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.
