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MUHAMMAD
& ISLAM: Stories not told before.
By
Mohammad Asghar
PART
- 8
Having settled down in Madina, Muhammad, first of all,
decided to erect a mosque. He selected a site shaded by date trees for this
purpose. He chose this location because he is said to have been guided there
by his camel. In order to build the mosque, he had the buried bodies removed,
and the trees, standing on the site, cut down. Because the climate of Madina
itself was mild hot and rain infrequent, Muhammad decided to build his mosque
on the pattern of the dwellings, then existing in the city from the time the
Arabs learned to live in homes.
When completed, the mosque turned out to be a simple structure, suited to the
religion that Muhammad preached then in Mecca, and to the scanty and
precarious means of its votaries. Its walls were built of mud daubed on to
wattle; the trunks of the recently felled palm trees served as pillars to
support the roof, which was made of their branches, and thatched with their
leaves. It had three openings: one to the south, where the Qibla (the
direction faced by Muslims while saying their prayers) was afterward
established; another called the gate of Gabriel (through which the angel
entered the mosque without being seen by human eyes); and third the gate of
Mercy. A part of the mosque was set aside for the habitation of those of his
disciples who had no home of their own.
Next to the mosque Muhammad built his living quarters, using the same
materials with which he fashioned the mosque itself. Since timber was not
available to the Arabs at the time, no cabins of Muhammad's Quarter had any
doors. They merely had strips of sacking hung up to screen their entrance. In
those cabins, once lived, at least, nine of Muhammad's wives, and an unknown
number of slave girls.
This mosque is known as Masjidul Nabi (the Mosque of the Prophet) because
Muhammad himself had founded and built it, and also for the reason that in its
grounds are buried his remains. After the mosque was constructed, Muhammad
found himself at a loss for some time, not knowing how he should summon his
followers to the mosque to perform their prayers: whether with the sound of
trumpets as among the Jews, or by lighting fires, which was a very difficult
task, on higher grounds, or by the beating of timbrels. While in the midst of
this perplexity, Abdullah - - the son of Zaid - - a freed slave whose wife
Muhammad would snatch away later, came to his rescue by suggesting a form of
words to be cried aloud, which he declared he was given in a dream.
Muhammad adopted it instantly, and thus is given the origin of the summons,
which, to this day, is heard from the lofty minarets of mosques throughout the
world, calling Muslims to the place of worship, five times a day. The summons
begins with the words: "Allah is great! Allah is great! There is no allah
but Allah." At dawn an exhortation is added to the end:
"Prayer is better than sleep!" Muslims the world over call this
"Azaan."
Belal Habshi, a freed black slave who is reputed to have a resonant voice, was
the first to be given the responsibility of crying aloud the words of Azaan
every day, a duty he is eulogized even now for having performed well till the
last day of his life.
Muhammad, at first, conducted everything in this mosque with great simplicity.
At night, it was lighted by fire, ignited in raw and green trunks and leaves
of a special tree that could be found only in the Arabian Peninsula. Since
materials to preserve fire did not exist at the time, Arabs started flames by
rubbing two stones together, a process that was invented by human beings
during the so-called Stone- Age.
Muhammad stood on the ground of the mosque and preached, leaning with his back
against the trunk of one of the date trees, which served as pillars. Later on,
he had a pulpit erected at the top of three steps in order to be elevated
above the congregation. Traditions have it that when he first ascended the
pulpit, the dead date-tree gave out a groan; whereupon, Muhammad gave it the
option either to be transplanted to a garden, again to flourish, or to be
transferred to Paradise, there to yield fruit in the afterlife to true
believers. The date-tree, it is said, wisely chose the latter, in consequence
whereof it remained buried under the pulpit, awaiting resurrection on the Day
of Judgment.
During the period immediately following his arrival in Madina, Muhammad's
conduct, behavior and preaching were sober, peaceful and benign. With the
passage of time and increase in his political strength, however, his manner
seems to have become harsh, threatening and belligerent. Impressed by his
earlier mien, some of the Christians of the city had promptly enrolled
themselves among his followers. They were perhaps members of those Christian
sects who held to the human nature of Jesus Christ and found nothing repugnant
in the doctrines of Islam. In the religion of Islam, Jesus is highly venerated
and believed to be one of the greatest among 124,000 to 240,000 prophets God
is said to have sent to earth from the time of Adam to the time of Muhammad -
- the latter being the last and the greatest of them all.
A small number of Christians who lived in Medina, but did not convert to
Islam, showed no hostility to the new faith, considering it far better than
the old idolatry living with which they had grown disenchanted over a long
period of time. They had also grown weary of the dissension and schisms at the
time, seemingly an integral part of Christian orthodoxy, which had weakened
their enthusiasm toward their religion, and disposed them to be easily
influenced by the new doctrines, that were then being propounded by Muhammad.
The situation with the Jews was different. They lived in Madina and its
vicinity and were divided into rich and powerful families. Many of them showed
no sign of favorable disposition to the doctrines propagated by Muhammad and
his disciples. Anxious to woo them over to his side, he modeled many of his
doctrines on the dogmas of the Jewish faith and observed many of their
religious requirements, such as giving alms and observing fasts. He allowed
those small number of Jews who embraced Islam to continue with the observation
of their Sabbath on Saturday, and following the Mosaic laws, he even ordered
his followers to circumcise their new born male offspring, a practice that is
followed by Muslims even today. As Muhammad had given the later concession to
the Jews out of his political expediency, but without telling his followers
about it, this obligatory ritual of the Islamic faith failed to find a place
in the bosom of the Quran.
In spite of his best efforts, Muhammad failed to bring the majority of the
obstinate Jews to his fold. Out of necessity, he made covenants of peace with
some; with others he kept on pleading to accept him as their promised Messiah
or Prophet with the hope that his persistent efforts will, one day, bring him
the desired result. Those were the best strategies, under the described
circumstances, that Muhammad could adopt for buying time, which he needed to
strengthen his position in the territories of his future domainion.
It was the custom of the different religions of the East to have a Qibla, or a
sacred point, toward which their followers turned their faces at the time of
performing their prayers. The Sabeans, referred to in the Quran, faced toward
the North Star; Persians, the fire-worshipping Zoroastrians, faced the East,
it being the place of the rising sun; and the Jews turned toward their holy
city of Jerusalem. Muslims, before their migration to Madina, faced the Ka'aba
on the pattern of their pagan foes. But as the political necessity in Madina
dictated Muhammad to show his deference to the Jewish faith for reasons stated
before, he made Jerusalem his Qibla toward which all of his followers he
commanded to turn their faces at the time of saying their prayers. Ibn
Ishaq, one of Muhammad's earlier biographers, states that at one time, he had
required his followers to face Syria in their prayers. This was because of the
reason that he had developed a mysterious reverence to that country, presuming
that it was that country which had given shelter to patriarch Abraham after he
was compelled, like himself, to leave his birth place of Chaldea.
On one front, Muhammad felt pleased with the state of his affairs in Madina.
Here he was making proselytes almost daily, whereas he was hardly able to
convert one hundred of the Meccan pagans to his faith over a period of about
thirteen missionary years that he had spent there. But, on another, he faced a
problem of different magnitude: starvation, sickness and discontentment had
begun to arise among his fugitive followers from Mecca, whose faithfulness,
obedience and adherence were crucial to him and to his cause. In spite of
those fugitives being given all supportive encouragements by their Ansar
hosts, they still faced starvation for want of food. They also did not have
any money to buy them from the market. On top of it, the milder climate of
their adopted city, to which they were not accustomed, made their lives
difficult. Many suffered from fevers, and in their sickness and loneliness
they longed for the loved ones whom they had left behind in Mecca at the time
of their flight from there.
The gravity of the situation required Muhammad to take an immediate action.
He, therefore, established a bond of brotherhood between fifty-four of the
immigrants and a like number of the Ansars from Madina. Two person thus linked
together were pledged to stand by each other in trials and triumphs - - a tie
which knit their interests more firmly than that of the kindred. They were to
be heirs to each other in preference to their blood relations. This concept of
convenience not only gave the immigrants new homes, and close links with their
new friends and allies, it also allowed them to take over some of their wives
in order to mitigate their sexual sufferings. To alleviate their financial
difficulties, Muhammad had to wait for opportunities to present themselves at
some appropriate time, but not in a distant future.
The stated relationship, one of Muhammad's expediencies, underwent a reversal
when it created a problem for himself. In regard to marriages, he permitted
later an adopted father, professing Islam, to marry the divorced wife of his
adopted son. This practice the 'ignorant' pagans abhorred. Admonishing them
for detesting such marriages, Muhammad told them that such unions of two sexes
were justified in his eyes for the reason that these marriages do not involve
two persons related to each other through blood. On the other hand, he,
through the Quran, denied inheritance to the adopted sons and daughters for
lack of a blood relationship between them and their adopted parents.
While Muhammad continued with the conversion of the idolatrous pagans of Aus
and Khazraj at a rapid pace together with plotting of means to provide relief
to his financially stifled followers from Mecca, his personality as a peaceful
and patient preacher of Mecca underwent a complete change. He now began to
treat himself as an executive leader of his growing community. His peaceful
ambience changed to that of a powerful political figure, which prompted him to
involve himself in politics and to take over the administration and justice
system of Madina. At this time, he also took steps to teach his followers
various manners that they needed to observe while dealing with him and his
family members.
The uncompromising Jewish community of the city was an additional but
important factor that Muhammad wanted to deal with an iron hand. It was the
habit of the Madinese Arabs to spend long hours every day sitting in Jewish
quarters, discussing various topics and issues, which also included matters
related to religions. The Jews believed that their religion was a superior one
and that the pagans practiced an inferior faith. They, therefore, were in the
habit of taunting their visitors whenever they had an opportunity to do so.
The pagans, compelled by their financial and social conditions, tolerated them
silently without protest. The Jewish rabbis, on their own part, prided
themselves on the elevated positions they held, among their fellow
co-religionists, on account of their religious eruditions. They, too, treated
the heathens contemptuously due to their supposedly inferior beliefs and
practices.
Having been used to an elevated way of life, the Jewish rabbis treated
Muhammad in the say way in which they treated their pagan neighbors. They
thought he was simply an upstart in the realm of religions and that they could
get away with anything they did to harass him. They, therefore, took immense
pleasure in cross-examining Muhammad on the subject of the Old Testament
stories, which he was fond of quoting, though haphazardly, in his sermons.
One of the questions the rabbis asked Muhammad related to the plagues with
which Moses supposedly afflicted the Egyptians before his exodus from their
country. Very often, they asked him deliberate questions with a view to
revealing his ignorance and making him look like a fool. They ridiculed him on
his religious doctrines, too. They also rejected his claim that he was the
same Messiah, whose impending arrival was foretold in their Scriptures,
pointing out that he was not a descendent of David; hence, they reasoned, the
question of his being the Messiah could not even be contemplated. Muhammad
strongly resented the rabbis' ignominious questions, as well as their
contemptuous attitude that they exhibited towards him at every opportune
occasion. In contrast to the pagans' helplessness, many scuffles are believed
to have taken place between the Jews and the Muslims, following interrogations
that his tormentors subjected Muhammad to, every now and then.
His ignorance and plagiarism notwithstanding, Muhammad continued to win over
the pagans as his followers, a success that was naturally unwelcome to
Abdullah Ibn Ubay who harbored animosity towards him for the reason we have
already mentioned earlier. Nevertheless, he was a wise and prudent man and was
careful to conceal his pique. Before long, he, too, declared himself a convert
but continued to remain the leader of those Arabs who secretly sneered at
Muhammad's teachings, complaining of the confusion and danger which the coming
of the Muslims had brought to Madina.
Muhammad, on his part, did not remain ignorant of those false Muslims'
intentions, for spies were quick to bring him information (which he called
revelations), which informed him of the ill designs those hypocritical people
allegedly held against him. However, the shrewd and matured tactician that he
was, Muhammad continued to co-exist with them for the time being without ever
revealing his own designs and ambitions.
Let us now reflect on how Muhammad must have felt after becoming the virtual
ruler of Medina. As would have been the case with most intelligent and
ambitious men, he must have realized that his new status in Madina afforded
him vast opportunities to compensate for the aggravated injury and insult that
he had suffered meekly at the hands of his Meccan antagonists during the
twelve years of his missionary works there. His impulses told him that he was
no more a fugitive from Mecca; rather he now held command over a powerful army
of men drawn from daily converts as well as of the fugitives, who flocked to
him from Mecca, and of the proselytes from the tribes of the desert who were
of resolute spirit, skilled in the use of arms, and fond of partisan warfare.
His self-assessment assured him that he was now able to realize his desires
with ease, and retaliate decisively against those who opposed him in his
mission. To impose his authority over his followers as well as on the common
folks, he assumed the role of a prophet, which he claimed, God had bestowed on
him so that he could help the suffering masses of his land. To further his own
agendas, he armed himself with a so-called divine command, which authorized
him to use brute force, if necessary, to accomplish his ambition. At least
such was the purport of the manifesto, which Muhammad is said to have issued
at this epoch, thereby changing the whole tone and fortunes of his faith.
"Different prophets," he said, "have been sent by Allah to
illustrate his different attributes: Moses his clemency and providence;
Solomon his wisdom, majesty, and glory; Jesus Christ his righteousness,
omniscience, and power - - his righteousness by purity of conduct; his
omniscience by the knowledge he displayed of the secrets of all hearts; his
power by the miracles he wrought. None of these attributes, however, have been
sufficient to enforce conviction, and even the miracles of Moses and Jesus
have been treated with disbelief. I, therefore, the last of the prophets, am
sent with the sword! Let those who promulgate my faith enter into no argument
nor discussion, but slay all who refuse obedience to the law. Whoever fights
for the true faith, whether he fall or conquer, will assuredly receive a
glorious reward." The sword," he added, "is the key of heaven
and hell; all who draw it in the cause of the faith will be rewarded with
temporal advantages; every drop shed of their blood, every peril and hardship
endured by them, will be registered on high as more meritorious than even
fasting or praying. If they fall in battle, their sins will, at once, be
blotted out, and they will be transported to paradise, there to revel in
eternal pleasures in the arms of black-eyed houris."
Considering the above allurements as being insufficient, Muhammad added to
them the concept of predestination to be the part of his inciting doctrines.
Every event, he stated, was predestined from eternity and could not be
avoided. No man could die sooner or later than his allotted hour, and when it
arrived it would make no difference whether the angels of death should find
him in the comfort of his bed or amid the storm of battle; no person in this
world could be hurt or be killed without God's permission and Will. Skeptics
ask: If all those were true, should we then hold the imaginary Satan or the
devil responsible for all evil acts that humans commit on a daily basis? This
is a perplexing question that needs an answer from those who are able to read
God's mind and his intentions as easily as a trained Radiologist of our time
reads the x-rays.
The belligerent dogmas introduced by Muhammad were particularly acceptable to
the Arabs, for those harmonized well with their habits, and encouraged their
predatory propensities. Virtually pirates of the deserts, it was no wonder
that when Muhammad promulgated the doctrines of the Religion of Sword, they
rushed to his side to be accepted as his followers. Despite the fact that the
number of his followers swelled overnight, yet he held back his authorization
to launch violence against the unbelievers for a good length of time. Instead,
he provided them with an opportunity to submit to his temporal authority and
to pay him tributes. This was a shrewd decision. It enabled him to collect as
many resources as were possible to feed and maintain his hungry converts, as
well as to acquire the sinews of war that he knew he was going to need soon in
order to make his mission successful. Very soon, however, Muhammad realized
that the revenue he was collecting from the unbelievers in the form of
tributes was insignificant compared to what he needed to feed and clothe his
starving and half-naked followers. He, therefore, decided to launch raids on
the Meccan caravans to meet his needs.
In the beginning, Muhammad launched three raids on the Meccan caravans; all
headed by himself but without material result. The fourth he entrusted to
Abdullah Ibn Jahsh, who he sent out with eight or ten resolute brigands on the
road toward South Arabia. As it happened to be the holy month of Radhjab, a
period considered sacred and thus free from violence and rapine, Abdullah had
sealed orders from Muhammad, not to be opened until the third day of his
mission. The orders were vaguely worded. Abdullah was required to reach the
valley of Nakhla, between Mecca and Taif, where he was to watch for an
expected caravan belonging to the Quraish of Mecca. "Perhaps,"
concluded the orders shrewdly, "thou mayest be able to bring us some
tidings of it."
Abdullah understood the meaning of those words and, accordingly, he decided to
act upon the instruction. While in the valley of Nakhla, he saw the caravan,
consisting of several camels laden with merchandise and conducted by four men.
He sent after it one of his men, disguised as a pilgrim, to overtake it. The
Quraishites, based on the conversation they had with the man, took him and his
companions to be pilgrims, bound for Mecca. Moreover, it was the month of
Radhjab, when, according to their ancestral practices, they could travel the
deserts without fear of being plundered. But hardly had they come to a halt,
when Abdullah and his band fell on them, killing one and taking two prisoners.
The fourth escaped. The deceptive victors then returned to Madina with their
prisoners and booty.
The entire city of Madina was scandalized at this breach of the holy month.
Muhammad, finding himself in an indefensible position, pretended to be angry
with Abdullah and, for some time, refused to accept his share of the loot.
Acknowledging the vagueness of his instructions, he insisted that he had not
commanded Abdullah to shed blood or to commit any violence during the holy
month.
While the disgust, shared by the Quraish as well, persisted in Madina,
Muhammad produced a revelation, purportedly from God, which read as under:
"They ask thee concerning fighting in the Prohibited Month. Say:
Fighting therein is a grave (offence); but graver is it in the sight of God to
prevent access to the path of God, to deny Him, to prevent access to the
Sacred Mosque, and drive out its members. Tumult and oppression are worse than
slaughter."
Thus legitimizing his murder and rapine, Muhammad accepted his portion of the
booty. He released one of the prisoners on payment of ransom; the other
embraced Islam.
During the period of seventeen or eighteen months that Muhammad lived in
Madina, friction between him and the Jews reached a significant intensity and
the covenants that he had concluded with them became ineffective. To signal
the abandonment of his desire to co-habit with the Jews and to demonstrate his
displeasure at them, he ordered his followers to face Mecca, instead of
Jerusalem, while saying their prayers. He also discarded the Jewish Sabbath of
Saturday and substituted it with Friday as the special day of the Muslim week.
During the same period of time, he laid down many tenets of the Muslim faith.
Among those were the daily prayers, though it is not certain at what period of
time those assumed their present form. Some scholars, supported by a number of
Muhammad's statements, hold the view that there were only three daily prayers
during Muhammad's lifetime. They, however, do not say when the number of those
three daily prayers was increased to the present-day five prayers, and by
whom.
The second duty laid upon the Muslims at this period in time was that of
giving alms based on the practices of the Jews. The third tenet, declared
simultaneously, was the fast of Ramadhan. Some authorities believe that
Muhammad introduced fasting when he came to Madina in imitation of the Jewish
fast of ten days. When, however, his relations with the Jewish tribes soured,
he instituted a fast lasting the whole month of Ramadhan, intending it to look
different from that of the Judaic observance.
THE BATTLE OF BADR
The city of Madina was situated at a strategic location,
which afforded its inhabitants the ability to intercept caravans that traveled
north on their way to Syria and south on their return to Mecca. In the autumn
of 623 A.D., the annual caravan of the Quraishites traveled up the coast of
the Red Sea, west of Madina, on its way to Syria. The caravan, consisting of
one thousand camels said to be laden with Arabian merchandise, was under the
command of Abu Sofian, one of Muhammad's sworn enemies. The Muslims failed in
their attempt to intercept it.
The caravan, on its return journey to Mecca, left Damascus escorted by thirty
horsemen in the month of Ramadhan, 624 A.D. Muhammad, on receiving information
on the movement of the caravan, decided to seize it, no matter how, even
though the month was a holy one for the Arabs who considered raids and
plunders in this time of the year a great sin. He contemplated the operation
because it had a considerable importance for him as well as for the Muslim
community of Madina.
The caravan represented a large part of the annual income of all Meccans, for,
although rich merchants owned much of it, almost everyone in the town had some
share in this venture. By corollary, if the Muslims were able to capture it,
the Meccans would become paupers, and the plunderers wealthy overnight, with
their leader's war chest correspondingly strengthened.
As determined, Muhammad set out to intercept the caravan with three hundred
and fourteen men: eighty-three emigrants, or exiles from Mecca: sixty-one
Ausites, and one hundred and seventy Khazrajites. The entire Muslim force, it
is said, had only two horses and seventy camels. The troop mounted them in
rotation in order to make a rapid march, with minimal fatigue. They reached
the valley watered by the brook of Badr, and lay in wait near the ford over
which the caravan was expected to pass.
While yet a hundred miles south of Damascus, intelligence reached Abu Sofian
that Muhammad, with a superior army, was waiting near Madina to ambush his
caravan. He hastened, therefore, to dispatch a messenger to Mecca on a fast
dromedary, calling upon the Quraishites to send out an armed force to meet and
escort him past the danger zone of Madina. Hearing the news from the
messenger, Abu Jahl sounded the alarm from the roof of the Ka'aba. Confusion
and consternation took over Mecca, and people assembled around Abu Jahl to
decide on the course of their action. Hinda, the wife of Abu Sofian, having a
firm determination mingled with a fierce and intrepid nature, exhorted all of
her relatives and all other warriors to arm themselves and hasten to assist
her husband. In a short time, a Meccan force of about one thousand men,
divided into cavalry and infantry, was on its way to Medina, under the command
of Abu Jahl, who was then seventy years old, but still retained all the vigor
and spirit of a youth.
While the rescue force was advancing fast to a point of rendezvous, Abu Sofian
was approaching it from another direction. On nearing the anticipated range of
danger, he preceded his caravan by a considerable distance, carefully scanning
every track and footprint on the road. Eventually, he came upon the track of
Muhammad's army, having been guided to it by the discarded stones of the
dates, which his soldiers had eaten during their march. The kernels of the
Madinese dates are easily distinguishable by their small size.
Abu Sofian instantly changed his course and passed along the coast of the Red
Sea until he considered himself out of danger. He then sent an envoy to meet
and advice the Quraishites that his caravan was safe and that they should
return home.
The envoy encountered the Quraishites in full march. Learning that the caravan
was safe, they halted and held a council to chart their next course of action.
In the meantime, they dispatched a scout to spy upon the strength and
condition of Muhammad's fighting men. The spy brought back word that they were
about three hundred in strength and had not enough horses or camels to fight a
winning battle. Learning of the statistics, many of the Meccans favored a
battle to inflict a signal punishment on Muhammad and his followers in revenge
for the slaying of their men at Nakhla. Another group was opposed to shedding
blood of their kindred, even though Muhammad had sown seeds of discord by
preaching a religion that separated son from father, brother from brother,
accompanied by his attempts to seize their life-supporting caravans. Abu Jahl
sided with the belligerents and the main body of the troops resumed its march
once again. A considerable number of the forces, numbering about three to four
hundred, which opposed engaging the Muslim army in a battle, turned back and
returned to Mecca.
The Muslim force, in the meantime, continued its march to a point where it
expected to meet its targeted caravan. After passing Safra, Muhammad called a
halt. Here he received information that a strong contingent of the Quraishites
had left Mecca to meet and escort the caravan. The informer, being unaware of
the forces' whereabouts, could not pass on this vital piece of information to
Muhammad, however. Under the circumstances, Muhammad convened a meeting and
explained the situation to his men. Abu Bakr, Omar, and the emigrants declared
their readiness to follow Muhammad, no matter in which direction he led them.
Muhammad was, however, uncertain about the current attitude of the Ansars.
Although they had concluded the Pledge of Aqaba with him purely for defensive
matters, it had not required them to support him on such matters as that of
raiding a peaceful caravan en route to its destination. In an uncertain
situation, he decided to address the Ansars in order to find out their
position on his present attempt at seizing the Meccan caravan.
Muhammad's address over, Saad Ibn Muadh, one of the chiefs of the Aus stood up
and gave him his unwavering pledge, to obey him in whatever task he might be
asked to accomplish. Elated, he ordered his troops to march forward "in
good courage, for God has promised us one of the two parties," meaning
either the caravan, or the Quraish escort.
Part
9
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