreishites, dealing havoc on all sides. Victory had almost declared for the Moslems, when the archers, forgetting the injunction of the Prophet, and seeing the enemy in flight, dispersed in search of plunder.

And what happened in later days at Tours happened at Ohod. Khalid bin Walid, one of the Koreish, at once perceived their error, and rallying the horse, fell on the rear of the Moslems. The infantry of the, Koreish also turned, and the Moslem troops, taken both in rear and front, had to renew the battle at fearful odds. Some of the bravest chiefs in the Moslem army fell fighting. The intrepid Hamza, with several others, was killed; Ali, who had chivalrously answered the first call of defiance (Rajz) of the idolaters and Omar and Abu Bakr were severely wounded. The efforts of the idolaters were, however, principally directed towards Mohammed, who, surrounded by a few disciples, and separated from the main body of his people, became now the chief object of their assaults. His friends fell fast around him. Though wounded and bleeding he did not forget their loving hearts, and blessed the hand that tried to stanch the blood which flowed from his forehead. But rescue was nigh. The brave warriors who under Ali had been fighting in the centre with the energy of despair, succeeded in retreating to a point on the hill, where they were secure from the attacks of the enemy, but full of consternation at the loss, as they supposed, of their great master.

Seeing, however, their brethren still fighting in another part of the field, they rushed down into the midst of the idolaters. Penetrating to the place where the small group of Moslems yet defended the Prophet, and finding that he still lived, they succeeded, after great exertions, in retreating with him to the heights of Mount Ohod, where they breathed again. Ali fetched water in his shield from the hollow of a rock. With this he bathed Mohammed's face and wounds, and with his companions offered up the mid-day prayers sitting.

The Koreish were too exhausted to follow up their advantage, either by attacking Medina or driving the Moslems from the heights of Ohod. They retreated from the Medinite territories after barbarously mutilating their slain enemies. The wife of Abu Sufian, Hind, the, daughter of Otba, with the other Koreishite women, showed the greatest ferocity in this savage work of vengeance, tearing out and devouring the heart of Hamzu, and making bracelets and necklaces of the ears and noses of the dead. The barbarities practised by the Koreish on the slain created among the Moslems a feeling of bitter exasperation. Even Mohammed was at first so moved by indignation as to declare that the dead of the Koreish should in future be treated in like manner. But the gentleness of his nature conquered the bitterness of his heart.

"Bear wrong patiently," he preached; "verily, best it will be for the patiently enduring." And from that day the horrible practice of mutilation which prevailed among all the nations of antiquity was inexorably forbidden to the Moslems. On his return to Medina the Prophet directed a small body of the disciples to pursue the retreating enemy, and to impress on them that the Moslems, though worsted in battle, were yet unbroken in spirit, and too strong to be attacked again with impunity.

Abu Sufian, hearing of the pursuit, hastened back to Mecca, having first murdered two Medinites whom he met on his route. He, however, sent a message to the Prophet, saying that he would soon return to exterminate him and his people. The reply as before was full of trust and faith - "God is enough for us, a good guardian is He!"

The moral effect of this disastrous battle was at once visible in the forays which the neighbouring nomades prepared to make on the Medinite territories. Most of them, however, were repressed by the energetic action of Mohammed, though some of the hostile tribes succeeded in enticing Moslem missionaries into, their midst, under the pretence of embracing Islam, and then massacred them. On one such occasion seventy Moslems wore treacherously murdered near a brook called Bir-Mauna, within the territories of two tribes, the Bani-Amir and the Bani-Sulaim, chiefly through the instrumentality of the latter. One of the two survivors of the slaughter escaped towards Medina. Meeting on the way two unarmed Arabs belonging to the Bani-Amir who were travelling under a safe-conduct of the Prophet, and mistaking them for enemies, he killed them. When Mohammed heard of this he was deeply grieved. A wrong had been committed by one of his followers, though under a mistake, and the relatives of the men that were killed were entitled to redress. Accordingly orders were issued for collecting the Diat (the wehrgeld) from the Moslems and the people who had accepted the charter.

The Jewish tribes of the Bani-Nadhir, the Kuraizha, and others were bound equally with the Moslems to contribute towards this payment. Mohammed himself, accompanied by a few disciples, proceeded to the Bani-Nadhir, and asked from them their contribution.

They seemingly agreed to the demand, and requested him to wait awhile. Whilst sitting with his back to the wall of a house, he observed sinister movements amongst the inhabitants, which led him to divine their intention of murdering him. But to explain the hostility of the Jews we must trace back the course of events. We have seen with what bitter animosity they dogged Mohammed's footsteps from the moment of his arrival at Medina. They tried to sow disaffection among his people. They libelled him and his followers. They mispronounced the words of the Koran so as to give them an offensive meaning. But this was not all. By their superior education and intelligence, by their union with the party of the Munafikin (the Hypocrites), and by the general unanimity which prevailed among them (so different from the disunion of the Arabs), the Jews formed a most dangerous element within the federated State which had risen under the teacher of Islam.

Among unadvanced nations poets occupy the position and exercise the influence of the press in modern times. The Jewish poets by their superior culture naturally exercised a vast influence among the Medinites; and this influence was chiefly directed towards sowing sedition among the Moslems, and widening the breach between them and the opposing faction.

The defeat of the idolaters at Bedr was felt as keenly by the Jews as by the Meccans. Immediately after this battle a distinguished member of their race, called Kab, the son of Ashraf, belonging to the tribe of Nadhir, publicly deploring the ill-success of the idolaters, proceeded towards Mecca. Finding the people there plunged in grief, he spared no exertion to revive their courage. By his satires against the Prophet and his disciples, by his elegies on the Meccans who had fallen at Bedr, he succeeded in exciting the Koreish to that frenzy of vengeance which found vent on the plains of Ohod. Having attained his object, he returned to his home near Medina in the canton of Nadhir, when he continued to attack Mohammed and the Mussulmans in ironical and obscene verses, not sparing even the women of the Believers, whom he addressed in terms of the grossest character. His acts were openly directed against the commonwealth of which he was a member. He belonged to a tribe which had entered into the compact with the Moslems, and pledged itself for the internal as well as the external safety of the State. Another Jew of the Nadhir, Abu Rafi Sellam, son of Abu'l Hukaik, was equally wild and bitter against the Mussulmans.

He inhabited, with a fraction of his tribe, the territories of Khaibar, four or five days' journey to the north-west of Medina. Detesting Mohammed and the Mussulmans, he made use of every endeavour to excite the neighbouring Arab tribes, such as the Sulaim and the Ghatafan, against them. It was impossible for the Mussulman commonwealth to tolerate this open treachery on the part of those to whom every consideration had been shown, with the object of securing their neutrality, if not their support. The very existence of the Mussulman community was at stake; and every principle of safety required that these traitorous designs should be quietly frustrated. The sentence of outlawry was executed upon them by the Medinites themselves in one case by a member of the tribe of Aus, in the other by a Khazrajite. Christian controversialists have stigmatised these executions as "assassinations." And because a Moslem was sent secretly to kill each of the criminals, in their prejudice against the Prophet, they shut their eyes to the justice of the sentence, and the necessity of a swift and secret execution.

There existed then no police court, no judicial tribunal, nor even a courtmartial, to take cognizance of individual crimes. In the absence of a State executioner any individual might become the executioner of the law. These men had broken their formal pact; it was impossible to arrest them in public, or execute the sentence in the open before their clans, without causing unnecessary bloodshed, and giving rise to the feud of blood, and everlasting vendetta. The exigencies of the State required that whatever should be done, should be done swiftly and noiselessly upon those whom public opinion had arraigned and condemned. The existence of the republic, and the maintenance of peace and order within the city, depended upon the prompt execution of the sentence passed upon the culprits before they could rally their clansmen round them.

The fate of these two traitors, and the expulsion of their brethren the Bani-Kainuka from the Mediriite territories, had given rise to a bitter feeling of animosity among the Nadhir against the Prophet. The circumstances connected with the banishment of the Kainuka require a brief notice. Whilst the other Jewish tribes were chiefly agricultural, the Banu-Kainuka hardly possessed a single field or elate plantation. They were for the most part artizans employed in handicraft of all kinds. Seditious and unruly, always ready for a broil like their co-religionists of Alexandria, the Banu-Kainuka were also noted for the extreme laxity of their morals. One day a young girl from the country came to their bazaar or market (Suk) to sell milk.

The Jewish youths insulted her grossly. A Moslem passerby took the part of the girl, and in the fray which ensued the author of the outrage was killed; whereupon the entire body of the Jews present rose and slaughtered the Moslem. A wild scene then followed. The Moslems, enraged at the murder of their compatriot, flew to arms, blood flowed fast, and many were killed on both sides. At the first news of the riots, Mohammed hastened to the spot, and, by his presence, succeeded in restraining the fury of his followers. He at once perceived what the end would be of these seditions and disorders if allowed to take their course. Medina would be turned into an amphitheatre, in which members of hostile factions might murder one another with impunity. The Jews had openly and knowingly infringed the terms of their compact. It was necessary to put a stop to this with a firm hand, or farewell to all hope of peace and security. Consequently Mohammed proceeded at once to the quarter of the Bani-Kainuka, and required them to enter definitely into the Moslem commonwealth by embracing Islam, or to vacate Medina. The reply of the Jews was couched in the most offensive terms. "O, Mohammed, do not be elated with the victory over thy people (the Koreish). Thou hast had an affair with men ignorant of the art of war. If thou art desirous of having any dealings with us, we shall show thee that we are men"

They then shut themselves up in their fortress, and set Mohammed's authority at defiance. But their reduction was an absolute duty, and siege was accordingly laid to their stronghold without loss of time. After fifteen days they surrendered. At first it was intended to inflict some severe punishment on them, but the clemency of Mohammed's nature overcame the dictates of justice, and the Banu-Kairiuka were simply banished.

All these circumstances were rankling within the breasts of the Bani-Nudhir. They only waited for a favourable opportunity to rid themselves of Mohammed, and therefore looked upon his arrival amongst them as providential. But their sinister designs, as we have before said, did not escape the eye of the Prophet. He immediately left the place without raising the suspicions of the Jews, and thus saved himself and his disciples from almost certain destruction.

The Banu-Nadhir had now placed themselves in exactly the same position as the Banu-Kainuka had previously done. They had by their own act put themselves outside the pale of the charter; and therefore on his arrival at Medina, Mohammed sent them a message of the same import as that which was sent to the Kainuka. Relying on the support of the Munafikin and Abdullah-ibn-Ubbay, the Banu-Nadhir returned a defiant answer.

Disappointed, however, in the promised assistance of Abdullah, and of their brethren, the Banu-Kuraizha, after a siege of fifteen days they sued for terms. The previous offer was renewed, and they agreed to evacuate their territories. They were allowed to take all their movable property with them, with the exception of arms. In Order to prevent the Moslems from occupying their dwellings, they destroyed these before leaving. Their land, warlike materials, etc., which they could not carry away, were distributed by the Prophet, with the consent and cordial approval of the Ansar, among the Muhajerin, who, up to this time, had been entirely dependent for support on the generosity of the Medinites. Notwithstanding the strong brotherly love which existed between the "Refugees" and the "Helpers," Mohammed knew that the assistance of the Medinites afforded but a precarious means of subsistence. He accordingly assembled the principal men from among the Ansar, and asked them whether they had any objection to his distributing among their poor brethren who had followed him from Mecca the goods left behind by the Jews. With one voice they answered, "Give to our brothers the goods of the Jews; assign to them even a portion of ours: we willingly consent."

Upon this the Prophet divided the property among the Muhajerin and two of the Ansar who were extremely poor. The expulsion of the Bani-Nadhir took place in the month of Rabi I, of the fourth year. The remaining portion of this year and the early part of the next were passed in repressing the spasmodic hostile attempts of the nomadic tribes against the Moslems, and in inflicting punishments for various murderous forays on the Medinite territories.

Meanwhile the enemies of the Faith were by no means idle. Far and wide the idolaters had sent (April 627 ) their emissaries to stir up the tribes against the Moslems. The Jews were the most active in these efforts. Some of the Bani-Nadhir had remained behind with their brethren settled near Khaibar, and there, fired with the hope of vengeance, had set themselves to the work of forming another league for the destruction of the Believers. Their efforts were successful beyond their utmost hopes.

A formidable coalition was soon formed; and an army, consisting of ten thousand well-appointed, men, marched upon Medina, under the command of the relentless Abu Sufian. Meeting no opposition on their way, they soon encamped within a few miles of Medina, on its most vulnerable side, towards Ohod. To oppose this host, the Moslems could only muster a body of three thousand men. Forced thus by their inferiority in numbers, as well as by the factious opposition of the "Munafikin" within the city, to remain on the defensive, they dug a deep trench round the unprotected quarters of Medina, and, leaving their women and children for safety in their fortified houses, they encamped outside the city, with the moat in front of them. In the meantime they relied for the safety of the other side, if not upon the active assistance, at least upon the neutrality of the Banu-Kuraizha, who possessed several fortresses at a short distance, towards the south-east, and were bound by the compact to assist the Moslems against every assailant These Jews, however, were persuaded by the idolaters to violate their pledged faith, and to join the Koreish. As soon as the news of their defection reached Mohammed, he deputed "the two Saads," Saad-ibn-Mudz and Saad-ibn-Ubada, to entreat them to return to their duty. The reply was defiant and sullen: "Who is Mohammed, and who is the Apostle of God, that we should obey him? There is no bond or compact betwixt us and him."

As these Jews were well acquainted with the locality, and could materially assist the besiegers by showing them the weak points of the city, the consternation among the Moslems became great, whilst the disaffected body within the walls increased the elements of danger. The idolaters and the Jews, failing in all their attempts to draw the Moslems into the open field, or to surprise the city under the direction of Jewish guides, determined upon a regular assault. The siege had already lasted twenty days. The restless tribes of the desert, who had made common cause with the Koreish and their Jewish allies, and who had expected an easy prey, were becoming weary of this protracted campaign. Great efforts were made at this critical moment by the leaders of the beleaguering host to cross the trench and fall upon the small Moslem force. Every attempt was, however, repulsed by untiring vigilance on the part of Mohammed. The elements now seemed to combine against the besieging army; their horses were perishing fast, and provisions were becoming scanty.

Disunion was rife in their midst, and the far-seeing chief of the Moslems, with matchless prudence, fomented it into actual division. Suddenly this vast coalition, which had seemed to menace the Moslems with inevitable destruction, vanished into thin air. In the darkness of night, amidst a storm of wind and rain, their tents overthrown, their lights put out, Abu Sufian and the majority of his formidable army fled, the rest took refuge with the Banu-Kuraizha.

Mohammed had in the night foretold to his followers the dispersion of their enemies. Daybreak saw his prognostication fulfilled, and the Moslems returned in joy to the city. But the victory was hardly achieved in the opinion of the Moslems as long as the Banu-Kuraizha remained so near, and in such dangerous proximity to the city of Islam. They had proved themselves traitors in spite of their sworn alliance, and had at one time almost surprised Medina from their side, an event which, if successful, would have involved the general massacre of the Mussulmans. The Moslems therefore felt it their duty to demand an explanation of the treachery.

This was doggedly refused. The consequence was that the Jews were besieged, and compelled to surrender at discretion. They made only one condition, that their punishment should be left to the judgment of Saad-ibn- Muaz. This man, a fierce soldier who had been wounded in the attack, and indeed died from his wounds the next day, infuriated by their treacherous conduct, gave sentence that the fighting men should be put to death, and that the women and children should become the slaves of the Moslems; and this sentence was carried into execution. " It was a harsh, bloody sentence," says Lane-Poole, "worthy of the episcopal generals of the army against the Albigenses, or of the deeds of the Augustan age of Puritanism; but it must be remembered that the crime of these men was high treason against the State during time of siege; and those who have read how Wellington's march could be traced by the bodies of deserters and pillagers hanging from the trees, need not be surprised at the summary execution of a traitorous clan."

The punishment inflicted on the various Jewish tribes has furnished to the Christian biographers of the Prophet, like Muir, Sprenger, Weil, and Osborn, a ground for attack. The punishment meted out to the Bani-Kainuka and Bani-Nadhir was far below their deserts. The Banu-Kuraizha alone were treated with anything like severity.

Human nature is so constituted that, however criminal the acts of an individual may be, the moment he is treated with a severity which to our mind seems harsh or cruel, a natural revulsion of feeling occurs, and the sentiment of justice gives place to pity within our hearts. No doubt the sentence on the Banu-Kuraizha, from our point of view, was severe. But however much we may regret that the fate of these poor people should have been, though at their own special request, left in the hands of an infuriated soldier, however much we may regret that the sentence of this man should have been so carried into effect, we must not, in the sentiment of pity, overlook the stern question of justice and culpability. We must bear in mind the crimes of which they were guilty, their treachery, their open hostility, their defection from an alliance to which they were bound by every sacred tie.

Moreover, we must bear in mind the temptations which they, the worshippers of the pure Jehovah, held out to the heathen Arabs to continue in the practice of idolatry. Some Moslems might naturally be inclined to say, with the Christian moralist: "It is better that the wicked should be destroyed a hundred times over than they should tempt those who are as yet innocent to join their company."

These Moslems might say with him, with only the variation of a word: "Let us but think what might have been our fate, and the fate of every other nation under heaven at this hour, had the sword of the Arab done its work more sparingly. The Arab's sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a work of mercy for all the countries of the earth to the very end of the world." If the Christian's argument is correct and not inhuman, certainly the Moslem's argument cannot be otherwise. Other Moslems, however, might look upon this fearful sentence on the Bani-Kuraizka in the same light as Carlyle looks upon the order of Cromwell for the promiscuous massacre of the Irish inhabitants of Drogheda:

"An armed soldier solemnly conscious to himself that he is the soldier of God the Just, a consciousness which it well beseems all soldiers and all men to have always, armed soldier, terrible as death, relentless as doom; doing God's judgment on the enemies of God."

We, however, are not disposed to look at the punishment of these Jews from either of these points of view. We simply look upon it as an act done in perfect consonance with the laws of war as then understood by the nations of the world: "a strict application of admitted customs of war in those days." These people brought their fate upon themselves. If they had been put to death, even without the judgment of Saad, it would have perfectly accorded with the principles which then prevailed. But they had themselves chosen Saad as the sole arbiter and judge of their fate; they knew that his judgment was not at all contrary to the received notions, and accordingly never murmured. They knew that if they had succeeded they would have massacred their enemies without compunction. People judge of the massacres of King David according to the "lights of his time".

Even the fearful slaughters committed by the Christians in primitive times are judged according to certain "lights." Why should not the defensive wars of the early Moslems be looked at from the same standpoint?

But, whatever the point of view, an unprejudiced mind will perceive that no blame can possibly attach to the Prophet in the execution of the Banu-Kuraizha. The number of men executed could not have been more than 200 or 250. In the distribution of the surviving people, it is said, a young Jewess of the name of Raihana was allotted to the Prophet. Some say she was previously set apart. The Christian historians, always ready to seize upon any point which to their mind offers a plausible ground for attacking Mohammed, have not failed to make capital of this story. Leaving the examination of the question of slavery to a later chapter, we will here only observe that the allotment of Raihana, even if true, furnishes no ground for modern attack, as it was perfectly consonant with the customs of war recognised in those days. The story about Raihana becoming a wife of the Prophet is a fabrication, for after this event she disappears from history and we hear no more of her, whilst of others we have full and circumstantial accounts.



# Chapter 6: MOHAMMED'S CLEMENCY


The formidable coalition formed by the Jews and the (6 A .H.) idolaters to compass the destruction of the new commonwealth of Medina had utterly failed, well might the Moslems say, miraculously. But the surrounding tribes of the desert, wild and fierce, were committing depredations, accompanied with murders, on the Medinite territories; and the existence of the State required the employment of stern measures for their repression. Several expeditions were despatched against these marauders, but the slippery sons of the desert generally evaded the approach of the Moslems. The Banu-Lihyan, who had requested Mohammed to send a few of his disciples among them to teach the precepts of Islam, and who, on the arrival of the missionaries, had killed some and sold the rest to the Meccans, had, up to this period, remained unpunished. But the time had come when this crime should be avenged; In the month of Jamadi I of this year, a body of troops, under the personal command of the Prophet, marched against the Banu-Lihyan. The marauders, however, receiving timely notice of the Prophet's approach, fled into the mountains, and the Moslems returned to Medina without having accomplished their purpose.

A few days had only elapsed when a chief of the Bani-Fizara, a branch of the nomade horde of Ghatafan, (Khail i-Ghatafan), suddenly fell upon the open suburbs of the city, and drove off a large herd of camels, murdering the man who had charge of them, and carrying off his wife. The Moslems were immediately on their track, and a few of the animals were recovered; but the Bedouins escaped into the desert with the larger portion of their booty.

It was about this time that the Prophet granted to the monks of the monastery of St. Catherine, near Mount Sinai, and to all Christians, a charter which has been justly designated as one of the noblest monuments of enlightened tolerance that the history of the world can produce. This remarkable document, which has been faithfully preserved by the annalists of Islam, displays a marvellous breadth of view and liberality of conception. By it the Prophet secured to the Christians privileges and immunities which they did not possess even under sovereigns of their own creed; and declared that any Moslem violating and abusing what was therein ordered, should be regarded as a violator of God's testament, a transgressor of His commandments, and a slighter of His faith. He undertook himself, and enjoined on his followers, to protect the Christians, to defend their churches, the residences of their priests, and to guard them from all injuries. They were not to be unfairly taxed; no bishop was to be driven out of his bishopric; no Christian was to be forced to reject his religion; no monk was to be expelled from his monastery; no pilgrim was to be detained from his pilgrimage; nor were the Christian churches to be pulled down for the sake of building mosques or houses for the Moslems. Christian women married to Moslems were to enjoy their own religion, and not to be subjected to compulsion or annoyance of any kind on that account. If the Christians should stand in need of assistance for the repair of their churches or monasteries, or any other matter pertaining to their religion, the Moslems were to assist them. This was not to be considered as taking part in their religion, but as merely rendering them assistance in their need, and complying with the ordinances of the Prophet which were made in their favour by the authority of God and of His Apostle.

Should the Moslems be engaged in hostilities with outside Christians, no Christian resident among the Moslems should be treated with contempt on account of his creed. Any Moslem so treating a Christian should be accounted recalcitrant to the Prophet.

Man always attaches an idea of greatness to the character of a person who, whilst possessing the power of returning evil for evil, not only preaches but practises the divine principle of forgiveness. Mohammed, as the chief of the State and guardian of the life and liberties of his people, in the exercise of justice sternly punished every individual guilty of crime.

Mohammed the Prophet, the Teacher, was gentle and merciful even to his greatest enemies. In him were combined the highest attributes that the human mind can conceive justice and mercy.

A chief of the tribe of Hanafa, named Thumama, son of Uthal, was taken prisoner by the Moslems in one of their expeditions against the unruly Arabs of the desert. He was brought to Medina, where he was so affected by the kindness of the Prophet, that from an enemy he soon became a most devoted follower. Returning to his people he stopped the transport to Mecca of provisions from Yemama, and this stoppage by Thumama reduced them to the direst straits. Failing to move the Hanafites, they at last addressed themselves to Mohammed, and besought him to intercede for them. The Prophet's heart was touched with pity, and he requested Thumama to allow the Meccans to have whatever they wanted; and at his word the convoys were again permitted to reach Mecca.

Endless instances might be cited of Mohammed's merciful nature. We will, however, only instance two. A daughter of his a beloved child was, after the treaty of Hudeiba fleeing from Mecca. She was far advanced in pregnancy, and as she was mounting her camel, a Koreish named Habrar, with characteristic ferocity, drove the butt-end of his lance against her, throwing her to the ground, and eventually causing her death.

On the conquest of Mecca the murderer was proscribed. After hiding for some time he presented himself before the Prophet, and threw himself on the mercy of the bereaved father. The wrong was great; the crime was atrocious, but the injury was personal The man was to all appearance sincere in his penitence and the profession of faith. Pardon was unconditionally granted. The Jewess who attempted his life at Khaibar, and Ikrima, the son of Abu Jahl, who was bitterly personal in his animosity towards the Prophet, were freely forgiven.

A tribe of Christian Bedouins (the Banu-Kalb), settled about Dumat -uj-Jandal, had in their depredations appeared on the Medinite territories. An expedition was now despatched to summon them to embrace Islam and forego their lawless practices. Whilst delivering his injunctions to the captain who headed this small force, Mohammed used the memorable words, "In no case shalt thou use deceit or perfidy, nor shalt thou kill any child"

In his instructions to the leaders of the expeditions against marauding and hostile tribes and peoples, he invariably enjoined them in peremptory terms never to injure the weak. "In avenging the injuries inflicted, upon us," he said to his troops, whom he dispatched against the Byzantines, "molest not the harmless inmates of domestic; seclusion; spare the weakness of the female sex; injure not the infant at the breast, or those who are ill on bed. Abstain from demolishing the dwellings of the unresisting inhabitants; destroy not the means of their subsistence, nor their fruit trees; and touch not the palm." Abu Bakr. following his master, thus enjoined his captain: " Yezid! be sure you do not oppress your own people, nor make them uneasy, but advise with them in all your affairs, and take care to do that which is right and just; for those that do otherwise shall not prosper. When you meet your enemies quit yourselves like men, and do not turn your backs; and if you gain the victory, kill not little children, nor old people, nor women.

Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill for the necessity of subsistence. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on, you will find some religious persons that have retired in monasteries, who propose to themselves to serve God that way. Let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries."

These injunctions contrast strangely with the fearful denunciations of the Christians, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek, from the days of St. Lactantius to those of the Covenanters. The followers of the "Prince of Peace" burnt and ravished, pillaged and murdered promiscuously old and young, male and female, without compunction, up to recent times. And his vicegerents on earth, popes and patriarchs, bishops, priests, and presbyters, approved of their crimes, and frequently granted plenary absolution for the most heinous offences.

In the month of Shaaban of this year (November - December, 627) an expedition was directed against the Bani-Mustalik. These people had up to this time been on friendly terms with the Moslems. But recently, instigated by their chief Harith, the son of Abu Dhirar, they had thrown off their allegiance, and committed forays on the suburbs of Medina. The expedition was entirely successful, and several prisoners were taken, amongst whom was a daughter of Harith, called Juwairiya.

Six years had now passed since the exiles of Mecca had left their homes and their country for the sake of their faith, and of him who had infused into them a new consciousness such as they had never felt before, awakening in them the spirit of union, love, and brotherhood. People flocked from every part of Arabia to listen to the words of the wondrous man who had achieved all this; to ask his counsel in the affairs of everyday life, even as the sons of Israel consulted of old the prophet Samuel.

But the hearts of these exiles still yearned sadly for the place of their birth. Driven from their homes, they had found refuge in a rival city; expelled from the precincts of the sacred Kaba, which formed the glorious centre of all their associations, the one spot round which gathered the history of their nation, for six years had they been denied the pilgrimage of the holy shrine, a custom round which time, with its hoary traditions, had cast the halo of sanctity. The teacher himself longed to see the place of his nativity with as great a yearning. The temple of the Kaba belonged to the whole Arab nation. The Koreish were merely the custodians of this shrine, and were not authorised by the public, law of the country to interdict the approach even of an enemy, if he presented himself without any hostile design, and with the avowed object of fulfilling a religious duty.

The season of the pilgrimage had approached; the Prophet accordingly announced his intention of visiting the holy places. At once a thousand voices responded to the call. Preparations were rapidly made, and, accompanied by seven hundred Moslems, Ansar and Muhajerin, all perfectly unarmed, he set out on the pilgrimage. The animosity of the Koreish, however, was not yet extinguished. They posted themselves, with a large army, some miles in advance of Mecca, to bar the way, but soon after fell back on the city, in order to keep every point of access closed to the Moslems. They swore solemnly not to allow the followers of the Prophet to enter the shrine, and maltreated the envoy who was sent to them to solicit permission to visit the holy places.

A body of the Meccans went round the Prophet's encampment with the avowed object of killing any unwary Moslem who might leave the camp. They even attacked the Prophet with stones and arrows. Finding the idolaters immovable, and wishful himself to end the state of warfare between the Moslems and the Koreish, Mohammed expressed himself willing to agree to any terms the Meccans might feel inclined to impose. After much difficulty a treaty was concluded, by which it was agreed that all hostilities should cease for ten years; that any one coming from the Koreish to the Prophet without the permission of the guardian or chief, should be redelivered to the idolaters; that any individual from among the Moslems going over to the Meccans should not be surrendered; that any tribe desirous of entering into alliance, either with the Koreish or with the Moslems, should be at liberty to do so without hindrance; that the Moslems should retrace their steps on this occasion, without advancing farther; that they should be permitted in the following year to visit Mecca, and to remain there for three days with their travelling arms, namely, their scimitars in sheaths.

The moderation and magnanimity displayed by Mohammed in concluding this treaty caused some discontent among the more impulsive of his followers, in whose hearts the injuries and cruelties inflicted by the Koreish yet rankled. In virtue of the third stipulation of the treaty, by which the Moslems bound themselves to surrender every idolater who came over to their cause without the permission of their patron or chief, the Koreish demanded the surrender of several of the Prophet's disciples; and their demand was immediately complied with by Mohammed, in spite of the murmurs of some of the Moslems."

On his return to Medina, Mohammed, in pursuance of the catholic, wish by which he was inspired, that his religion should embrace all humanity, despatched several envoys to invite the neighbouring sovereigns and their subjects to drink of the cup of life offered to them by the preacher of Islam. Two of the most noted embassies were to Heraclius the Emperor of the Greeks, and to Khusru Parviz, the Kesra of Persia.

The King of Kings was amazed at the audacity of the fugitive of Mecca in addressing him, the great Chosroes, on terms of equality, and enraged at what he considered the insolence of the letter, tore it to pieces, and drove the envoy from his presence with contumely. When the news of this treatment was brought to the Prophet, he quietly observed, "Thus will the empire of Kesra be torn to pieces"

The fulfilment of the prophecy is engraved on the pages of history. Heraclius, more polite or more reverential, treated the messenger with great respect, and returned a gracious reply to the message. Before, however, leaving Syria he tried to acquaint himself better with the character of the man who had sent him the message. With this object he is said to have, summoned to his presence some Arab merchants who had arrived at Gaza with a caravan from Arabia. Among them was Abu Sufian, at that time still one of the bitterest enemies of the Prophet. The Greek emperor appears to have put several questions to Abu Sufian with regard to Mohammed, and his replies as preserved in the traditions, are almost identical with the summary which Jaafar gave to the Negus of the teachings of Mohammed. "What are the doctrines Mohammed advances?" asked Heraclius of Abu Sufian. " He bids us abandon the worship of our ancient idols to adore one God; to bestow alms; to observe truth and purity; to abstain from fornication and vice, and to flee abominations"

Asked if his followers were increasing in number, or if they were falling off, the reply was, "His adherents are increasing incessantly, and there has not been one who has forsaken him" Another ambassador sent soon afterwards to the Ghassunide prince, a feudatory of Heraclius, residing at Busra, near Damascus, instead of receiving the reverence and respect due to an envoy, was cruelly murdered by another chief of the same family, and Amir of a Christian tribe subject to Byzantium. This wanton outrage of international obligations became eventually the cause of that war which placed Islam in conflict with the whole of Christendom. But of this we shall treat later.



# Chapter 7: THE DIFFUSION OF THE FAITH


THE Jewish tribes, in spite of the reverses they had already suffered, were still formidable, still busy with their machinations to work the destruction of the Moslems.(May 629) They possessed, at the distance of three or four days' journey to the north-east of Medina, a strongly fortified territory, studded with castles, the principal of which, called al-Kamus, was. situated on an almost inaccessible hill. This group of fortresses was called Khaibar, a word signifying a fortified place. The population of Khaibar included several brahches of the Bani- Nadhir and the Kuraizha, who had taken refuge there. The Jews of Khaibar had shown an active and implacable hatred towards Mohammed and his followers, and since the arrival of their brethren among them, this feeling had acquired greater force. The Jews of Khaibar, united by an ancient alliance with the Bedouin horde of the Bani- Ghatafan, and with other cognate tribes, worked incessantly for the formation of another coalition against the Moslems. These latter were alive to the power possessed by the desert-races to injure them, and prompt measures were needed to avert the evils of another league against Medina. Accordingly, early in the month of Muharram of this year, an expedition, consisting of about 1400 men, was despatched against Khaibar. The Jews now solicited the assistance of their allies. The Banu-Fezara hastened to their support, but afraid of the Moslems turning their flank, and surprising their flocks and herds in their absence, speedily retreated. The Jews were thus left alone to bear the brunt of the war. Terms were offered to them by the Moslems, but were refused. In spite of the most determined resistance on the part of the Jews, fortress after fortress opened its gate. At last came the turn of the redoubtable castle, the al-Kamus..

After a spirited defence, it also fell into the hands of the Moslems. The fate of this, their principal fortress, brought the remaining Jewish townships to see the utter futility of further resistance. They sued for forgiveness, which was accorded. Their lands and immovable property were guaranteed to them (on condition of good conduct), together with the free practice of their religion; and, as they were exempt from the regular taxes, the Prophet imposed upon them the duty of paying to the commonwealth, in return for the protection they would thenceforth enjoy, half the produce of their lands. The movable property found in the fortresses which the Moslems reduced by regular sieges and battles, was forfeited to the army, and distributed among the men according to the character of their arms; thus, for instance, three shares were given to a horseman, whilst a foot-soldier received only one.

Towards the; end of the seventh year of the Hegira, Mohammed and his disciples availed themselves of their truce with the Koreish to accomplish the desire of their hearts the pilgrimage to the holy places. This journey, in Moslem history, is reverently styled "The Pilgrimage, or Visit of Accomplishment" It was in March 629 that the Prophet, accompanied by 2000 Moslems, proceeded to Mecca to perform the rites of the Lesser Pilgrimage rites which every pilgrim of Islam has now to observe. The Koreish would, however, have nothing to say to the pilgrims, and hold no converse with them. For the three days during which the ceremonies lasted, they evacuated the city, and from the summits of the neighbouring heights watched the Moslems performing the rites.

"It was surely a strange sight," says Muir, with an unconscious thrill, "which at this time presented itself in the vale of Mekka, a sight unique in the history of the world. The ancient city is for three days evacuated by all its inhabitants, high and low, every house* deserted; and, as they retire, the exiled converts, many years banished from their birthplace, approach in a great body, accompanied by their allies, revisit the empty homes of their childhood, and within the short allotted space, fulfil the rites of pilgrimage.

The outside inhabitants, climbing the heights around, take refuge under tents, or other shelter among the hills and glens; and, clustering on the overhanging peak of Aboo -Kubeys, thence watch the movements of. the visitors beneath, as with the Prophet at their head they make the circuit of the Kaabeh, and the rapid procession between Es-Safa and Marwah; and anxiously scan every figure if perchance they may recognise among the worshippers some long-lost friend or relative. It was a scene rendered possible only by the throes which gave birth to Islam." In strict conformity with the terms of the treaty, they left Mecca after a sojourn of three days. This peaceful fulfilment of the day-dream of the Moslems was followed by important conversions among the Koreish.

The self-restraint and scrupulous regard for their pledged word displayed by the Believers created a visible impression among the enemies of Islam. Many of those who were most violent among the Koreish in their opposition to the Prophet, men of position and influence, who had warred against him, and reviled him, struck by Mohammed's kindness of heart and nobility of nature, which overlooked all crimes against himself, adopted the Faith.

The murder of the Moslem envoy by a feudatory of the Greek emperor was an outrage which could not be passed over in silence, and unpunished. An expedition, consisting of three thousand men, was despatched to exact reparation from the, Ghassanide prince. The lieutenants of the Byzantine emperor, instead of disavowing the crime, adopted it, and thus made the quarrel an imperial one. Uniting their forces, they attacked the Moslems near Muta, a village not far from Balka in Syria, the scene of the murder.

The Byzantines and their allies were repulsed; but the disparity of numbers was too great, and the Moslems retreated to Medina.

It was about this time that the Koreish and their allies, the Banu-Bakr, in violation of the terms of peace concluded at Hudeiba, attacked the Banu-Khuzaa, who were under the protection of, and in alliance with, the Moslems. They massacred a number of the Khuzaa, and dispersed the rest. The Banu-Khuzaa brought their complaints to Mohammed, and asked for justice.

The reign of iniquity and oppression had lasted long at Mecca. The Meccans had themselves violated the peace, and some of their chief men had taken part in the massacre of the Khuzaa. The Prophet immediately marched ten thousand men against the idolaters. With the exception of a slight resistance by Ikrima, and Safwan [son of Ommeyya ] at the head of their respective clans, in which several Moslems were killed, Mohammed entered Mecca almost unopposed.

Thus, at length, Mohammed entered Mecca as a conqueror. He who was once a fugitive, and persecuted, now came to prove his mission by deeds of mercy. The city which had treated him so cruelly, driven him and his faithful band for refuge amongst strangers, which had sworn his life and the lives of his devoted disciples, lay at his feet. His old persecutors, relentless and ruthless, who had disgraced humanity by inflicting cruel outrages upon inoffensive men and women, and even upon the lifeless dead, were now completely at his mercy. But in the hour of triumph every evil suffered was forgotten, every injury inflicted was forgiven, and a general amnesty was extended to the population of Mecca.

Only four criminals, "whom justice condemned," made up Mohammed's proscription list when he entered as a conqueror the city of his bitterest enemies. The army followed his example, and entered gently and peaceably; no house was robbed, no woman was insulted. Most truly has it been said that through all the annals of conquest, there has been no triumphant entry like unto this one. But the idols of the nation were unrelentingly struck down. Sorrowfully the idolaters stood round and watched the downfall of the images they worshipped. And then dawned upon them the truth, when they heard the old voice at which they were wont to scoff and jeer cry, as he struck down the idols, "Truth has come, and falsehood vanisheth; verily falsehood is evanescent" how utterly powerless were their gods!

After destroying these ancient idols and abolishing every pagan rite, Mohammed delivered a sermon to the assembled people. He dwelt first upon the natural equality and brotherhood of mankind, in the words of the Koran, and then proceeded as follows: "Descendants of Koreish, how do you think I should act towards you?" "With kindness and pity, gracious brother and nephew" replied they.

At these words, says Tabari, tears mine into the eyes of the Prophet, and he said, "I shall speak to you as Joseph spake unto his brothers. I shall not reproach you to-day; God will forgive. he is the most merciful and compassionate."

And now was enacted a scene of which there is no parallel in the history of the world. Hosts upon hosts came and adopted the religion of Mohammed. Seated on the hill of Safa, he received the old pledge, exacted before from the Medinites: "They would not adore anything; they would not commit larceny, adultery, or infanticide; they would not utter falsehoods, nor speak evil of women."

Thus were the words of the Koranic prophecy fulfilled, "When arrives victory and assistance from God, and seest thou men enter in hosts the religion of God, then utter the praise of thy Lord, and implore His pardon; for He loveth to turn in mercy (to those who seek Him)."

Mohammed now saw his mission all but completed. His principal disciples were despatched in every direction to call the wild tribes of the desert to Islam, and with strict injunctions to preach peace and good-will. Only in case of violence they were to defend themselves. These injunctions were obeyed with only one exception. The troops under Khalid ibn-Walid, under the orders of this fierce and newly-converted warrior, killed a few of the Bani Jadhima. Bedouins, apparently mistaking them for hostile soldiers; but the other Moslems interfering, prevented further massacre.

The news of this wanton bloodshed deeply grieved the Prophet, and he cried, raising his hands towards heaven, "O Lord! I am innocent of what Khalid has done." He immediately despatched Ali to make every possible reparation to the Bani Jadhima for the outrage committed on them. This was a mission congenial to Ali's nature, and he executed it faithfully. He made careful inquiries as to the number of persons killed by Khalid, their status, and the losses incurred by their families, and paid the Diat strictly. When every loss was made good, he distributed the remainder of the money he had brought among the kinsmen of the victims and other members of the tribe, laddening every heart, says the chronicler, by his gentleness and benevolence.

Carrying with him the blessings of the whole people, he returned to the Prophet, who overwhelmed him with thanks and praises. The formidable Bedouin tribes, the Hawazin, the Thakif, and various others who pastured their flocks on the territories bordering Mecca, and some of whom possessed strongly fortified towns like Tayef, unwilling to render obedience to the Moslems without resistance, formed a league, with the intention of overwhelming Mohammed before he could make preparations to repulse their attack. His vigilance, however, disappointed them. After a well-contested battle fought near Hunain, a deep and narrow defile about ten miles to the north-east of Mecca, the idolaters were defeated with great loss. Separating their forces, one body of the enemy, consisting principally 'of the Thakif, took refuge in their city of Tayef, which only eight or nine years before had driven the Prophet from within its walls with insults; the rest fled to a fortified camp in the valley of the Autas. This was forced; and the families of the Hawazin, with all their worldly effects, their flocks and herds, fell into the hands of the Moslems.

Tayef was then besieged, but after a few days Mohammed raised the siege, well knowing that the pressure of circumstances would soon force the Tayefites to submit without bloodshed. Returning to the place where the captured Hawazin were left for safety, he found a deputation from this formidable tribe awaiting his return to solicit the restoration of their families. Aware of the sensitiveness of the Arab nature regarding their rights, Mohammed replied to the Bedouin deputies that he could not force his people to abandon all the fruits of their victory, and that they must at least forfeit their effects if they would regain their families. To this they consented, and the following day, when Mohammed was offering the mid-day prayers, with his disciples ranged behind him, they came and repeated the request: "We supplicate the Prophet to intercede with the Moslems, and the Moslems to intercede with the. Prophet, to restore us our women and children." Mohammed replied to the deputies, "My own share in the captives, and that of the children of Abdul Muttalib, I give you back at once." His disciples, catching his spirit, instantaneously followed his example, and six thousand people were in a moment set free.

This generosity won the hearts of many of the Thakif, who tendered their allegiance, and became earnest Moslems. The incident 'which followed after the distribution, of the forfeited flocks and herds of the Hawazin, shows not only the hold the Prophet had over the hearts of the Medinites, and the devotion he inspired them with, but it also proves that at no period of his career had he any material reward to offer to his disciples. In the division of the spoil a larger proportion fell to the share of the newly-converted Meccans than to the people of Medina. Some of the Ansar looked upon this as an act of partiality, and their discontent reaching the ear of the Prophet, lie ordered them to be assembled. He then addressed them in these words:

"Ye Ansar, I have learnt the discourse ye hold among yourselves. When I came amongst you, you were wandering in darkness, and the Lord gave you the right direction; you were suffering, and He made you happy; at enmity among yourselves, and He has filled your hearts with brotherly love and concord. Was it not so, tell me?" "Indeed, it is even as thou sayest," was the reply; "to the Lord and His Prophet belong benevolence and grace" "Nay, by the Lord" continued the Prophet, "but ye might have answered, and answered truly, for I would have testified to its truth myself. 'Thou earnest to us rejected as an impostor, and we believed in thee; thou earnest as a helpless fugitive, and we assisted thee: poor, and an outcast, and we gave thee an asylum; comfortless, and we solaced thee.' Ye Ansfir, why disturb your hearts because of the things of this life? Are ye not satisfied that others should obtain the flocks and the camels, while ye go back unto your homes with me in your midst? By Him who holds my life in His hands, I shall never abandon you. If all mankind went one way and the Ansar another, verily I would join the Ansar. The Lord be favourable unto them, and bless them, and their children, and their children's children!"

At these words, says the chronicler, they all wept until the tears ran down upon their beards. And they all cried with one voice, "Yea, Prophet of God, we are well satisfied with our share." Thereupon they retired happy and contented.Mohammed soon after returned to Medina.



# Chapter 8: THE YEAR OF DEPUTATIONS


THE ninth year of the Hegira was noted for the embassies which flocked into Medina to render homage to the Prophet of Islam. The cloud which had hitherto rested over this land, with its wild chivalry, its bloodfeuds, and its heathenism, is now lifted for ever. The age of biirbarism is past. The conquest of Mecca decided the fate of idolatry in Arabia, The people, who still regarded with veneration, those beautiful moon- goddesses, Manith, Lat, and Uzza, and their peculiar cult, were painfully awakened by the fall of its stronghold. Among the wild denizens of the desert the moral effect of the submission of the Meecans was great. Deputations began to arrive from all sides to tender the allegiance and adherence of tribes hitherto most inimical to the Moslems. The principal companions of the Prophet, and the leading citizens of Medina, at his request, received these envoys in their houses, and entertained them witli the time-honoured hospitality of the Arabs. On departure, they always received an ample sum for the expenses of the road, with some additional presents, corresponding to their rank. A written treaty, guaranteeing the privileges of the tribe, was often grunted, and a, teacher invariably accompanied the departing guests to instruct the newly-converted people in the duties of Islam, and to see that every remnant of idolatry was obliterated from their midst.

Whilst thus engaged in consolidating the tribes of Arabia under the new gospel, the great Seer was alive to the dangers which threatened the new confederation from outside. The Byzantines seem about this time to have indulged in those dreams of Arabian conquests which had, once before, induced the founder of the Roman empire to despatch expeditions into that country. Heraclius had returned to his dominions, elated by his victories over the Persians. His political vision could not have been blind to the strange events which were taking place in Arabia, and he had probably not forgotten the repulse of his lieutenants, at the head of a large army, by a handful of Arabs.

During his stay in Syria he had directed his feudatories to collect an overwhelming force for the invasion of Arabia. The news of these preparations was soon brought to Medina, and caused some consternation among the Moslems. It was the middle of the year (Rajjab, October 630), and the intensity of the heat, the hardships of the journey, and the marvellous stories regarding the power of the Byzantine empire, made many unwilling to volunteer for the expedition which was prepared to repel the threatened attack. A small force, howler, was collected; accompanied by the Prophet, the volunteers marched towards the frontier. Their sufferings from heat and thirst were intense. After a long and painful march they reached Tabiik, a place situated midway between Medina and Damascus, where they halted.

Here they learnt to their amazement, and perhaps to their relief, that the apprehended attack was a Grecian dream, and that the emperor had his hands full at home. Finding, therefore, nothing at the moment to threaten the safety of the Medinite commonwealth, the Prophet ordered the Moslems to retrace their steps.

After a sojourn of twenty days at Tabuk, where they found abundance of water for themselves and forage for their famished beasts of burden, the Moslems returned to Medina in the month of Ramazau.

The Prophet's return to Medina was signalised by the arrival of a deputation from the refractory and hard-hearted idolaters of Tayef, the very people who had driven the poor preacher from their midst with insults and violence. Orwa, the Tayefite chief, who had come to Mecca after the Hudeiba incident as the Koreishite envoy, was so impressed with the words of the Teacher and his kindness, that shortly after the accomplishment of his mission he had come to the Prophet and embraced his religion. Though repeatedly warned by Mohammed of the dangers he ran among the bigoted of his city, he hastened back to Tayef to proclaim his abjuration of idolatry, and to invite his fellow-citizens to share in the blessings imparted by the new Faith. Arriving in the evening, he made public his conversion, and called upon the people to join him.

The following morning he again addressed them; but his words roused the priests and worshippers of Uzza into frenzy, and they literally stoned him to death. With his dying breath he said he had offered up his blood unto his Master for the good of his people, and he thanked God for the honour of martyrdom, and as a last wish prayed his friends to bury him by the side of the Moslems who had fallen at Hunain. The dying words of Orwa had a greater effect upon his compatriots than all his endeavours whilst living. The martyr's blood blossomed into faith in the hearts of his murderers. Seized with sudden compunction, perhaps also wearying of their hostility with the tribes of the desert, the Tayefites sent the deputation to which we have referred above, to pray for forgiveness and permission to enter the circle of Islam. They begged, however, for a short respite for their idols. First they asked two years, then one year, and then six months; but all to no purpose. The grace of one month might surely be conceded, they urged as a last appeal. Mohammed was immovable. Islam and the idols could not exist together.

They then begged for exemption from the daily prayers. Mohammed replied that without devotion religion could be nothing. Sorrowfully, at last, they submitted to all that was required of them. They were excused, however, from destroying the idols with their own hands, and the well-known Abu Sufian, the son of Harb, the father of the notorious Muawiyah, the Judas Iscariot of Islam, one of those who have been stigmatised as the Mualafat-ul- Kulub (the nominal believers), for they had adopted the faith from policy, and Mughira, the nephew of Orwa, were selected for that work. They executed their commission amidst uproarious cries of despair and grief from the women of Tayef.

The tribe of Tay had about this time proved recalcitrant, and their disaffection was fostered by the idolatrous priesthood, A small force was despatched under Ali, to reduce them to obedience and to destroy their idols. Adi, the son of the famous Hatim, whose generosity and munificence has been sung by poets and minstrels throughout the Eastern world, was the chief of his tribe. On the approach of Ali he fled to Syria; but his sister, with some of his principal clansmen, fell into the hands of the Moslems. They were conducted, with every mark of respect and sympathy, to Medina.

Mohammed at once set the daughter of Hatim and her people at liberty, and bestowed on them many valuable gifts. She proceeded to Syria, and told her brother of the nobleness of Mohammed. Touched by gratitude, Adi hastened to Medina to throw himself at the feet of the Prophet, and eventually embraced Islam. Returning to his people, he persuaded them to abjure idolatry; and the Banu-ay, once so wedded to fetichism, became thenceforth devoted followers of the religion of Mohammed.

Another notable conversion which took place about the same time as that of the Bani-Tay is deserving of more than passing notice. Kaab-ibn-Zohair, a distinguislied poet of the tribe of Mozayna, had placed himself under the ban by trying to incite hostilities against the Moslems. His brother was a Moslem, and had counselled him strongly to abandon idolatry and adopt Islam. Kaab, following the advice of his brother, came secretly to Medina, and proceeded to the mosque where Mohammed was wont to preach. There he saw a man surrounded by Arabs listening to his words with the greatest veneration. He at once recognised the Prophet, and penetrating into the circle, said aloud, "Apostle of God, if I should bring before thee Kaab as a Mussulman, would you pardon him?"

"Yes," answered Mohammed. "It is I who am Kaab, the son of Zohair." Several people around the Prophet wanted leave to put him to death. "No," said the Prophet, "I have given him grace." Then Kaab begged permission to recite a Kasida which has always been considered a master-piece of Arabic poetry. When he came to the lines quoted at the head of this chapter, the Prophet bestowed on the poet his own mantle, which was afterwards sold by his family to Muawiyah for 40,000 dirhems, and after passing into the hands of the Abassicles is now preserved by the Ottoman Turks.

Hitherto no prohibition had issued against the heathens entering the Kaba, or performing their old idolatrous rites within its sacred precincts. It was now decided to put an end to this anomalous state, and remove once for all any possibility of a relapse into idolatry on the part of those on whom the new and pure creed hung somewhat lightly. Accordingly, towards the end of this year, during the month of pilgrimage, Ali was commissioned to read a proclamation to the assembled multitudes, on the day of the great sacrifice (Yeum-un-Nahr), which should strike straight at the heart of idolatry and the immoralities attendant upon it:

"No idolater shall, after this year, perform the pilgrimage; no one shall make the circuit (of the temple) naked; - whoever hath a treaty with the Prophet, it shall continue binding till its termination; for the rest, four months are allowed to every man to return to his territories; after that there will exist no obligation on the Prophet, except towards those with whom treaties have been concluded.''

This "Declaration of Discharge" as it is styled by Moslem writers, was a manifestation of far-sighted wisdom on the part of the Prophet. It was impossible for the state of society and morals which then existed to continue; the idolaters, mixing year after year with the Moslem pilgrims, if allowed to perform the lascivious and degrading ceremonies of their cultus, would soon have undone what Mohammed had so laboriously accomplished. History had already seen another gifted, yet uncultured, branch of the same stock as the Arabs settling among idolaters; their leaders had tried to preserve the worship of Jehovah by wholesale butcheries of the worshippers of Baal.

They had failed miserably. The Israelites had not only succumbed under the evil influences which surrounded them, but had even surpassed those whom they at first despised, in the practice of nameless abominations. In later times the followers of Christianity relentlessly persecuted each other for the sake of bringing about a harmony in the human conception concerning the nature of some bread and wine.

Mohammed felt that any compromise with heathenism would nullify all his work. He accordingly adopted means seemingly harsh, but yet benignant in their ultimate tendency. The vast concourse who had listened to Ali returned to their homes, and before the following year was over the majority of them were Moslems.



# Chapter 9: THE FULFILMENT OF MOHAMMEDS MISSION


DURING this year, (April 631) as in the preceding numerous embassies poured into Medina from every part of Arabia to testify to the adhesion of their chiefs and their tribes. To the teachers, whom Mohammed sent into the different provinces, he invariably gave the following injunctions: "Deal gently with the people, and be not harsh; cheer them, and contemn them not. And ye will meet with many people of the books who will question thee, what is the key to heaven? Reply to them [the key to heaven is] to testify to the truth of God, and to do good work."

The mission of Mohammed was now achieved. In the midst of a nation steeped in barbarism a prophet had arisen "to rehearse unto them the signs of God, to sanctify them, to teach them the scriptures and knowledge, them who before had been in utter darkness." He found them sunk in a degrading and sanguinary superstition, and he inspired them with the belief in one sole God of truth and love. He saw them disunited, and engaged in perpetual war with each other, and he united them by the ties of brotherhood and charity. From time immemorial the peninsula was wrapt in absolute moral darkness. Spiritual life was utterly unknown. Neither Judaism nor Christianity had made any lasting impression on the Arab mind. The people were sunk in superstition, cruelty, and vice. Incest and the diabolical custom of female infanticide were common. The eldest son inherited his father's widows, as property, with the rest of the estate. The worse than inhuman fathers buried alive their infant daughters; and this crime, which was most rife among the tribes of Koreish and Kinda, was regarded, as among the Hindoo Rajpoots a mark of pride. The idea of a future existence, and of retribution of good and evil, were, as motives of human action, practically unknown. Only a few years before, such was the condition of Arabia. What a change had these few years witnessed! The angel of heaven had veritably passed over the land, and breathed harmony and love into the hearts of those who had hitherto been engrossed in the most inhuman practices of semi-barbarism. What had once been a moral desert, where all laws, human and divine, were contemned and infringed without remorse, was now transformed into a garden. Idolatry, with its nameless abominations, was utterly destroyed. Islam furnishes the only solitary example of a great religion which, though preached among a nation and reigning for the most part among people not yet emerged from the twilight of an early civilisation, has succeeded in effectually restraining its votaries from idolatry.

This phenomenon has been justly acknowledged as the pre-eminent glory of Islam, and the most remarkable evidence of the genius of its founder. Long had Christianity and Judaism tried to wean the Arab tribes from their gross superstitions, their inhuman practices, and their licentious immorality. But it was not till they heard "the spirit-stirring strains"of the "Appointed of God " that they became conscious of the presence of the God of truth, overshadowing the universe with His power and love. Henceforth their aims are not of this earth alone; there is something beyond the grave higher, purer, and diviner calling them to the practice of charity, goodness, justice, and universal love. God is not merely the God of to-day or of to-morrow, carved out of wood or stone, but the mighty, loving, merciful Creator of the world. Mohammed was the source, under Providence, of this new awakening, the bright fountain from which flowed the stream of their hopes of eternity; and to him they paid a fitting obedience and reverence. They were all animated with one desire, namely, to serve God in truth and purity; to obey His laws reverently in all the affairs of life. The truths and maxims, the precepts which, from time to time during the past twenty years, Mohammed had delivered to his followers, were embalmed in their hearts, and had become the ruling principles of every action. Law and morality were united. "Never, since the days when primitive Christianity startled the world from its sleep, and waged a mortal conflict with heathenism, had men seen the like arousing of spiritual life, the like faith that suffered sacrifice, and took joyfully the spoiling of goods for conscience sake"

The mission of Mohammed was now accomplished. And in this fact, the fact of the whole work being achieved in his lifetime, lies his distinctive superiority over the prophets, sages, and philosophers of other times and other countries. Jesus, Moses, Zoroaster, Sakya-Muni, Plato, all had their notions of realms of God, their republics, their ideas, through which degraded humanity was to be elevated into a new moral life: all had departed from this world with their aspirations unfulfilled, their bright visions unrealised; or had bequeathed the task of elevating their fellow-men to sanguinary disciples or monarch-pupils. It was reserved for Mohammed to fulfil his mission, and that of his predecessors. It was reserved for him alone to see accomplished the work of amelioration, no royal disciple came to his assistance with edicts to enforce the new teachings. May not the Moslem justly say, the entire work was the work of God?

The humble preacher, who had only the other day been hunted out of the city of his birth, and been stoned out of the place where he had betaken himself to preach God's words, had, within the short space of nine years, lifted up his people from the abysmal depths of moral and spiritual degradation to a conception of purity and justice. His life is the noblest record of a work nobly and faithfully performed. He infused vitality into a dormant people; he consolidated a congeries of warring tribes into a nation inspired into action with the hope of everlasting life; he concentrated into a focus all the fragmentary and broken lights which had ever fallen on the heart of man. Such was his work, and he performed it with an enthusiasm and fervour which admitted no compromise, conceived no halting; with indomitable courage which brooked no resistance, allowed no fear of consequences; with a singleness of purpose which thought of no self. The religion of divine unity preached on the shores of Galilee had given place to the worship of an incarnate God; the old worship of a female deity had revived among those who professed the creed of the Master of Nazareth. The Recluse of Hira, the unlettered philosopher, born among a nation of unyielding idolaters, impressed ineffaceably the unity of God and the equality of men upon the minds of the nations who once heard his voice. His "democratic thunder" was the signal for the uprise of the human intellect against the tyranny of priests and rulers. In "that world of wrangling creeds and oppressive institutions," when the human soul was crushed under the weight of unintelligible dogmas and the human body trampled under the tyranny of vested interests, broke down the barriers of caste and exclusive privileges.

He swept away with his breath the cobwebs which self-interest had woven in the path of man to God. He abolished all exclusiveness in man's relations to his Creator. This unlettered Prophet, whose message was for the masses, proclaimed the value of knowledge and learning. By the Pen, man's works are recorded. By the Pen, man is to be judged. The Pen is the ultimate arbiter of human actions in the sight of the Lord. His persistent and unvarying appeal to reason and to the ethical faculty of mankind, his rejection of miracles, "his thoroughly democratic conception of the divine government, the universality of his religious ideal, his simple humanity," all serve to differentiate him from his predecessors, "all affiliate him," says the author of Oriental Religions, "with the modern world.", His life and work are not wrapt in mystery. No fairy tale has been woven round his personality.

When the hosts of Arabia came flocking to join his faith, Mohammed felt that his work was accomplished; and under the impression of his approaching end, he determined to make a farewell pilgrimage to Mecca.

On the 25th of Zu'l-Kaada (23rd February, 632), the Prophet left Medina with an immense concourse of Moslems. On his arrival at Mecca, and before completing all the rites of the pilgrimage, he addressed the assembled multitude from the top of the Jabal-ul-Arafat (8th Zu'Hijja, 7th March), in words which yet live in the hearts of all Moslems.

"Ye people! listen to my words, for I know not whether another year will be vouchsafed to me after this year to find myself amongst you." " Your lives and property are sacred and inviolable amongst one another until ye appear before the Lord, as this day and this month is sacred for all; and remember ye shall have to appear before your Lord, who shall demand from you an account of all your actions.... Ye people, ye have rights over your wives, and your wives have rights over you.... Treat your wives with kindness.... Verily ye have taken them on the security of God, and have made their persons lawful unto you by the words of God."

"And your slaves! See that ye feed them with such food as ye eat yourselves, and clothe them with the stuff ye wear; and if they commit a fault which ye are not inclined to forgive, then part from them, for they are the servants of the Lord, and are not to be harshly treated." "Ye people! listen to my words and understand the same. Know that all Moslems are brothers unto one, another, Ye are one brotherhood. Nothing which belongs to another is lawful unto his brother, unless freely given out of good-will. Guard yourselves from committing injustice." "Let him that is present tell it unto him that is absent. Haply he that shall be told may remember better than he who hath heard it."

This Sermon on the Mount, less poetically beautiful, certainly less mystical, than the other, appeals by its practicality and strong common sense to higher minds, and is also adapted to the capacity and demands of inferior natures which require positive and comprehensible directions for moral guidance.

Towards the conclusion of the sermon Mohammed, overpowered by the sight of the intense enthusiasm of the people as they drank in his words, exclaimed, "Lord! I have delivered my message and accomplished my work." The assembled hosts below with one voice cried, "Yea, verily thou hast," "Lord, I beseech Thee, bear Thou witness unto it."

With these words the Prophet finished his address, which, according to the traditions, was remarkable for its length, its eloquence, and enthusiasm. Soon after, the necessary rites of the pilgrimage being finished, the Prophet returned with his followers to Medina.

The last year of Mohammed's life was spent in that city. (March 633) He settled the organisation of the provinces and tribal communities which had adopted Islam and become the component parts of the Moslem federation. In fact, though the faith had not penetrated among the Arab races settled in Syria and Mesopotamia, most of whom were Christians, the whole of Arabia now followed the Islamic faith.

Officers were sent to the provinces and to the various tribes for the purpose of teaching the people the duties of Islam, administering justice, and collecting the tithes or zakat. Muaz ibn-Jabal was sent to Yemen, and Mohammed's parting injunction to him was to rely on his own judgment in the administration of affairs in the event of not finding any authority in the Koran. To All, whom he deputed to Yemama, he said, "When two parties come before you for justice, do not decide before hearing both."

Preparations were also commenced for sending an expedition under Osama, the son of Zaid, who was killed at Muta, against the Byzantines to exact the long-delayed reparation for the murder of the envoy in Syria. In fact, the troops were already encamped outside the city ready for the start. But the poison which had been given to the Prophet by the Jewess at Khaibar, and which had slowly penetrated his system, began now to show its effects, and it became evident that he had not long to live. The news of his approaching end led to the stoppage of the expedition under Osama. It had also the effect of producing disorder in some of the outlying provinces. Three pretenders started up, claiming divine commission for their reign of licentiousness and plunder. They gave themselves out as prophets, and tried by all kinds of imposture to win over their tribes. One of these, the most dangerous of all, was Ayhala ibn-Kaab, better known as al-Aswad (the black). He was a chief of Yemen, a man of great wealth and equal sagacity, and a clever conjuror. Among his simple tribesmen, the conjuring tricks he performed invested him with a divine character. He soon succeeded in gaining them over, and, with their help, reduced to subjection many of the neighbouring towns. He killed Shahr, who had been appointed by Mohammed to the governorship of Sana in the place, of Bazan, his father, who had just died. Bazan had been the viceroy of Yemen under the Chosroes of Persia, and after his adoption of Islam was continued in his vice-royalty by the Prophet. He had during his lifetime exercised great influence, not only over his Persian compatriots settled in Yemen, who were called by the name of Ebna, but also over the Arabs of the province. His example had led to the conversion of all the Persian settlers of Yemen. Al-Aswad, the impostor, had massacred Shahr, and forcibly married his wife Merzbana. He was killed by the Ebna, assisted by Merzbana, when he was lying drunk, after one of his orgies. The other two pretenders, Tulayha, son of Khuwailid, and Abu Thumama Haroun, son of Halib, commonly called Moseilema, were not suppressed until the accession of Abu Bakr to the caliphate. Moseilema had the audacity to address the Prophet in the following terms:

"From Moseilema, prophet of God, to Mohammed, prophet of God, salutations! I am your partner; the power must be divided between us: half the earth for me, the other half for your Koreishites. But the Koreishites are a greedy people, who will hardly rest satisfied with a just division." Mohammed's reply reveals his sterling nature.

"Mohammed, the Prophet of God, to Moseilema the Liar. Peace is on those who follow the right path. The earth belongs to God; He bestows it on whom He pleaseth. Only those prosper who fear the Lord! "

The last days of the Prophet were remarkable for the calmness and serenity of his mind, which enabled him, though weak and feeble, to preside at the public prayers until within three days of his death. One night, at midnight, he went to the place where his old companions were lying in the slumber of death, and prayed and wept by their tombs, invoking God's blessings for his "companions resting in peace." He chose Ayesha's house, close to the mosque, for his stay during his illness, and, as long as his strength lasted, took part in the public prayers. The last time he appeared in the mosque he was supported by his two cousins, Ali and Fazl, the son of Abbas. A smile of inexpressible sweetness played over his countenance, and was remarked by all who surrounded him. After the usual praises and hymns to God, he addressed the multitude thus:

"Moslems, if I have wronged any one of you, here I am to answer for it; if I owe aught to any one, all I may happen to possess belongs to you" Upon hearing this, a man in the crowd rose and claimed three dirhems which he had given to a poolman at the Prophet's request. They were immediately paid back, with the words, "Better to blush in this world than in the next." The Prophet then prayed and implored heaven's mercy for those present, and for those who had fallen in the persecutions of their enemies; and recommended to all his people the observance of religious duties, and the practice of a life of peace and good-will, and concluded with the following words of the Koran:

"The dwelling of the other life we will give unto them who do not seek to exalt themselves on earth or to do wrong; for the happy issue shall attend the pious."

After this, Mohammed never again appeared in public prayers. His strength rapidly failed. At noon on Monday (12th of Rabi I, 8 June 632), whilst praying earnestly in whisper, the spirit of the great Prophet took flight to the "blessed companionship on high."

So ended a life consecrated, from first to last, to the service of God and humanity. Is there another to be compared to his, with all its trials and temptations? Is there another which has stood the fire of the world, and come out so unscathed? The humble preacher had risen to be the ruler of Arabia, the equal of Chosroes and of Caesar, the arbiter of the destinies of a nation. But the same humility of spirit, the same nobility of soul and purity of heart, austerity of conduct, refinement and delicacy of feeling, and stern devotion to duty which had won him the title of al-Amin, combined with a severe sense of self-examination, are ever the distinguishing traits of his character.

Once in his life, whilst engaged in a religious conversation with an influential citizen of Mecca, he had turned away from a humble blind seeker of the truth. He is always referring to this incident with remorse, and proclaiming God's disapprobation. A nature so pure, so tender, and yet so heroic, inspires not only reverence, but love. And naturally the Arabian writers dwell with the proudest satisfaction on the graces and intellectual gifts of the son of Abdullah. His courteousness to the great, his affability to the humble, and his dignified bearing to the presumptuous, procured him universal respect and admiration.

After this, whenever the Prophet saw the poor blind man, he used to go out of his way to do Him honour,saying, "The man is thrice welcome on whose account my Lord hath reprimanded me;" and he made him twice governor of Medina. See the remark of Bosworth Smith on Muir about this incident.

His countenance reflected the benevolence of his heart. Profoundly read in the volume of nature, though ignorant of letters, with an expansive mind, elevated by deep communion with the Soul of the Universe, he was gifted with the power of influencing equally the learned and the unlearned. Withal, there was a majesty in his face, an air of genius, which inspired all who came in contact with him with a feeling of veneration and love. His singular elevation of mind, his extreme delicacy and refinement of feeling, his purity and truth, form the constant theme of the traditions. He was most indulgent to his inferiors, and would never allow his awkward little page to be scolded whatever he did.

"Ten years," said Anas, his servant, "was I about the Prophet, and he never said so much as 'Uff to me." He was very affectionate towards his family. One of his boys died on his breast in the smoky house of the nurse, a blacksmith's wife. He was very fond of children. He would stop them in the streets, and pat their little cheeks. He never struck any one in his life. The worst expression he ever made use of in conversation was, "What has come to him? May his forehead be darkened with mud!" When asked to curse some one, he replied, "I have not been sent to curse, but to be a mercy to mankind.".

He visited the sick, followed any bier he met, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes, milked his goats, and waited upon himself, relates summarily another tradition. He never first withdrew his hand out of another's palm, and turned not before the other had turned. His hand was the most generous, his breast the most courageous, his tongue the most truthful; he was the most faithful protector of those he protected; the sweetest and most agreeable in conversation; those who saw him were suddenly filled with reverence; those who came near him loved him; they who described him would say, "I have never seen his like, either before or after." He was of great taciturnity; and when he spoke, he spoke with emphasis and deliberation, and no one could ever forget what he said."

"He was an enthusiast in that noblest sense when enthusiasm becomes the salt of the earth, the one thing that keeps men from rotting whilst they live. Enthusiasm is often used despitefully, because it is joined to an unworthy cause, or falls upon barren ground and bears no fruit. So was it not with Mohammed. He was an enthusiast when enthusiasm was the one thing needed to set the world aflame, and his enthusiasm was noble for a noble cause. He was one of those happy few who have attained the supreme joy of making one great truth their very life-spring. He was the messenger of the one God; and never to his life's end did he forget who he was, or the message which was the marrow of his being. He brought his tidings to his people with a grand dignity sprung from the consciousness of his high office, together with a most sweet humility, whose roots lay in the knowledge of his own weakness."

"Modesty and kindness, patience, self-denial and generosity pervaded his conduct, and riveted the affections of all around him. With the bereaved and afflicted he sympathised tenderly.... He shared his food even in times of scarcity with others, and was sedulously solicitous for the personal comfort of every one about him." He would stop in the streets listening to the sorrows of the humblest He would go to the houses of the lowliest to console the afflicted and to comfort the heart-broken. The meanest slaves would take hold of his hand and drag him to their masters to obtain redress for ill-treatment or release from bondage.

He never sat down to a meal without first invoking a blessing, and never rose without uttering a thanksgiving. His time was regularly apportioned. During the day, when not engaged in prayers, he received visitors and transacted public affairs. At night he slept little, spending most of the hours in devotion. He loved the poor and respected them, and many who had no home or shelter of their own slept at night in the mosque contiguous to his house. Each evening it was his custom to invite some of them to partake of his humble fare. The others became the guests of his principal disciples. His conduct towards the bitterest of his enemies was marked by a noble clemency and forbearance.

Stern, almost to severity, to the enemies of the State, mockings, affronts, outrages, and persecutions towards himself were in the hour of triumph synonymous with the hour of trial to the human heart all buried in oblivion, and forgiveness was extended to the worst criminal..

Mohammed was extremely simple in his habits. His mode of life, his dress and his furniture, retained to the very last a character of patriarchal simplicity. Many a time, Abu Huraira reports, had the Prophet to go without a meal. Dates and water frequently formed his only nourishment. Often, for months together, no fire could be lighted in his house from scantiness of means. God, say the Moslem historians, had indeed put before him the key to the treasures of this world, but he refused it.

[Sources: Ibn al Athir, Ibn Hisham, Abulfeda, Tabari.]

[ THE END ]

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