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