A brief Study on the Life of Prophet Muhammad, Dr. T. Arnold

It is not proposed in this chapter to add another to the already numerous biographies of Muhammad, but rather to make a study of his life in one of its aspects only, viz. that in which the Prophet is presented to us as a preacher, as the apostle unto men of a new religion. The life of the founder of Islam and the inaugurator of its propaganda may naturally be expected to exhibit to us the true character of the missionary activity of this religion.

If the life of the Prophet serves as the standard of conduct for the ordinary believer, it must do the same for the Muslim missionary. From the pattern, therefore, we may hope to learn something of the spirit that would animate those who sought to copy it, and of the methods they might be expected to adopt.

For the missionary spirit of Islam is no after-thought in its history; it interpenetrates the religion from its very commencement, and in the following sketch it is desired to show how this is so, how Muhammad the Prophet is the type of the missionary of Islam. It is therefore beside the purpose to describe his early history, or the influences under which he grew up to manhood, or to consider him in the light either of a statesman or a general: it is as the preacher alone that he will demand our attention.

When, after long internal conflict and disquietude, after whole days and nights of meditation and prayer in the cave of Mount Hira¹, Muhammad was at length convinced of his divine mission when the Voice aroused him from his despondency and fear, and bade him proclaim unto men the truth that day by day more strongly forced itself upon him, his earliest efforts were directed towards persuading his own family of the truth of the new doctrine. The unity of God, the abomination of idolatry, the duty laid upon man of submission to the will of his Creator:these were the simple truths to which he claimed their allegiance.

The first convert was his faithful and loving wife, Khadijah, she who fifteen years before had offered her hand in marriage to the

poor kinsman that had so successfully traded with her merchandise as a hired agent, with the words: “I love you, my cousin, for your kinship with me, for the respect with which the people regard you, for your honesty, for the beauty of your character and for the truthfulness of your speech”². She had lifted him out of poverty, and enabled him to live up to the social position to which he was entitled by right of birth; but this was as nothing to the fidelity and loving devotion with which she shared his mental anxieties, and helped him with tenderest sympathy and encouragement in the hour of his despondency.

When in an agony of mind, after having seen a vision, he once fled to her for comfort, she thus revived his downcast spirit: “Nay, By God! Never will God humiliate you! Behold, you fulfillest the duties of kinship, and supportest the weak and bringest gain to the destituite and art bounteous toward a guest, and helpest those in genuine distress” ³.

Thus up to her death in 619 A.D. she was always ready with sympathy, consolation and encouragement whenever he suffered from the persecution of his enemies or was tortured by doubts and misgivings. “So Khadijah believed,” says the biographer of the Prophet, “and attested the truth of that which came to him from God. Thus was the Lord minded to lighten the burden of His Prophet; for he heard nothing that grieved him touching his rejection by the people, but he had recourse unto her and she comforted, re-assured and supported him.” ⁴ Truly, one of the most beautiful pictures of a perfect wedded life that history gives us.

Among the earliest believers were his adopted children Zayd and 'Ali, and his bosom friend Abu Bakr, of whom Muhammad would often say in after years: “I never invited any to the faith who displayed not hesitation and perplexity, excepting only Abu Bakr; who when I had pronounced unto him Islam tarried not, neither was perplexed”. He was a wealthy merchant, much respected by his fellow citizens for the integrity of his character and for his intelligence and ability. After his conversion he expended the greater part of his fortune on the purchase of Muslim slaves who were persecuted by their masters on account of their adherence to the teaching of Muhammad. Through his influence, to a great extent, five of the earliest converts were added to the number of believers, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, the future conqueror of the Persians; Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a relative both of the Prophet and his wife; Talhah, famous as a warrior in after days; a wealthy merchant 'Abdu-r Rahman, and 'Uthman, the third Khalifah.

The last was early exposed to persecution; his uncle seized and bound him, saying: “Do you prefer a new religion to that of your fathers? I swear I will not loose you until you give up this new faith you are following after”. To which 'Uthman replied: “By the Lord, I will never abandon it!” Whereupon his uncle, seeing the firmness of his attachment to his faith, released him⁵.

With other additions, particularly from among slaves and poor persons, the number of the believers reached to nearly forty during the first three years of his mission. Encouraged by the success of these private efforts, Muhammad determined on more active measures. He called his kinsmen together and invited them to embrace the new faith. “No Arab,” he urged, “has offered to his nation more precious advantages than those I bring you. I offer you happiness in this world and in the life to come. Who among you will aid me in this task? All were silent. Only Ali, with boyish enthusiasm, cried out, “Prophet of God, I will aid you.”⁶ At this the company broke up with derisive laughter.

Undeterred by the ill-success of this preaching, he repeatedly called them together on future occasions, but his message and his warnings received from them nothing but scoffing and contempt. Indeed, the virulence of their opposition is probably the reason why in the fourth year of his mission, he took up his residence in the house of Arqam, an early convert. It was in a central and frequented situation, fronting the Ka'ba, and here peaceably and without interruption he was able to preach and recite the Qur'an to all enquirers that came to him; and so the number of the believers increased, and within the next two years rose to fifty. The Quraysh viewed this progress of the new religion with increasing dissatisfaction and hatred. They adopted all possible means, threats and promises, insults and offers of worldly honour and aggrandisement to induce Muhammad to abandon the part he had taken up. On more than one occasion they tried to induce his uncle Abu Talib, as head of the clan of the Banu Hashim, to which Muhammad belonged, to restrain him from making such attacks upon their ancestral faith, or otherwise they threatened to resort to more violent measures. Abu Talib accordingly appealed to his nephew not to bring disaster on himself and his family. The Prophet replied: “Were the sun to come down on my right hand and the moon on my left, and were the choice offered me of, renouncing this work or of perishing in the achievement of it, I would not abandon it”. Abu Talib was moved and exclaimed: “Preach whatever you want. I swear I will never give you up unto your enemies” ⁷. When such peaceful methods failed, the rage and fury of the Quraysh burst forth with redoubled force. They realised that the triumph of the new teaching meant the destruction of the national religion and the national worship, and a loss of wealth and power to the guardians of the sacred Ka'ba.

Muhammad himself was safe under the protection of Abu Talib and the Banu Hashim, who, though they had no sympathy for the doctrines their kinsman taught, yet with the strong clan-feeling peculiar to the Arabs, secured him from any attempt upon his life, though he was still exposed to continual insult and annoyance. But the poor who had no protector, and the slaves, had to endure the cruellest persecution, and were imprisoned and tortured in order to induce them to recant. It was at this time that Abu Bakr purchased the freedom of Bilal, an African slave, who was called by Muhammad “the first-fruits of Abyssinia”. He had been cruelly tortured by being exposed, day after day, to the scorching rays of the sun, stretched out on his back, with an enormous stone on his stomach; here he was told he would have to stay until either he died or renounced Muhammad and worshipped idols, to which he would reply only: “There is but one God, there is but one God” ⁸ .

Two person died under the fearful tortures they had to undergo. As Muhammad was unable to relieve his persecuted followers, he advised them to take refuge in Abyssinia and in the fifth year of his mission (A.D. 615), eleven men and four women crossed over to Abyssinia, where they received a kind welcome from the Christian king of the country. Among them was a certain Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr whose history is interesting as of one, who had to endure that most bitter trial of the new convert—the hatred of those he loves and who once loved him.

He had been led to embrace Islam through the teaching he had listened to in the house of Arqam, but he was afraid to let the fact of his conversion become known, because his tribe and his mother, who bore an especial love to him, were bitterly opposed to the new religion; and indeed, when they discovered the fact, seized and imprisoned him. But he succeeded in effecting his escape to Abyssinia.

The hatred of the Quraysh pursued the fugitives even to Abyssinia, and an embassy was sent to demand their extradition from the king of that country. But when he heard their story from the Muslims, he refused to withdraw from them his protection. For, said they: “We were plunged in the darkness of ignorance and worshipped idols. Given up wholly to our evil passions, we knew no law but that of the strongest, when God raised up among us a man of our own race, illustrious by his birth and long esteemed by us for his virtues. This apostle called upon us to profess the unity of God, to worship God alone, to reject the superstitions of our fathers, and despise the gods of wood and stone. He bade us flee from wickedness, be truthful in speech, faithful to our promises, kind and affectionate to our parents and neighbours. He forbade us to dishonour women or rob the orphans; he enjoined on us prayer, alms and fasting. We believed in his mission and accepted the teachings that he brought us from God. But our countrymen rose up against us, and persecuted us to make us renounce our faith and return to the worship of idols. So, finding no safety in our own country, we have sought a refuge in yours. Putting our trust in your justice, we hope that you will deliver us from the oppression of our enemies”⁹.

Their prayer was heard and the embassy of the Quraysh returned discomfited. Meanwhile, in Mecca, a fresh attempt was made to induce the Prophet to abandon his work of preaching by promises of wealth and honour, but in vain. While the result of the embassy to Abyssinia was being looked for in Mecca with the greatest expectancy, there occurred the conversion of a man, who before had been one of the most bitter enemies of Muhammad, and had opposed him with the utmost persistence and fanaticism- a man whom the Muslims had every reason then to look on as their most terrible and virulent enemy, though afterwards he shines as one of the noblest figures in the early history of Islam: Umar ibn al-Khattab.

One day, in a fit of rage against the Prophet, he set out, sword in hand, to slay him. On the way, one of his relatives met him and asked him where he was going. “I am looking for Muhammad,” he answered, “to kill the wretch who has brought trouble and discord among his fellow-citizens, insulted our gods, and outraged the memory of our ancestors”. “Why do you not rather punish those of your own family, who, unknown to you, have renounced the religion of our fathers?” “And who are these of my own family?” asked 'Umar. “Your brother-in-law Sa'id and your sister Fatima.” 'Umar at once rushed off to the house of his sister, who, with her husband and Khabbab, another of the followers of Muhammad, who was instructing them in the faith, were reading a passage of the Qur'an together. 'Umar burst into the room: “What was that sound I heard?" "It was nothing” they replied. “Nay, you were reading, and I have heard that you have joined the sect of Muhammad.” Whereupon he rushed upon Sa'id and struck him. Fatima threw herself between them, to protect her husband, crying: “Yes, we are Muslims. We believe in God and His Prophet: slay us if you will”. In the struggle his sister was wounded, and when Umar saw the blood on her face, he was softened and asked to see the paper they had been reading. After some hesitation she handed it to him. It contained the 20th Surah of the Qur'an, (Ta Ha). When Umar read it, he exclaimed: “How beautiful, how sublime it is!”. As he read on, conviction suddenly overpowered him and lie cried: “Lead me to Muhammad that I may tell him of my conversion”¹⁰ .

About the same time also, another important convert was gained in the person of Hamza, at once the uncle and fosterbrother of Muhammad, whose chivalrous soul was so stung to sudden sympathy by a tale of insult inflicted on and patiently borne by his nephew, that he changed at once from a bitter enemy into a staunch adherent. His was not the only instance of sympathy for the sufferings of the Muslims being thus aroused at the sight of the persecutions they had to endure, and many, no doubt, secretly favoured the new religion who did not declare themselves until the day of its triumph.

The conversion of Umar is a turning-point in the history ot Islam. The Muslims were now able to take up a bolder attitude. Muhammad left the house of Arqam and the believers publicly performed their devotions together around the Ka'ba. But this immunity was short-lived. The embassy to Abyssinia had returned unsuccessful, since the king had refused to withdraw his protection from the Muslim fugitives. The situation might thus be expected to give the aristocracy of Mecca just cause for apprehension. For they had no longer to deal with a band of oppressed and despised outcasts, struggling for a weak and miserable existence. It was rather a powerful faction, adding daily to its strength by the accession of influential citizens and endangering the stability of the existing government by an alliance with a powerful foreign prince.

The Quraysh resolved accordingly to make a determined effort to crush out this dangerous element in the state. They put the Banu Hashim and the Banu Muttalib, who through ties of kindred protected the Prophet, under a ban, in accordance with which the Quraysh agreed that they would not marry their women, nor give their own in marriage to them; they would sell nothing to them, nor buy aught from them—that dealings with them of every kind should cease.

This increased severity of persecution, with its attendant dangers, led to a second flight to Abyssinia—this time, of eightythree men and eighteen women. For three years the Banu Hashim remained shut up in one quarter of the city; during all this time the ban was put rigorously in force against them. None dared venture out except during the sacred months, in which all war ceased throughout Arabia and a truce was made in order that pilgrims might visit the sacred Ka'ba, the centre of the national religion. Muhammad used to take advantage of such times of pilgrimage to preach to the various tribes that flocked to Mecca and the adjacent fairs. But with no success, for his uncle Abu Lahab used to dog his footsteps, crying with a loud voice: “ He is an impostor who wants to draw you away from the faith of your fathers to the false doctrines that he brings, wherefore separate yourselves from him and hear him not”. They would taunt him with the words: “Your own people and kindred should know you best: wherefore do they not believe and follow you?” ¹¹.

But at length the privations endured by Muhammad and his kinsmen enlisted the sympathy of a numerous section of the Quraysh and the ban was withdrawn. In the same year the loss of Khadijah, the faithful wife who for twenty-five years had been his counsellor and support, plunged Muhammad into the utmost grief and despondency; and a little later the death of Abu Talib deprived him of his constant and most powerful protector and exposed him afresh to insult and contumely.

Scorned and rejected by his own townsmen, to whom he had delivered his message with so little success for ten years, he resolved to see if there were not others who might be more ready to listen, among whom the seeds of faith might find a more receptive and fruitful soil. With this hope he set out for Ta'if, a city about sixty miles from Mecca. Before an assembly of the chief men of the city, he expounded his doctrine of the unity of God and of the mission he had received as the Prophet of God to proclaim this faith; at the same time he besought their protection against his persecutors in Mecca. The disproportion between his high claims (which moreover were unintelligible to the heathen people of Ta'if) and his helpless condition only excited their ridicule and scorn, and pitilessly stoning him with stones they drove him from their city¹².

On his return from Ta'if the prospect of the success of Muhammad seemed more hopeless than ever, and the agony of his soul gave itself utterance in the following words: “O my Lord! I have called to my People night and day. But my call only increases (their) flight (from the Right). And every time I have called to them, that Thou mightest forgive them, they have only thrust their fingers into their ears covered themselves up with their garments grown obstinate, and given themselves up to arrogance” ¹³.

But consolation came to him from an unexpected quarter. At the time of the annual pilgrimage he was attracted by a little group of six or seven persons whom he recognised as coming from Medina, or, as it was then called, Yathrib. “Of what tribe are you?” said he, addressing them. “We are of the Khazraj” they answered. “Confederates of the Jews?” “Yes.” “Then will you not sit down awhile, that I may talk with you?” “Assuredly,” replied they. Then they sat down with him, and he proclaimed unto them the true God and preached Islam and recited to them the Qur'an. Now so it was, in that God wrought wonderfully for Islam that there were found in their country Jews, who possessed scriptures and wisdom, while they themselves were heathen and idolators.

Now the Jews oft times suffered violence at their hands, and when strife was between them had ever said to them: “Soon will a Prophet arise and his time is at hand; him will we follow, and with him slay you with the slaughter of 'Ad and of Iram”. When now the apostle of God was speaking with these men and preached unto them the true God, they said one to another: “Know surely that this is the Prophet, of whom the Jews have warned us; come let us now make haste and be the first to join him”. So they believed in what he preached unto them and embraced Islam, and said to him: “Our countrymen have long been engaged in a most bitter and deadly feud with one another; but now perhaps the true God will unite them together through you and your teaching. Therefore we will preach to them and make known to them this religion, that we have received from you” ¹⁴. So, full of faith, they returned to their own country.

Such is the traditional account of this event which was the turning-point of Muhammad's mission. He had now met with a people whose antecedents had in some way prepared their minds for the reception of his teaching and whose present circumstances, as afterwards appeared, were favourable to his cause.

The city of Yathrib had been long occupied by Jews whom some national disaster, possibly the persecution under Hadrian, had drive from their own country, when about 300 A.D. a party of wandering emigrants, the two Arab clans of Khazraj and Aws, arrived at Yathrib and were admitted by alliance to a share in the territory. As their numbers increased they encroached more and more on the power of the Jewish rulers, and finally, towards the end of the fifth century, the government of the city passed entirely into their hands. Some of the Arabs had embraced the Jewish religion, and many of the former masters of the city still dwelt there in the service of their conquerors, so that it contained in Muhammad's time a considerable Jewish population.

The people of Yathrib were thus familiar with the idea of a Messiah who was to come, and were consequently more capable of understanding the claim of Muhammad to be accepted as the Prophet of God, than were the idolatrous Meccans to whom such an idea was entirely foreign and especially distasteful to the Quraysh, whose supremacy over the other tribes and whose worldly prosperity arose from the fact that they were the hereditary guardians of the national collection of idols kept in the sacred enclosure of the Ka'ba.

Further, the city of Yathrib was distracted by incessant civil discord through a long-standing feud between the Banu Khazraj and the Banu Aws. The citizens lived in uncertainty and suspense, and anything likely to bind the conflicting parties together by a tie of common interest could not but prove a boon to the city. Just as the mediaeval republics of Northern Italy chose a stranger to hold the chief post in their cities in order to maintain some balance of power between the rival factions, and prevent, if possible, the civil strife which was so ruinous to commerce and the general welfare, so the Yathribites would not look upon the arrival of a stranger with suspicion, even though he was likely to usurp or gain permission to assume the vacant authority. Deadly jealousy at home had extinguished the jealousy of influence from outside.

These facts go far to explain how eight years after the Hijra. Muhammad could, at the head of 10,000 followers, enter the city in which he had laboured for ten years with so meagre a result. But this is anticipating. Muhammad had proposed to accompany his new converts, the Khazraj ites, to Yathrib himself, but they dissuaded him therefrom, until a reconciliation could be effected with the Banu Aws: “Let us, we pray you, return unto our people, if happily the Lord will create peace amongst us; and we will come back again unto you. Let the season of pilgrimage in the following year be the appointed time”. So they returned to their homes, and invited their people to the faith; and many believed, so that there remained hardly a family in which mention was not made of the Prophet.

When the time of pilgrimage again came round, a deputation from Yathrib, ten men of the Banu Khazraj, and two of the Banu Aws, met him at the appointed spot and pledged him their word to obey his teaching. This, the first pledge of 'Aqabah, so called from the secret spot at which they met, ran as follows: “We will not worship any but the one God; we will not steal, neither will we commit adultery or kill our children; we will abstain from calumny and slander; we will obey the Prophet in every thing that is right; and will be faithful to him in weal and woe” ¹⁵.

These twelve men now returned to Yathrib as missionaries of Islam, and so well prepared was the ground, and with such zeal did they prosecute their mission, that the new faith spread rapidly from house to house and from tribe to tribe. They were accompanied on their return by Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr though, according to another account he was sent by the Prophet upon a written requisition from Yathrib. This young man had been one of the earliest converts, and had lately returned from

Abyssinia. Thus he had had much experience, and severe training in the school of persecution had not only sobered his zeal but taught him how to meet persecution and deal with those who were ready to condemn Islam without waiting to learn the true contents of its teaching. Accordingly Muhammad could with the greatest confidence entrust him with the difficult task of directing and instructing the new converts, cherishing the seeds of religious zeal and devotion that had already been sown and bringing them to fruition. Mus'ab took up his abode inthe house of As'ad ibn Zurarah, and gathered the converts together for prayer and the reading of the Qur'an, sometimes here and sometimes in a house belonging to the sons of Zafar, which was situated in a quarter of the town occupied jointly by this family and that of 'Abd al- Ashhal.

The heads of the latter family at that time were Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Usayd ibn Hudayr. One day it happened that Mus'ab was sitting together with As'ad in this house of the sons of Zafar, engaged in instructing some new converts, when Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, having come to know of their whereabouts, said to Usayd ibn Hudayr: “Drive out this missionary and his companion from our quarter; I would spare you the trouble did not the tie that binds me and the sons of Zurarah prevent my doing him any harm” (for he himself was the cousin of As'ad). Hereupon Usayd took his spear and bursting in upon As'ad and Mus'ab, “What are you doing?” he cried, “leading weak-minded folk astray? If you value your lives, begone hence.” “Sit down and listen,” Mus'ab answered quietly “if you hearest what displeases you, we will go away”.

Usayd stuck his spear in the ground and sat down to listen, while Mus'ab expounded to him the fundamental doctrines of Islam and read several passages of the Qur'an. After a time Usayd enraptured, cried: “What must I do to enter this religion? “. “Purify yourself with water” answered Mus'ab, “and confess that there is no God but God and that Muhammad is the prophet of God”. Usayd at once complied and repeated the profession of faith, adding: “ After me you have still another man to convince (referring to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh). If he is persuaded, his example will bring after him all the tribe of 'Abd al-Ashhal. I will send him to you”.

With these words he left them, and soon after came Sa'd ibn Mu'adh himself, hot with anger against As'ad: “Were you not my cousin, I would make you repent of your boldness. What! Do you dare to bring into the midst of us doctrines that are opposed to our religion”. Mus'ab begged him not to condemn the new faith unheard, so Sa'd agreed to listen and soon the words of Mus'ab touched him and brought conviction to his heart, and he embraced the faith and became a Muslim. He went back to his people burning with zeal and said to them: “Sons of 'Abd al-Ashhal, say, what am I to you ?”. “You are our lord” they anwered- “You are the wisest and most illustrious among us.” “Then I swear”- replied Sa'd- “nevermore to speak to any of you until you believe in God and Muhammad, His apostle”. And from that day, all the descendants of 'Abd al-Ashhal embraced Islam. With such zeal and earnestness was the preaching of the faith pushed forward that within a year there was not a family among the Arabs of Medina that had not given some of its members to swell the number of the faithful, with the exception of one branch of the Banu Aws, which held aloof under the influence of Abu Qays, the poet¹⁵.

The following year, when the time of the annual pilgrimage again came round, a band of converts, amounting to seventy-three in number, accompanied their heathen fellow-countrymen from Yathrib to Mecca. They were commissioned to invite Muhammad to take refuge in Yathrib from the fury of his enemies, and had come to swear allegiance to him as their prophet and their leader. All the early converts who had before met the Prophet on the two preceding pilgrimages, returned to Mecca on this important occasion, and Mus'ab their teacher accompanied them. Immediately on his arrival he hurried to the Prophet, and told him of the success that had attended his mission.

It is said that his mother, hearing of his arrival, sent a message to him, saying: “Ah, disobedient son, would you enter a city in which your mother dwelles, and not first visit her?”. “Nay, verily”- he replied- “I will never visit the house of any one before the prophet of God.” So, after he had greeted and conferred with Muhammad, he went to his mother, who thus accosted him: “Then I see you are still a renegade”. He answered: “I follow the Prophet of the Lord and the true faith of Islam”. “Are you then well satisfied with the miserable way you hast fared in the land of Abyssinia and now again at Yathrib?” Now he perceived that she was meditating his imprisonment, and exclaimed: “What! Will you force a man from his religion? If you seek to confine me, I will assuredly slay the first person that will lay hands upon me”. His mother said: “Then depart from my presence” and she began to weep. Mus'ab was moved, and said: “Oh, my mother! I give you loving counsel. Testify that there is no God but the Lord and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.” But she replied: “By the sparkling stars! I will never make a fool of myself by entering into your religion. I wash my hands of you and your concerns, and cleave steadfastly unto mine own faith” ¹⁶.

In order not to excite suspicion and incur the hostility of the Quraysh, a secret meeting was arranged at 'Aqabah, the scene of the former meeting with the converts of the year before. Muhammad came accompanied only by his uncle Abbas, who, though he was still an idolater, had been admitted into the secret.

Abbas opened the solemn conclave, by recommending his nephew as a scion of one of the noblest families of his clan, which had hitherto afforded the Prophet protection, although rejecting his teachings; but now that he wished to take refuge among the people of Yathrib, they should bethink themselves well before undertaking such a charge, and resolve not to go back from their promise, if once they undertook the risk. Then Bara ibn Ma'rur, one of the Banu Khazraj, protesting that they were firm in their resolve to protect the Prophet of God, besought him to declare fully what he wished of them. Muhammad began by reciting to them some portions of the Qur'an, and exhorted them to be true to the faith they had professed in the one God and the Prophet, His apostle. He then asked them to defend him and his companions from all assailants just as they would their own wives and children. Then Bara ibn Ma'rur taking his hand, cried out: “Yea, by Him who sent you as His Prophet, and through you revealed unto us His truth, we will protect you as we would our own bodies, and we swear allegiance to you as our leader. We are the sons of battle and men of mail, which we have inherited as worthy sons of worthy forefathers”. So they all in turn, taking his hand in theirs, swore allegiance to him¹⁷.

As soon as the Quraysh gained intelligence of these secret proceedings, the persecution broke out afresh against the Muslims, and Muhammad advised them to flee out of the city. “Depart unto Yathrib; for the Lord had verily given you brethren in that city, and a home in which you may find refuge” ¹⁸. So quietly by two and three they escaped to Yathrib, where they were heartily welcomed, their co-religionist in that city vying with one another for the honour of entertaining them, and supplying them with such things as they had need of. Within two months nearly all the Muslims except those who were seized and imprisoned and those who could not escape from captivity had left Mecca, to the number of about 150.

There is a story told of one of these Muslims, by name Suhayb, whom Muhammad called “the first-fruits of Greece” (he had been a Greek slave, and being set free by his master had amassed considerable wealth by successful trading). When he was about to emigrate the Meccans said to him: “You came hither in need and penury; but your wealth had increased with us, until you hast reached your present prosperity; and now you are departing, not yourself only, but with all your property. By the Lord, that shall not be”; and he said: “If I relinquish my property, will you leave me free to depart?” And they agreed thereto; so he parted with all his goods. And when that was told unto Muhammad, he said: “Verily, Suhayb had made a profitable bargain” ¹⁹.

Muhammad delayed his own departure (with the intention, no doubt, of withdrawing attention from his faithful followers) until a determined plot against his life warned him that further delay might be fatal, and he made his escape by means of a stratagem. His first care after his arrival in Yathrib, or Medina as it was called from this period, was to build a mosque, to serve both as a place of prayer and of general assembly for his followers, who had hitherto met for that purpose in the dwelling-place of one of their number. The worshippers at first used to turn their faces in the direction of Jerusalem, an arrangement most probably adopted with the hope of gaining over the Jews.

Later muslim started turning their faces in prayer towards the holy Ka'ba in Mecca. This change of direction during prayer has a deeper significance than might at first sight appear. It was really the beginning of the National Life of Islam. It established the Ka'ba at Mecca as a religious centre for all the Muslim people, just as from time immemorial it had been a place of pilgrimage for all the tribes of Arabia. Of similar importance was the incorporation of the ancient Arab custom of pilgrimage to Mecca into the circle of the religious ordinances of Islam, a duty that was to be performed by every Muslim at least once in his lifetime.

There are many passages in the Qur'an that appeal to this germ of national feeling and urge the people of Arabia to realise the privilege that had been granted them of a divine revelation in their own language and by the lips of one of their own countrymen. “We have made it a Quran in Arabic, that ye may be able to understand (and learn wisdom)” ²⁰; “Thus have We sent by inspiration to thee an Arabic Quran: that you mayest warn the Mother of Cities” ²¹;“Had We sent this as a Quran (in a language) other than Arabic, they would have said: “Why are not its verse explained in details? What! (a Book) not in Arabic? And (a Messenger) an Arab?” ²²; “(It is) a Quran in Arabic without any crookedness (therein): in order that they may guard against Evil” ²³;“Verily this is a Revelation from the Lord of the Worlds: with it came down the Spirit of Faith and Truth to thy heart and mind, that thou mayest admonish in the perspicuous Arabic tongue” ²⁴; “So have We made the (Quran) easy in thine own tongue, that with it thou mayest give glad tidings to the righteous, and warning to people given to contention” ²⁵.

But the message of Islam was not for Arabia only; the whole world was to share in it. As there was but one God, so there was to be but one religion into which all men were to be invited. This claim to be universal, to hold sway over all men and all nations, found a practical illustration in the letters which Muhammad sent in the year 628 A.D. to the great potentates of that time. An invitation to embrace Islam was sent in this year to the Emperor Heraclius, the king of Persia, the governor of Yaman, the governor of Egypt and the king of Abyssinia. The letter to Heraclius is said to have been as follows: “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, Muhammad, who is the servant of God and His apostle, to Hiraql the Qaysar of Rum. Peace be on whoever has gone on the straight road. After this I say. Verily I call you to Islam. Embrace Islam, and God will reward you twofold. If you turn away from the offer of Islam, then on you be the sins of your people. O people of the Book, come towards a creed which is fit both for us and for you. It is this—to worship none but God, and not to associate anything with God, and not to call others God. Therefore, O you people of the Book, if you refuse, beware. We are Muslims and our religion is Islam” ²⁶.

However absurd this summons may have seemed to those who then received it, succeeding years showed that it was dictated by no empty enthusiasm. These letters only gave a more open and widespread expression to the claim to the universal acceptance which is repeatedly made for Islam in the Qur'an. “This is no less than a Message to (all) the Worlds. And you shall certainly know the truth of it (all) after a while” ²⁷; “This is no less than a Message and a Quran making things clear. That it may give admonition to any (who are) alive, and that the charge may be proved against those who reject (Truth) ²⁸; “It is He Who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, that he may proclaim it over all religion, even though the Pagans may detest (it)” ²⁹.

In the hour of his deepest despair, when the people of Mecca persistently turned a deaf ear to the words of their Prophet, when the converts he had made were tortured until they recanted, and others were forced to flee from the country to escape the rage of their persecutors then was delivered the promise: “One day We shall raise from each People a Witness” ³⁰. This claim upon the acceptance of all mankind which the Prophet makes in these passages is further prophetically indicated in the words “first-fruits of Abyssinia” used by Muhammad in reference to Bilal, and “first-fruits of Greece” to Suhayb. The first Persian convert was a Christian slave in Medina, who embraced the new faith in the first year of the Hijrah. Further there is a tradition which represents the Prophet as declaring China to be within the sphere of his prophetic mission. Thus long before any career of conquest was so much as dreamed of, the Prophet had clearly shown that Islam was not to be confined to the Arab race. The following account of the sending out of missionaries to preach Islam to all nations, points to the same claim to be a universal religion: “The Apostle of God said to his companions: ‘Come to me all of you early in the morning’. After the morning prayer he spent some time in praising and supplicating God, as was his wont; then he turned to them and sent forth some in one direction and others in another, and said: “Be faithful to God in your dealings with His servants (i.e. with men), for whosoever is entrusted with any matter that concerns mankind and is not faithful in his service of them, to him God shuts the gate of Paradise. Go forth and be not like the messengers of Jesus, the son of Mary, for they went only to those that lived near and neglected those that dwelt in far countries”. Then each of these messengers came to speak the language of the people to whom he was sent. When this was told to the Prophet he said: “This is the greatest of the duties that they owe to God with respect to His servants” ³¹.

And the proof of the universality of Islam, of its claim on the acceptance of all men, lay in the fact that it was the religion divinely appointed for the whole human race and was now revealed to them anew through Muhammad, “the seal of the prophets”, as it had been to former generations by other prophets.

“Mankind was one single nation, and Allah sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings, and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matter wherein they differed; but the People of the Book, after the clear Signs came to them, did not differ among themselves, except through selfish contumacy. Allah by His Grace guided the believers to the Truth, concerning that wherein they differed. For Allah guides whom He will to a path that is straight.” ³²

“Say: I am not bringer of new-fangled doctrine among the messengers, nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. I follow but that which is revealed to me by inspiration: I am but a warner open and clerar.” ³³

“Say: Verily, my Lord hath guided me to a Way that is straight, a religion of right. The path (trod) by Abraham the true in faith, and he (certainly) joined not gods with Allah.” ³⁴

“Say: Allah speaketh the truth: follow the religion of Abraham, the sane in faith; he was not of the Pagans.” ³⁵

“Who can be better in religion than one who submits his whole self to Allah, does good, and follows the way of Abraham the true in faith? For Allah did take Abraham for a friend” ³⁶.

But let return to Muhammad in Medina. In order properly to appreciate his position after the Hijra, it is important to remember the peculiar character of Arab society at that time, as far at least as this part of the peninsula was concerned. There was an entire absence of any organised administrative or judicial system such as in modern times we connect with the idea of a government. Each tribe or clan formed a separate and absolutely independent body, and this independence extended itself also to the individual members of the tribe, each of whom recognised the authority or leadership of his chief only as being the exponent of a public opinion which he himself happened to share; but he was quite at liberty to refuse his conformity to the (even) unanimous resolve of his fellow clansmen. Further, there was no regular transmission of the office of chieftain; but he was generally chosen as being the oldest member of the richest and most powerful family of the clan, and as being personally most qualified to command respect.

If such a tribe became too numerous, it would split up into several divisions, each of which continued to enjoy a separate and independent existence, uniting only on some extraordinary occasion for common self-defence or some more than usually important warlike expedition. We can thus understand how Muhammad could establish himself in Medina at the head of a large and increasing body of adherents who looked up to him as their head and leader and acknowledged no other authority, without exciting any feeling of insecurity, or any fear of encroachment on recognised authority, such as would have arisen in a city of ancient Greece or any similarly organised community.

Muhammad thus exercised temporal authority over his people just as any other independent chief might have done, the only difference being that in the case of the Muslims a religious bond took the place of family and blood ties. Islam thus became what, in theory at least, it has always remained—a political as well as a religious system. “It was Muhammad's desire to found a new religion, and in this he succeeded, but at the same time he founded a political system of an entirely new and peculiar character. At first his only wish was to convert his fellow countrymen to the belief in the One God—Allah; but along with this hebrought about the overthrow of the old system of government in his native city, and in place of the tribal aristocracy under which the conduct of public affairs was shared in common by the ruling families, he substituted an absolute theocratic monarchy, with himself at the head as vicar of God upon earth” ³⁷.

Even before his death almost all Arabia had submitted to him; Arabia that had never before obeyed one prince, suddenly exhibits a political unity and swears allegiance to the will of an absolute ruler. Out of the numerous tribes, big and small, of a hundred different kinds that were incessantly at feud with one another, Muhammad's word created a nation. The idea of a common religion under one common head bound the different tribes together into one political organism which developed its peculiar characteristics with surprising rapidity. Now only one great idea could have produced this result, viz, the principle of national life in heathen Arabia. The clan-system was thus for the first time, if not entirely crushed—(that would have been impossible)—yet made subordinate to the feeling of religious unity. The great work succeeded, and when Muhammad died there prevailed over by far the greater part of Arabia a peace of God such as the Arab tribes, with their love of plunder and revenge, had never known; it was the religion of Islam that had brought about this reconciliation” ³⁸.

One of the first cares of Muhammad after his arrival in Medina was to give practical expression to this political ideal. He established a bond of brotherhood between the Meccan fugitives and the Medinite converts. In this bond, clan distinctions were obliterated and a common religious life took the place of ties of blood. Even in case of death, the claims of relationship were set aside and the bond-brother inherited all the property of his deceased companion. But after the battle of Badr, when such an artificial bond was no longer needed to unite his followers, it was abolished. Such an arrangement was only necessary so long as the number of the Muslims was still small and the corporate life of Islam a novelty, moreover Muhammad had lived in Medina for a very short space of time before the rapid increase in the number of his adherents made so communistic a social system almost impraticable.

It was only to be expected that the growth of an independent political body composed of refugees from Mecca, located in a hostile city, should eventually lead to an outbreak of hostilities. And, as is well known, every biography of Muhammad is largely taken up with the account of a long series of petty encounters and bloody battles between his followers and the Quraysh of Mecca, ending in his triumphal entry into that city in 630 A.D., and of his hostile relations with numerous other tribes, up to the time of his death, 633 A.D.

To give any account of these campaigns is beyond the scope of the present work, but it is necessary to determine exactly in what relation they stood to the early missionary life of Islam. It has been frequently asserted by European writers that from the date of Muhammad's Hijra to Medina, and from the altered circumstances of his life there, the Prophet appears in an entirely new character. He is no longer the preacher, the warner, the apostle of God to men, whom he would persuade of the truth of the religion revealed to him, but now he appears rather as the unscrupulous bigot, using all means at his disposal of force and statecraft to assert himself and his opinions. But it is false to suppose that Muhammad in Medina laid aside his role of preacher and missionary of Islam, or that when he had a large army at his command, he ceased to invite unbelievers to accept the faith.

Ibn Sa'd gives a number of letters written by the Prophet from Medina to chiefs and other members of different Arabian tribes, in addition to those addressed to potentates living beyond the limits of Arabia, inviting them to embrace Islam; and in the following pages will be found cases of his having sent missionaries to preach the faith to the unconverted members of their tribes, whose very ill-success in some cases is a sign of the genuinely missionary character of their efforts and the absence of an appeal to force.

In order fully to appreciate his new position, we need to obtain some satisfactory answer to the following questions. How far was Muhammad himself responsible for the outbreak of hostilities? Was he the aggressor or was he the first to be attacked? And further, when hostilities had been begun, was use made of the success that attended the Muslim arms, to force the acceptance of Islam on the conquered, or indeed as many have maintained was not such forced conversion the very purpose for which the Muslims first took up arms at all?

The main dispute arises in relation to the circumstances which led to the battle of Badr (A.D. 624), the first regular engagement in the annals of Islam. Let us try to realise these circumstances. Here was an exile who, with a small band of devoted companions, had taken refuge in a foreign city: a man who for years had striven to persuade his fellow-townsmen to adopt a faith that he believed to be divinely inspired, with no personal pretensions other than that of the truth of the doctrines he taught. “I am only a man like you,” he would say. “It is only revealed to me that your God is one God: let him then that hopeth to meet his Lord work a right work” ³⁹. Treated at first with silent scorn, and afterwards with undisguised contempt, he had to submit to insults and contumely of every kind—a form of treatment which increased in virulence day by day, until his persecutors even sought to take his life.

It was on his followers however that the fury of persecution first spent itself. Twice were they compelled to flee for safety across the sea, pursued even then by the hatred of their enemies; many were put to the cruellest tortures, under which some succumbed, as martyrs to the faith they would not abandon; and when at length the cruelty of their persecutors became no longer bearable and a city was found to offer them protection, the Muslims fled to Medina, followed by their Prophet, who only by a stratagem succeeded in escaping with his life. Here their position was by no means free from danger. There was no security of freedom from hostility on the part of the Meccans, who had not hesitated to pursue some Medinite converts and maltreat one they succeeded in capturing. In the city itself they were not altogether among friends. The Jews who inhabited Medina in large numbers, cherished a secret hostility against the new Prophet; and there were many others among the citizens who though now indifferent, would naturally turn against the newcomers, if their arrival brought upon their city an invasion of the Quraysh and threatened it with disaster and ruin. It was therefore needful for the Muslims to be on their guard against any hostile incursion on the part of the Quraysh. Nor could they forget their brethren whom they had been compelled to leave behind in Mecca. The men and women and children who were not able through their weakness to find the means of escape, who left to the mercy of cruel persecutors cried: “Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from Thee one who will protect; and raise for us from Thee one who will help!” ⁴⁰.

Accordingly we find mention of several reconnoitring parties that went out in small numbers to watch the movements of the Quraysh. None of these expeditions, with one exception, resulted in bloodshed, and the hostile parties separated after a mutual interchange of abuse and self-laudation, in accordance with the old Arab custom. But on one occasion (A.H. 2) the Prophet had sent 'Abdullah ibn Jahsh and a party of eight men, with instructions to bring news of the movements of the Quraysh. His written orders were: “When you read this letter, march on and halt at Nakhlah between Mecca and Ta'if; there lie in wait for the Quraysh and bring us news of them”. Ibn Jahsh interpreted his orders in accordance with the impetuous impulses of his own warrior spirit, and returned to Medina with two prisoners and the sack of a caravan. In so doing he had not only acted without authority but had violated the sacred truce which Arab custom caused to be observed throughout the month of pilgrimage. Muhammad received him coldly with the words: “I gave you no command to fight in the sacred month”; dismissed the prisoners, and from his own purse paid blood-money for a Meccan who had lost his life in the fray⁴¹.

The facts of the case clearly show that Muhammad had great difficulty in checking the impetuosity of his Arab followers, with their inborn love of fighting and plunder. The contrast drawn below between the old and the new ideal of life is proof enough of the difficulty of his task, and the frequent admonitions of the Qur'an bear witness to the same. It is failure to realise this fact that has led to the Prophet being accused of a deliberate intention of plundering the caravan of Abu Sufyan and thus forcing the Meccans to fight the battle of Badr. And yet the words of the Qur'an- and this, in the face of the conflicting testimony of Muslim historians, must be and is recognised both European and Asiatic scholars to be the true biography of Muhammad- present to us the Prophet and his followers in antagonism as to what line of action is to be taken in view of an impending attack of the Quraysh. “Just as your Lord ordered you out of your house in truth, even though a party among the believers disliked it, disputing with you concerning the truth after it was made manifest, as if they were being driven to death and they (actually) saw it” ⁴².

The two troops here referred to, were on the one hand a richly laden caravan coming from Syria with an escort of thirty or forty men, under the leadership of Abu Sufyan, and on the other a large army of nearly 1000 men collected by the Quraysh of Mecca, with the ostensible purpose of defending the caravan, which they had been informed it was Muhammad's intention to attack.

Historians have generally assumed this rumour to have been true. But-setting aside the fact that rumours circulated by one party respecting the intentions of an opposing party are the last kind of statements to be accepted as evidence- a consideration of the verses quoted above shows the falsity of such a supposition.

The words of the quranic verse would certainly seem to show that when the dispute arose the Prophet was still in Medina, and had not already marched out to intercept the caravan, as so many historians have maintained, and that some of his followers were unwilling to follow him in his proposed march to resist the attack of the Quraysh. The ground of these persons opposition to the orders of Muhammad was that they felt as if they were being led forth to death and saw it before them. The small handful of men that formed the escort of Abu Sufyan's caravan could never have inspired such fear. Muhammad then must have called upon them to face the invading army of the Quraysh. Had it been his intention to attack the caravan, surely he should have gone northwards from Medina, to intercept it on its way from Syria; and not south toward Badr, which was on the highroad between Mecca and caravan, they would have returned, when on the road they heard of its safe arrival in Mecca; instead of which, they reveal their real purpose by pressing on in the direction of Medina, and exactly in the direction that he would need to take in order to repel the attack of the Quraysh who threatened the city of his protectors caravan.

This is enough to show that the report brought into Mecca that Muhammad was preparing to attack the caravan was quite unfounded. The action of some of his followers might well have given occasion for such a fear, but the Prophet himself must be exonerated from the charge of precipitating the inevitable collision with the Quraysh. Even granting that the receipt of this rumour was the cause of the expedition from Mecca, still its large numbers show that the defence of the caravan was not their main object, but that they had designs upon Medina itself. Muhammad therefore cannot be blamed for advancing to meet them in defence of the city that had given shelter to him and his followers, in order to deliver it from the horrors of a siege, from which Medina, owing to the peculiar character of the city, would necessarily suffer very severely.

If it be further objected that it was inconsistent with his mission as a prophet to intermeddle with affairs of war, it must be remembered that it was no part of his teaching to say: “My kingdom is not of this world”.

It would be beyond the scope of the present work to follow in detail the campaigns of the Prophet, and show how forcible conversion was in no case the aim that any of them had in view. This has already been done with the utmost detail in the work from which the above exposition has been taken; and to this work the reader who desires to pursue this subject further, is referred. It is enough here to have shown that Muhammad when he found himself at the head of a band of armed followers, was not transformed at once, as some would have us believe, from a peaceful preacher into a fanatic, sword in hand, forcing his religion on whomever he could. But, on the contrary, exactly similar efforts were made to preach the faith of Islam and to convert the unbeliving Arabs after the Hijrah, as before in the days of Muhammad’s political weakness; and in the following pages abundant instances of such missionary activity have been collected.

In the midst of the wars and campaigns into which the hostile attitude of the Quraysh had now dragged Muhammad and his companions, there was little opposition and those few individual Meccans who voluntarily made their way to the Prophet. Among the latter was 'Umayr ibn Wahb, who after the battle of Badr came to Medina with the intention of assassinating the Prophet, but was won over to the faith, so that the persecutor became one of the most distinguished of his disciples. In the fourth year of the Hijrah (625 A.D.) an attempt was made to preach Islam to the Banu 'Amir ibn Sa'ah, and at the invitation of the chief of this tribe forty Muslims were sent into Najd, but they were treacherously murdered and two only of the party escaped with their lives.

The successes of the Muslim armies, however, attracted every day members of various tribes, particularly those in the vicinity of Medina, to swell the ranks of the followers of the Prophet; and “the courteous treatment which the deputations of these various clans experienced from the Prophet, his ready attention to their grievances, the wisdom with which he composed their disputes, and the politic assignments of territory by which he rewarded an early declaration in favour of Islam, made his name to be popular, and spread his fame as a great and generous prince throughout the Peninsula”. It not unfrequently happened that one member of a tribe would come to the Prophet in Medina and return home as a missionary of Islam to convert his brethren. We have the following account by an eye-witness of such a conversion in the year 5 A.H.

“One day as we were sitting together in the mosque, a Bedouin came riding up on a camel. He made it kneel down in the courtyard of the mosque and tied it up. Then he came near to us and asked: “Is Muhammad among you?”. We answered: “He is the man with his elbows resting on the cushions”. “Are you the son of Abu al- Muttalib? he asked. “I am,” replied the Prophet. “I trust you wilt take no offence at my asking you some questions.” “Ask whatever you want,” answered the Prophet. Then he said:“I adjure thee by the Lord and the Lord of those who were before you, tell me, has Allah sent you to all men?”. Muhammad answered: “Yes, by Allah”. The other continued: “I adjure those who were before you, tell me, has Allah sent you to all men?” Muhammad answered: “Yes, by Allah”. The other continued: “ I adjure you by Allah, tell me, did He commanded you that men should fast during this month?” Muhammad answered: “Yes, by Allah”. “I adjure you by Allah, did He command you that you should take tithes from the rich, to distribute among the poor?” Muhammad answered again: “Yes, by Allah”. Then said the stranger: “I believe on the revelation you have brought. I am Pimam ibn Tha'labah, and am the messenger of my tribe”. So he returned to his tribe and converted them to Islam” ⁴³.

Another such missionary was 'Amr ibn Murrah, belonging to the tribe of the Banu Juhaynah, who dwelt between Medina and the Red Sea. The date of his conversion was prior to the Hijrah, and he thus describes it: “We had an idol that we worshipped, and I was the guardian of its shrine. When I heard of the Prophet, I broke it in pieces and set off to Muhammad in Mecca, where I accepted Islam and bore witness to the truth, and believed on what Muhammad declared to be allowed and forbidden. And to this my verses refer: I bear witness that God is Truth and that I am the first to abandon the gods of stones, and I have girded up my loins to make my way to you over rough ways and smooth, to join myself to him who in himself and for his ancestry is the noblest of men, the apostle of the Lord whose throne is above the clouds” ⁴⁴.

He was sent by Muhammad to preach Islam to his tribe, and his efforts were crowned with such success that there was only one man who refused to listen to his exhortations.

When the truce of Hudaybiyah (6 A.H.) made friendly relations with the people of Mecca possible, many persons of that city, who had had the opportunity of listening to the teaching of Muhammad in the early days of his mission, and among them some men of great influence, came out to Medina, to embrace the faith of Islam.

The continual warfare carried on with the people of Mecca had hitherto kept the tribes to the south of that city almost entirely outside the influence of the new religion. But this truce now made communications with southern Arabia possible, and a small band from the tribe of the Banu Daws came from the mountains that form the northern boundary of Yaman, and joined themselves to the Prophet in Medina.

Even before the appearance of Muhammad, there were some members of this tribe who had had glimmerings of a higher religion than the idolatry prevailing around them, and argued that the world must have had a creator though they knew not who he was; and when Muhammad came forward as the Apostle of this Creator, one of these men, by name Tufayl, came to Mecca to learn who the creator was. He recited to Muhammad some of his own poems; whereupon the Prophet repeated the three last Surahs of the Qur'an, and finally won him over to Islam. He then laid on the new convert the task of returning to his own people and of preaching to them Islam.

At first, Tufayl met with but little success, and few persons were persuaded except his father, his wife, and some of his friends who had before sympathized with him in his search after religious truth. Disheartened at the ill-success of his mission, he returned to the Prophet, and said: “The Banu Daws are a stiff-necked people; let your curse fall upon them”. But Muhammad prayed: “O God, guide the Banu Daws into the true path”, and sent Tufayl back again to commence anew his missionary labours.

One of his friends now assisted him in his efforts, and they went from house to house, preaching the faith, and by A.H. 6 they succeeded in converting a great part of the tribe⁴⁵. Two years later, the whole tribe abandoned their idolatrous beliefs, and united themselves to the Muslims, while Tufayl set fire to the block of wood that had hitherto been venerated as the idol of the tribe.

In A.H. 7, fifteen more tribes submitted to the Prophet, and after the surrender of Mecca in A.H. 8, the ascendancy of Islam was assured, and those Arabs who had held aloof, saying: “Let Muhammad and his fellow-tribesmen fight it out; if he is victorious, then is he a genuine prophet”, now hastened to give in their allegiance to the new religion. Among those who came in after the fall of Mecca, were some of the most bitter persecutors of Muhammad in the earlier days of his mission, to whom his noble forbearance and forgiveness now gave a place in the brotherhood of Islam. This same year witnessed the martyrdom of 'Urwah ibn Mas'ud, one of the principal chiefs of the people of Ta'if,

which city the Muslims had unsuccessfully attempted to capture. He had been absent at that time in Yaman, and returned from his journey shortly after the raising of the siege. He had met the Prophet two years before at Hudaybiyah, and had conceived a profound veneration for him, and now came to Medina to embrace the new faith. In the ardour of his zeal he offered to go to Ta'if to convert his fellow countrymen, and in spite of the efforts of Muhammad to dissuade him from so dangerous an undertaking, he returned to his native city, publicly declared that he had renounced idolatry, and called upon the people to follow his example. While he was preaching, he was mortally wounded by an arrow, and died giving thanks to God for having granted him the glory of martyrdom⁴⁶.

A more successful missionary effort was made by another follower of the Prophet in Yaman -probably a year later- of which we have the following graphic account: “The apostle of God wrote to Al Harith and Masruh, and Nu'aym ibn 'Abdi Kulal of Himyar: “Peace be upon you so long as ye believe on God and His apostle. God is one God, there is no partner with Him. He sent Moses with his signs, and created Jesus with his words. The Jews say: “ Ezra is the Son of God,”; the Christians say: “God is one of three, and Jesus is the Son of God.” He sent the letter by 'Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ati al-Makhzumi, and said: “When you reach their city, go not in by night, but wait until the morning; then carefully perform your ablutions, and pray with two prostrations, and ask God to bless you with success and a friendly reception, and to keep you safe from harm. Then take my letter in your right hand, and deliver it with your right hand into their right hands, and they will receive it. And recite to them “The unbelievers among the people of the Book and the polytheists did not waver,” ⁴⁷ to the end of the Surah; when you have finished, say: ‘Muhammad has believed and I am the first to believe’. And you will be able to meet every objection they bring against you, and every glittering book that they recite to you will lose its light. And when they speak in a foreign tongue, say: “Translate it,” and say to them, “God is sufficient for me; I believe in the Book sent down by Him, and I am commanded to do justice among you. God is our Lord and your Lord; to us belong our works, and to you belong your works; there is no strife between us and you. God will unite us, and unto Him we must return’. If they now accept Islam, then ask them for their three rods, before which they gather together to pray, one rod of tamarisk that is spotted white and yellow, and one knotted like cane, and one black like ebony. Bring the rods out and burn them in the market-place”. So I set out - tells Ayyash- to do as the Apostle of God had bid me. When I arrived, I found that all the people had decked themselves out for a festival. I walked on to see them, and came at last to three enormous curtains hung in front of three doorways. I lifted the curtain and entered the middle door, and found people collected in the courtyard of the building. I introduced myself to them as the messenger of the Apostle of God, and did as he had bidden me; and they gave heed to my words, and it fell out as he had said” ⁴⁷.

In A.H. 9, a less successful attempt was made by a new convert, Wathilah ibn al-Asqa, to induce his clan to accept the faith that he himself had embraced after an interview with the Prophet. His father scornfully cast him off, saying: “By God! I will never speak a word to you again” and none were found willing to believe the doctrines he preached with the exception of his sister, who provided him with the means of returning to the Prophet at Medina⁴⁸.

This ninth year of the Hijrah has been called the Year of the Deputations, because of the enormous number of Arab tribes and cities that now sent delegates to the Prophet, to give in their submission. The introduction into Arab society of a new principle of social union in the brotherhood of Islam had already begun to weaken the binding force of the old tribal ideal, that erected the fabric of society on the basis of blood-relationship. The conversion of an individual and his reception into the new society was a breach of one of the most fundamental laws of Arab life, and its frequent occurrence had acted as a powerful solven on tribal organisation and had left it weak in the face of a national life so enthusiastic and firmly-knit as that of the Muslims had become. The Arab tribes were thus impelled to give in their submission to the Prophet, not merely as the head of the strongest military force in Arabia, but as the exponent of a theory of social life that was making all others weak and ineffective. In this way, Islam was uniting together clans that hitherto had been continually at feud with one another, and as this great confederacy grew, it more and more attracted to itself the weaker among the tribes of Arabia. “Woe is me for Muhammad!” was the cry of one of the Arab tribes on the news of the death of the Prophet. “So long as he was alive, I lived in peace and in safety from my enemies”. The cry must have found an echo far and wide throughout Arabia.

How superficial was the adherence of numbers of the Arab tribes to the faith of Islam may be judged from the widespread apostacy that followed immediately on the death of the Prophet. Their acceptance of Islam would seem to have been often dictated more by considerations of political expediency, and was more frequently a bargain struck under pressure of violence than the outcome of any enthusiasm or spiritual awakening. They allowed themselves to be swept into the stream of what had now become a great national movement, and we miss the fervent zeal of the early converts in the cool, calculating attitude of those who came in after the fall of Mecca.

But even from among these must have come many to swell the ranks of the true believers animated with a genuine zeal for the faith, and ready, as we have seen, to give their lives in the effort to preach it to their brethren. But for such men as these, so vast a movement could not have held together, much less have recovered the shock given it by the death of the founder. For it must not be forgotten how distinctly Islam was a new movement in heathen Arabia, and how diametrically opposed were the ideals of the two societies. For the introduction of Islam into Arab society did not imply merely the sweeping away of a few barbarous and inhuman practices, but a complete reversal of the pre-existing ideals of life. Herein we have the most conclusive proof of the essentially missionary character of the teaching of Muhammad, who thus comes forward as the exponent of a new scheme of faith and practice. Auguste Comte has laid down the distinction between the genius that originates a movement, and the energy of whose spirits keeps it alive, and the man that is merely the mouthpiece of the aspirations and feelings of his generation: “Sometimes the individual comes first, fixes his mind on a determinate purpose, and then gathers to himself the various partial forces that are necessary to achieve it. More often in the case of great social movements, there is a spontaneous convergence of many particular tendencies, till, finally, the individual appears who gives them a common centre, and binds them into one whole” ⁴⁹.

Now it has frequently been contended that Muhammad belongs to the latter class, and just as Positivism has tried to put forward St. Paul in place of Jesus as the founder of Christianity, so some look upon Umar as the energising spirit in the early history of Islam, and would represent Muhammad merely as the mouthpiece of a popular movement. Now this could only have been possible on condition that Muhammad had found a state of society prepared to receive his teaching and waiting only for the voice that would express in speech the inarticulate yearnings of their hearts. But it is just this spirit of expectancy that is wanting among the Arabs-those at least of Central Arabia, towards whom Muhammad's efforts were at first directed. They were by no means ready to receive the preaching of a new teacher, least of all one who came with the (to them unintelligible) title of apostle of God.

Again, the equality in Islam of all believers and the common brotherhood of all Muslims, which suffered no distinctions between Arab and non-Arab, between free and slave, to exist among the faithful, was an idea that ran directly counter to the proud clanfeeling of the Arab, who grounded his claims to personal consideration on the fame of his ancestors, and in the strength of the same carried on the endless blood-feuds in which his soul delighted. Indeed, the fundamental principles in the teaching of Muhammad were a protest against much that the Arabs had hitherto most highly valued, and the newly-converted Muslim was taught to consider as virtues, qualities which hitherto he had looked down upon with contempt. To the heathen Arab, friendship and hostility were as a loan which he sought to repay with interest, and he prided himself on returning evil for evil, and looked down on any who acted otherwise as a weak nitherling. He is the perfect man who late and early plotteth still to do a kindness to his friends and work his foes some ill.

To such men the Prophet said: “Repel evil with that which is best. We are well-acquainted with the things they say” ⁵⁰; “Let not those among you who are endued with grace and amplitude of means resolve by oath against helping their kinsmen, those in want, and those who left their home in Allah’s cause. Let them forgive and overlook. Do you not wish that Allah should forgive you? For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful” ⁵¹.

The very institution of prayer was jeered at by the Arabs to whom Muhammad first delivered his message, and one of the hardest parts of his task was to induce in them that pious attitude of mind towards the Creator, which Islam inculcates equally with Judaism and Christianity, but which was practically unknown to the heathen Arabs. This self-sufficiency and this lack of the religious spirit, joined with their intense pride of race, little fitted them to receive the teachings of one who maintained that: “The most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well-acquainted (with all things)” ⁵².

No more could they brook the restrictions that Islam sought to lay upon the license of their lives. Wine, women, and song were among the things most dear to the Arab's heart in the days of the ignorance, and the Prophet was stern and severe in his injunctions respecting each of them. Thus, from the very beginning, Islam bears the stamp of a missionary religion that seeks to win the hearts of men, to convert them and persuade them to enter the brotherhood of the faithful; and as it was in the beginning, so has it continued to be up to the present day, as will be the object of the following pages to show.

Notes on Chapter I

1-Bukhari.

2-Ibn Ishaq, 119.

3-Bukhari.

4- Ibn Ishaq, 155.

5-

6- Ibn Ishaq, 118.

7- Ibn Ishaq, 119.

8- Ibn Ishaq, 119

9- Ibn Ishaq, 144.

10-Ibn Ishaq, 151.

11- Ibn Ishaq, 156-157.

12-Versetto Coranico.

13-Ibn Ishaq, 197-198.

14-Ibn Ishaq, 199.

15-Ibn Ishaq 200-201.

16-Ibn Ishaq,

17-Ibn Ishaq, 203.

18-Ibn Ishaq, 213.

19-Ibn Ishaq.

20-The Holy Quran 43:3.

21-The Holy Quran 42:7.

22-The Holy Quran 41:44.

23-The Holy Quran 39:28.

24-The Holy Quran 26:192.

25-The Holy Quran 19:97.

26-

27-The Holy Quran 38:87.

28-The Holy Quran 37: 69-70.

29-The Holy Quran 41:9.

30-The Holy Quran 16:84.

31-Ibn Sa‘d 10.

32-The Holy Quran 2:213.

33-The Holy Quran 46:9.

34-The Holy Quran 16:123.

35-The Holy Quran 3:95.

36-The Holy Quran 4:125.

37-Kremer (A. von): Geschichte der Herrschenden ideen des Islam (Leipzig 1868), 309-310.

38- Kremer (A. von): Geschichte der Herrschenden ideen des Islam (Leipzig 1868), 309-310.

39-The Holy Quran 18:110.

40-The Holy Quran 4:96.

41-Ibn Ishaq 287-288.

42-The Holy Quran 16:93-96.

43-Sprenger (A.): Das leben und die Lehre des Mohammad (Berlin 1861), 202-203.

44- Ibn Sa’d 118.

45- Ibn Ishaq, 175-177.

46- Ibn Ishaq,

47- Ibn Sa’d 56.

48- Ibn Sa’d 91.

49- Caird (E.): The Social Philosophy of Comte (Glasgow 1885), 42-43.

50- The Holy Quran 23:96.

51- The Holy Quran 24:22.

52- The Holy Quran 49:13.