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The Prophet of Islam - His
Biography
[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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