[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.
Sheikh Abdulfattah Abu-Abdullah Adelabu (Ph. D. Damas),
a West African Islamic Academic founded AWQAF Africa, of
which he's the first al Amir (i.e. President).
Sheikh Dr. Adelabu was studying Postgraduate Degrees in
Damascus early 1990's during when Syria reviewed its
national security after an ‘Oslo Accord'...
Syria like many other countries around the world
witnessed, during this period, the flood of refugees
from war troubled nations like Somalia, arrival of
people from Algeria during the brutal struggling between
the Mujahidun and the government, resettlement of the
Palestinians fleeing from sophisticated guns of the
Israelis as well as adventure of African migrants for
reasons uncountable…
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