Salam (Peace) - Part 8

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Salam (Peace) - Part 8

 

(p.194) On his last evening in the city, Muhammad enjoyed another family reunion

when his uncle 'Abbas, who still adhered to the old religion, was allowed to

enter the city to visit his nephew and offer him the hand of his sister

Maymunah, who had been recently widowed. Muhammad accepted, doubtless hoping to

entice 'Abbas himself into Islam, and mischievously sent word to the Quraysh to

invite them to the wedding. This was pushing things too far, and Suhayl came

down to inform Muhammad that his three days were up and he should leave

immediately. Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah, a chief of Khazraj who was with the Prophet at

the time, was furious at this apparent discourtesy, but Muhammad quickly

silenced him: " O Sa'd, no ill words to those who have come to visit us in our

camp. " [36] To the astonishment of the Quraysh, the entire pilgrim throng left

the city that night in good order. There were no loud protests, no attempt to

repossess their old homes. In their peaceful withdrawal, the Muslims showed the

confidence of those who expected a speedy return.

 

(p.195) The story of this strange pilgrimage spread rapidly, and more and more

of the Bedouin came to Medina to become Muhammad's confederates. Of even greater

significance was the steady stream of the younger generation of the Quraysh who

converted to Islam. At Hudaybiyyah, Muhammad had promised to return new converts

to Mecca, but he had been able to find a loophole that enabled him to overcome

this condition on a technicality. First, the treaty had said nothing about the

handing back of women converts, so shortly after Hudaybiyyah, Muhammad had

received 'Uthman's half-sister into the ummah and allowed her to remain. He did,

however, return Abu Basir, an impetuous young man, and dispatched him to Mecca

with a Qurayshan envoy. But during the journey, Abu Basir killed his escort, and

when Muhammad sent him away again, set up camp on the Red Sea coast near the

trade route, where he was joined by seventy other young Meccan malcontents.

These would-be Muslims became highwaymen, attacking every single Meccan caravan

that came within their range, and the Quraysh discovered that the economic

blockade had been partially reinstated. Eventually they were forced to beg

Muhammad to admit the young men into Medina and to make them abide by the

treaty.

 

So the ban on accepting converts became a dead letter, and in 629 a steady

stream of new Muslims arrived in Medina. They included the young warriors 'Amr

ibn al-'As and Khalid ibn al-Walid, who had been convinced by Muhammad's

success. " The way has become clear, " Khalid said, " the man is certainly a

prophet. " [37] (p.196) He was afraid of reprisals, since he and 'Amr had both

killed many Muslims at the battles of Uhud and the Trench, but Muhammad assured

them that the act of islam wiped out old debts and represented an entirely new

start.

 

In this year of political triumph, Muhammad had a private joy. None of the women

he had married in Medina had borne him any children, but the governor of

Alexandria in Egypt had sent him a beautiful, curly-haired slave girl as a gift.

Maryam was a Christian and did not wish to convert to Islam, but she became

Muhammad's 'saraya', a wife who retained the status of a slave but whose

children would be free. Muhammad grew very fond of her, and was overjoyed when

at the end of 629 she became pregnant. He named their son Ibrahim, and loved

carrying him around Medina, inviting all passers-by to praise the baby's

beautiful complexion and his likeness to himself. However, sorrow came along

with joy. Muhammad's daughter Zaynab had died shortly after he made the Lesser

Pilgrimage, and later that year he lost two members of his family in a

disastrous expedition to the Syrian border. We know very little about this

ill-fated campaign. Muhammad may have wanted to bring the Christian Arab tribes

there into the ummah as confederates, on the same basis as the Jewish tribes of

Khaybar. At all events, he dispatched Zayd and his cousin Ja'far to the north at

the head of an army of three thousand men. At the village of Mu'tah near the

Dead Sea the Muslims were attacked by a detachment of Byzantines. Zayd, Ja'far,

and ten other Muslims were killed and Khalid, who had also accompanied the

expedition, decided to bring the troops home.

 

(p.197) When Muhammad heard the news, he went directly to Ja'far's house,

distraught to think that he had brought his dear cousin home to his death.

Asma', Ja'far's wife, was baking bread, and as soon as she saw the expression on

Muhammad's face, she knew that something terrible had happened. Muhammad asked

to see their two sons, knelt down beside the little boys, hugged them close and

wept. Immediately Asma' began to lament in the traditional Arab way, the women

hurried to her, and Muhammad asked them to make sure to bring the family food

during the next few days. As he walked through the streets to the mosque, Zayd's

little girl ran out of their house and threw herself into his arms. Muhammad

picked her up and stood there in the street, rocking her and weeping

convulsively.

 

The defeat at Mu'tah had further jeopardized Muhammad's position in Medina. When

Khalid brought the army home, he and his men were booed and hissed, and Muhammad

had to take Khalid under his personal protection. But in November 629, the

situation in Arabia changed dramatically: the Quraysh broke the treaty of

Hudaybiyyah. Aided and abetted by some of the Quraysh, the tribe of Bakr, one of

their Bedouin allies, made a surprise attack on the tribe of Khuza'ah, which had

joined Muhammad's confederacy. Khuza'ah promptly asked Muhammad for help and the

Quraysh woke up to the fact that they had given Muhammad a perfect excuse to

attack Mecca. Safwan and 'Ikrimah remained defiant, but Suhayl was beginning to

have second thoughts. Abu Sufyan, however, went further and arrived in Medina on

a peace initiative.

 

At this point, Abu Sufyan had no desire to convert to Islam, but he had realized

for some time that the tide had turned in favor of Muhammad and that the Quraysh

must try to get the best deal they could. (p.198) In Medina he visited his

daughter Umm Habibah, and sat in conference with some of Muhammad's closest

companions, trying to find a way of distancing himself from the dispute. Then he

returned to Mecca, where he tried to prepare his fellow-tribesmen to accept the

inevitable. After his departure, Muhammad began to plan a new campaign.

 

On 10 Ramadan (January 630), Muhammad set out at the head of the largest force

ever to leave Medina. Nearly all the men in the ummah had volunteered and along

the road their Bedouin allies joined forces with the Muslims, bringing the

numbers up to ten thousand men. For security reasons, the destination of the

expedition remained secret, but there was naturally a good deal of excited

speculation. Certainly Mecca was a possibility, but Muhammad could just as

easily have been heading for Ta'if, which was still implacably hostile to Islam,

so the southern tribe of Hawazin started to assemble a massive army there. In

Mecca, the Qurayshan leaders feared the worst. 'Abbas, Abu Sufyan, and Budayl,

chief of Khuza'ah, all made their way under cover of night to the Muslim camp.

There Muhammad received them and asked Abu Sufyan if he was ready to accept

Islam. Abu Sufyan replied that even though he now believed that Allah was the

only God--the idols had proved to be useless--he still had doubts about

Muhammad's prophethood. But he was shocked and impressed when he watched all the

members of the massive army prostrating themselves in the direction of Mecca

during the morning prayer, and when he saw the various tribes marching past on

their way to the city, he knew that the Quraysh must surrender.

 

(p.199) He hurried back to Mecca and summoned the people by crying at the top of

his voice: " O Quraysh, this is Muhammad who has come to you with a force you

cannot resist! " He then offered them an option that had been suggested to him by

'Ali during his visit to Medina. Anybody who wanted to surrender should put

himself under his personal protection: Muhammad had agreed to honor this. They

should either take sanctuary in his home or remain in their own houses. Hind,

his wife, was beside herself with rage; seizing him by his moustaches, she

yelled to the townspeople: " Kill this fat greasy bladder of lard! What a rotten

protector of his people! " But Abu Sufyan begged them not to listen. He described

what he had seen in the Muslim camp. The time for such defence was over. His

grim sobriety impressed most of the Quraysh. Pragmatic to the last, they

barricaded themselves into their houses as a token of surrender.

 

Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

Chapter 5, 'Salam', p. 194-198

Karen Armstrong

Harper Perennial - London, New York, Toronto and Sydney

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

ISBN-10 0-00-723248-9

 

Note:

 

[36] Lings, 'Muhammad' 282.

 

[37] Ibn Ishaq, 'Sirat Rasul Allah', 717, in Guillaume, 'Life of Muhammad'.