Salam (Peace) - Part 7

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('Salam' - Peace; often used by Muslims as a greeting. [Muhammad Prophet For Our

Time Glossary pg. 218].)

 

 

Salam - Part 7

 

 

(p.191) Hudaybiyyah may have improved the position of Islam in the peninsula as

a whole, but, like other recent advances, it did little for Muhammad's standing

in Medina. Many of the pilgrims--Helpers and Emigrants alike--continued to feel

cheated and resentful. How, the Emigrants asked, were they supposed to earn a

living if they could no longer attack the Meccan caravans? Muhammad knew that he

could not allow this discontent to fester; somehow he had to find a way of

compensating them without damaging the truce, so after Hudaybiyyah, he directed

the Muslims' attention to the north, away from Mecca. Khaybar--the new home of

the exiled Jewish tribe of Nadir--was still a danger. The leaders of the

settlement continued to stir up hostility to Muhammad among the northern tribes,

so shortly after his return from Hudaybiyyah, he set off to besiege the city

with an army of six hundred men. When the Quraysh heard the news, they were

jubilant, certain that the Muslims would be defeated. Surrounded, like Medina,

with plains of volcanic rock and defended by seven large fortresses, Khaybar was

thought to be impregnable. (p.192) But the Muslims were able to benefit from the

internal strife that signalled the decline of the tribal spirit in Khaybar, as

it had in Medina. Each of the tribes of Khaybar was autonomous, and they found

it impossible to cooperate effectively during the siege. To add to their

troubles, the tribes of Ghatafan, whose support they had been expecting, failed

to show up, so after a month the Jewish elders asked for peace and became

vassals of Medina. To seal the agreement, Muhammad took the daughter of his old

enemy Huyay, chief of Nadir, as his wife. The beautiful seventeen-year-old

Safiyyah was happy to enter Islam, and Muhammad gave stern orders that there

were to be no unkind remarks about her father, who had died during the siege. He

told Safiyyah that if any of his other wives taunted her about her Jewish

ancestry, she should reply: " My father is Aaron and my uncle is Moses. " [35] The

marriage expressed the attitude of reconciliation and forgiveness that he was

trying to promote; it was time to lay aside the hatred and bloodshed of the

past.

 

On his return from Khaybar, Muhammad enjoyed a joyful family reunion. After

Hudabiyyah, he had sent a message to the Muslim exiles still resident in

Abyssinia, inviting them to return now that the situation in Arabia had

improved, and when he returned home, his cousin Ja'far, Abu Talib's son, whom he

had not seen for thirteen years, was waiting for him in Medina. He also greeted

yet another new wife. Earlier that year, he had learned that his cousin

'Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh had died in Abyssinia, and decided to marry his wife

Ramlah, usually known by her kunya [honorary title], Umm Habibah. The ceremony

was performed by proxy before the Negus, and an apartment had already been

prepared for her in the mosque. (p.193) This was another shrewd political move,

because Umm Habibah was the daughter of Abu Sufyan.

 

The rest of the year was spent in routine raiding, some of which was undertaken

at the request of his new Jewish allies in the north. Then in March 629, the

month of the hajj, it was time for Muhammad to lead another pilgrimage to the

Kabah. This time 2,600 pilgrims accompanied him, and as they approached the

sanctuary, the Quraysh evacuated the city, as they had agreed. The Qurayshan

elders watched the arrival of Muhammad from the top of a nearby mountain. The

sound of the Muslims loudly announcing their presence with the traditional cry:

" Here I am, O Allah! Here I am! " must have echoed through the valleys and empty

streets of the city like a cruel taunt. But they must also have been impressed

by the discipline of the Muslims. There were no scenes of unbridled joy or

unseemly celebrations; no jeering at the Quraysh. Instead, the huge crowd of

pilgrims filed slowly and solemnly into the city, led by Muhammad, who as usual

was mounted on Qaswa' [Muhammad's favorite camel]. When he reached the Kabah, he

dismounted and kissed the Black Stone, embracing it, and then proceeded to make

the circumambulations, followed by the entire pilgrim body. It was a strange

homecoming. The Emigrants must have felt highly emotional about their return,

and yet, although the city was a ghost town, they were not free to do as they

pleased. It had been settled at Hudaybiyyah that this year the Muslims could

only make the Lesser Pilgrimage, the umrah, which did not include a visit to

Mount 'Arafat and the valley of Mina.

 

In temporary exile from their city, the Quraysh had to watch--no doubt

appalled--as Bilal, a former slave, climbed onto the roof of the Kabah and

summoned the Muslims to prayer. Three times a day, his huge voice reverberated

through the valley, urging all within earshot to come to salat [worship] with

the cry " Allahu Akhbar, " reminding them that Allah was " greater " than all the

idols in the Haram, who could do nothing to prevent this ritual humiliation. It

was an immense triumph for Muhammad, and many of the younger Quraysh became even

more convinced that the old religion was doomed.

 

Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

Chapter 5, 'Salam', p. 191-194

Karen Armstrong

Harper Perennial - London, New York, Toronto and Sydney

ISBN-13 978-0-00-723248-2

ISBN-10 0-00-723248-9

 

Note:

 

[35] Ibn Sa'd, 'Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir', 7:147, in Lings, 'Muhammad', 271.