Message for Muslims

During the fifth to the tenth years of Muhammad’s mission the citizens of Mecca became alarmed over the conversions of Hamza and Umar to Islam. Tthe Qurraish heard that the Muslims who had been forced to emigrate to Abyssinia had received a hospitable reception and they sought to impede the progress of Islam by severing social links with the Muslims under the policy known as ‘The Ban’.

Personal indignities sustained by Muhammad

Though the tendency of tradition is to magnify the insults of the Qurrash, yet, apart from invective and abuse, we hardly read of any personal injury or suffering sustained by Muhammad himself. A few of the inveterate enemies of Islam who lived close by his house, used spitefully to throw unclean and offensive things at the Prophet, or upon his hearth as he cooked his food. Once they flung into his house the entrails of a goat, which Muhammad putting upon a stick, carried to the door and called aloud: ‘Ye children of Abd Menaf! What sort of good neighbourhood is this?’ Then he threw it into the street.

 

The Conversion of Hamza

In the sixth year of his mission, the cause of Muhammad was strengthened by the accession of two powerful citizens, Hamza and Umar. The details of their conversion are as follows:- The Prophet was one day sitting on the rising ground of Safa. Abu Jahl came up and taunted him. Muhammad made no reply. Both left but a slave-girl had observed the scene. It chanced that, shortly after, Hamza returned that way from hunting, for be was a hunter of renown; and the maid related to him with indignation the gross abuse of Abu Jahl. Hamza was the uncle of Muhammad ,his pride was offended and his rage kindled. He hurried with rapid steps to the Ka’aba; and there, in the court of the holy House, found Abu Jahl sitting with a group of the Qurraish. Hamza rushed upon him, saying: Ah! Thou hast been abusing him and I follow his religion; there (raising his bow and striking him violently) return, thatkif thou darest! The kinsmen of Abu Jahl supported him but he motioned them away, saying:’ let him alone; for indeed I did revile his nephew shamefully.” The profession of Islam, suddenly asserted by Hamza in the passion of the moment, was followed up by the deliberate pledging of himself to Muhammad in the house of Arkam.

 

The Conversion of Umar

The conversion of Umar took place at the close of the sixth year of Muhammad’s mission. It occurred in Dzul Haj, the last month in the year. He was notorious for his enmity to Islam, and the harshness and violence with which he treated its followers. His sister Fatima and her husband Sai’d were both converts, but secretly, for fear of the Qurraish. While Umar was threatening certain believers, a friend suggested to him that he had better begin at home, and hinted at the conversion of his sister and her husband. His wrath aroused he left immediately to their house. They were listening to the 20th Sura, which the slave Khobab recited to them from a manuscript; Umar overheard the low murmur of the reading. At the noise of his steps, Khobab retired into a closet. What was that sound that I heard just now? exclaimed Umar, entering angrily. ‘There was nothing,’ they replied. Nay! said he, swearing fiercely, I hear that ye are renegades! The altercation resulted in the exasperated Umar kicking out at Sai’d. His sister flew to the rescue. In the struggle her face was wounded and began to bleed. Unable to contain herself she called aloud: ‘Yes, we are converted: we believe in God and in his Prophet; now do thy worst upon us. ‘When Umar saw her face covered with blood he was softened; and he asked to see the paper they had been reading. But his sister required that he should first cleanse himself,’for none,’ she said, ‘ but the pure may touch it.’ So Umar arose and washed, and took the paper (for he could read), and when he had deciphered a part, he exclaimed: How excellent is this discourse, and gracious! Then Khohab came from his hiding-place, and said: ‘O Umar I I trust that the Lord hath verily set thee apart for himself, in answer to his Prophet; it was but yesterday I heard him praying thus :

Strengthen Islam, 0 God, by Abu Jahl or by Umar’. Then said Umar: ‘Lead me unto Muhammad that I may make known unto him my conversion.’ And he was directed to the house of Arkam. So Umar knocked at the door, and Hamza with others looked through a crevice and started back, exclaiming that it was Umar. But Muhammad had him come in and rising to meet him, seized his skirt and the belt of his sword, saying: ‘ how long wilt thou not refrain from persecuting, until the Lord send some calamity upon thee?’ And Umar replied: ‘Verily, I testify that that thou are the Prophet of God!’And Muhammad was filled with joy, and called aloud, Great is the Lord. (‘Allahu, Akbar ‘This exclamation is styled the Takbir, and is used on occasions of surprise or the unexpected occurrence of any great event). Although at the time of Umar’s conversion he was only twenty-six years old, yet so great was his influence that it is from this time that Islam is professed publicly at Mecca and Muhammad abandons the house of Arkam.

 

The fears of the Qurraish

The Qurraish had cause for alarm. They were disquieted by the hospitable reception of the refugees at the Abyssinian court. An embassy of two chief men from Mecca, laden with costly presents went to the Christian Negus and argued that certain fools amongst their own people had left their ancestral faith; they had not joined Christianity, but had set up a new religion of their own. They had therefore been deputed to bring them back. The king said that he would look further into the matter in the presence of the accused. Now the refugees agreed that they would not garble their doctrine, but come what may say nothing more nor less than the teaching of their Prophet. So on the morrow they were summoned before the king and also his bishops with their books open before them. Jafar (Muhammad’s uncle) was the spokesman. He said ’that they used to worship images, eat the dead, commit lewdness, disregard family ties and the duties of neighbourhood and hospitality, until Muhammad arose a prophet’; he concluded by describing his system and the persecutions which had forced them to flee to Abyssinia.

On the king asking him to repeat some part of the Prophet’s teaching, he recited Sura Maryam (regarding the births of John and Jesus, with notices of Abraham, Moses, & c.); whereupon the king wept until his beard became moist; and the bishops also wept so that their tears ran down upon their books, saying: ‘Verily, this revelation and that of Moses proceed from one and the same source.’ And the Negus said to the refugees ‘Depart in peace for I will never give you up.’ Next day the envoys endeavoured to entrap the refugees into a declaration depreciatory of Jesus, and therefore offensive to the king. But the king fully concurred in their doctrine, that Jesus was nothing more than ‘a servant of God, and his Apostle; his Spirit and his word, placed in the womb of Mary, the immaculate Virgin.’ So the Qurraish embassy departed.

The above story is no doubt a mere amplification of certain passages in the Quran to the effect that Jews and Christians wept for joy on hearing the Quran because of its correspondence with their own Scriptures. A similar tale has been invented of the bishops of Najran; and also regarding an embassy of Christians from Abyssinia, who are said to have visited Muhammad at Mecca so that not much reliance can be placed on this part of the narrative. Muhammad is said to have regarded him as a convert to Islam, and to have prayed for him as such at his death. A light is also related to have issued from his tomb. There is probably a basis of truth for the general outline given in this note; but it would be difficult to draw a probable line between the real and the fictitious parts of it. Had the leaning towards Islam been as great as is here represented, we should have heard more of its inhabitants in the troublesome times immediately following Muhammad’s death.

 

Muslim supporters cut off :  ‘The Ban’.

The Qurraish sought to stop the progress of secession from their ranks, by utterly severing the party of Muhammad from social and friendly communication with themselves. Thus the religious struggle merged for a time into a civil feud between the Hashimites and the rest of the Qurraish; and there also remained long-rooted political associations to add to the bitterness and strife. To secure their objective, the Qurraish entered into a confederacy against the Hashimites that they would not marry their women, nor give their own in marriage to them; that they would sell nothing to them, nor buy aught from them; and that dealings with them of every kind should cease. The Ban was carefully committed to writing and the record was hung up in the Ka’aba and religious sanction was given to its provisions.

 

The Ban’s unfavourable affect on the cause of Muhammad.

For two or three years the attitude of both parties remained unaltered, and the Hashimites were reduced to want and distress. Though the sympathies of many were expressed because of the sufferings of the Hashimites, the cause of Islam itself did not advance during the period of this weary seclusion; for that seclusion had its full and expected effect in cutting off the mass of the people from the personal influence of Muhammad and his converts. The efforts of the Prophet were by necessity confined to the members of his own noble clan who, though unbelievers in his mission, had resolved to defend his perso n; and to the strengthening of his earlier converts. Accordingly we find in the portions of the Quran delivered at this time directions from God to retire from the unbelievers and confine his preaching to his kinsmen and the faithful:

> “Verily, they are a rebellions people; wherefore turn from them and thou shalt not be blamed. And admonish for admonition profiteth the believers. “(Adh-Dhariyat 51:54,55)

> “Invoke with God no other god, lest thou be of those consigned to torment, And preach unto thy relatives, those that be of nearer kin. And conduct thyself gently towards the believers that follow thee. And if they disobey thee, Say I am free from that which ye do. And put thy trust in Him that is glorious and merciful.” (Ash-Sh’ara 26: 213-217)

The exemplary bearing of Muhammad under these trying circumstances and the spirit of clan-ship that knit them together may perhaps have influenced a few to join their ranks. But the weary years of confinement dragged on with no more important results.

 

Muhammad visit’s the fairs and places of pilgrimage.

After the amnesty Muhammad used to visit and exhort the various tribes that flocked to Mecca and the adjacent fairs. The Prophet visited the great assemblages at Okatz, Mecca and Mina. On these occasions he warned his countrymen against idolatry and invited them to the worship of the one God. He promised them not only Paradise hereafter, but prosperity and dominion upon earth if they would believe. No one responded to his call. Abu Lahab would dog his steps crying aloud: Believe him not he is a lying renegade!

About this time Muhammad must have found means of communicating freely with the Jews, or at least with some person acquainted with Jewish lore; for his revelation begins now to abound with narratives taken, often at great length from their scriptures or legends.

 

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