SEVERANCE
"Do you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza and Manat the third idol beside?
These are the exalted females, and truly their intercession is to be
expected."--_The Kuran_ (last two lines excised later by Mahomet).
The little band of converts, driven by the Kureisch to seek peace and
freedom in Abyssinia, remained for two years in their country of refuge,
but in 615 returned to Mecca for reasons which have never been fully
explained, though it is easy, in the light of future events, to discover
the motive behind such a move.
Mahomet was not yet convinced of the impossibility of compromise, neither
was the powerful party among the Kureisch utterly indifferent to
Mahomet's ancestry as a member of the house of Hashim, and his position
as the husband of Khadijah. He had been respected among men for his
uprightness before he affronted their prejudices by scorning their gods.
His power was daily becoming a source of strife and faction within the
city, and the Kureisch were not averse from attempting to come to terms.
Mahomet for his part, as far as the scanty evidence of history unfolds
his state of mind, seems to have been almost desperately anxious to
effect an understanding with the Kureisch. His cause still journeyed by
perilous ways, and at the time hopes of his future achievement were
apparently dependent upon the goodwill of the dominant Meccan party.
The story runs that the chief men of Mecca were discussing within the
Kaaba the affairs of the city. Mahomet came to them and recited Sura
liii--The Star--a fulgent psalm in praise of God and heavenly joys. When
he came to the verses:
"Do you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza and Manat the third beside," he inserted:
"Verily these are the exalted females, and truly their intercession may
be expected."
They Kureisch were rejoiced at this homage to their deities, and
speedily welcomed Mahomet's change of front; but he, disquieted,
returned moodily to his house, where Gabriel appeared to him in
stern rebuke:
"Thou hast repeated before the people words I never gave to thee."
And Mahomet, whether conscience-stricken by his lapse from the Muslim
faith, or convinced that compromise with the Kureisch was impossible and
also undesirable in face of his growing power, quickly repudiated the
whole affair, which had been unquestionably born of impulse, or possibly
an adventurous mood that prompted him "to see what would happen" if he
ministered to the prejudices of the Kureisch. It must be acknowledged,
however, that repentance for his homage to heathen idols was the
mainspring of his recantation, for the period immediately following was
one of hardship and persecution for him, and his transitory lapse injured
his cause appreciably with the brethren of his faith. The attempt was
honourably made, and only failed by Mahomet's swift realisation that his
acknowledgment of Lat and Ozza as spirits sanctioned the worship of their
images by his fellow-citizens, and this his stern monotheism could not
for a moment entertain.
The Muslim, with numbers that increased very slowly, were harried afresh
by the Kureisch as soon as Mahomet had withdrawn his concessions, and
most of them were forced at length to return to Abyssinia. His pathetic
little band, wandering from city to city, doubtful of ever attaining
security and uncertain of its ultimate destiny, was the prototype in its
vagrancy of that larger and confident band which cast aside its
traditions and the city of its birth, headed by a spirit heroic in
disaster and supreme in faith, to find its goal in the foundation of a
new order for Arabia. Chief among them were Othman and Rockeya, and these
were the only ones who returned to Mecca, for the rest remained in
Abyssinia until after the migration to Medina, in fact until after
Mahomet had carried out the expedition to Kheibar.
Left without any supporters within the city, Mahomet was exposed to all
the vituperations and insults which his recent refusal of compromise had
brought him. The Kureisch now directed all their energies towards
persuading Abu Talib to repudiate his nephew. If once this could be
effected, the Kureisch would have a free hand to pursue their desire to
exterminate the Muslim and to overthrow the Prophet's power. He was
immune from bodily attack, chiefly because of Abu Talib's position in the
city as nominal head of the house of Hashim. No Kureisch could run the
risk of alienating so great a number of fellow-citizens, and a personal
attack upon Abu Talib's nephew could but have that result.
Dark and stormy as the Muslim destiny appeared during this period of
transition from religious to political conceptions, nevertheless it was
now enriched by the conversion of two of the most influential characters
upon its later fortunes--Hamza and Omar. Many stories have been woven
round their discovery of the truth of Islam, and by reading between the
lines later commentators may discover the forces at work to induce
them to take this dubious step. It is beyond question that Mahomet's
personality was the moving factor in the conversion of each, for each
relates an incident which serves peculiarly to illustrate the Prophet's
magnetism.
Hamza, "the lion of God," and a son of Abd-al-Muttalib in his old age,
was accosted by a slave girl as he passed on his way through the city
She told him breathlessly that she had seen "the Lord Mahomet" insulted
and reviled by Abu Jahl, and being unprotected and alone, he could only
suffer in silence. Hamza listened to her story with indignation, and
determined to revenge the insult to his uncle and foster-brother, for by
the ties of kinship they were one. In the Kaaba he publicly declared his
allegiance to Islam, and revenged upon Abu Jahl the injuries he had
inflicted upon his kinsman. Hamza never repented of his championship of
Mahomet. The adventurous fortunes of Islam satisfied his warrior-spirit,
and under Mahomet's guidance he helped to control and direct its military
zeal, until it had perforce established its religion through the sword.
Mahomet's personal magnetism had drawn him irresistibly to the religion
he upheld so steadfastly, and in the face of revilement and danger.
Omar was Mahomet's bitterest enemy, and had proved his ability by his
persistent opposition to Islam. He was feared by all the company of
religionists that had taken up their precarious quarters near Mahomet. He
was visiting the house of his sister Fatima when he heard murmurs of
someone reciting. He inquired what it was, and learned with anger that it
was the Sacred Book of the abhorred Muslim sect. His sister and Zeid, her
husband, tremblingly confessed their adherence to Islam, and awaited in
terror the probable result. Omar was about to fall upon Zeid, but his
wife interposed and received the blow herself. At the sight of his
sister's blood Omar paused and then asked for the volume, so that he
might judge the message for himself, for he was a writer of no mean
standing. Fatima insisted that he should first perform ablutions, so that
his touch might not defile the Sacred Book.
Then Omar took it and read it, and the strength and beauty of it smote
him. He felt upon him the insistence of a divine command, and straightway
asked to be led before Mahomet that he might unburden his conviction to
him. He girt on his sword and came to the Prophet's house. As he rapped
upon the door a Companion of Mahomet's looked through the lattice, and at
the sight of Omar with buckled sword fled in despair to his master. But
Mahomet replied:
"Let him enter; if he bring good tidings we will reward him; if he bring
bad news, we will smite him, yea, with his own sword."
So the door was opened and Mahomet advanced, asking what was his mission.
Omar answered:
"O Prophet of God, I am come to confess that I believe in Allah and in
his Prophet."
"Allah Akbar!" (God is great) replied Mahomet gravely, and all the
household knew that Omar had become one of themselves.
The conversion of Omar was infinitely important to Islam, and the
adherence of this impetuous and dauntless mind was directly due to the
strength and steadfastness of Mahomet's faith in himself and his message.
Omar was an influential personage among the Kureisch, quick-tempered, but
keen as steel, and rejoicing in strife; he stands out among the many
warrior-souls to whom Islam gave the opportunity of tasting in its
fullness "the splendour of spears." Mahomet had indeed gathered around
him a group of men who were remarkable for their character and influence
upon Islam. Ali, the warrior par excellence, Abu Bekr, statesman and
counsellor, Othman the soldier, Hamza and Omar, are not merely blind
followers, but forceful personalities, contributing each in his own
manner towards those assets of endurance, leadership, and unshaken faith
which ensured the continuance of the Medinan colony and its ultimate
victory over the Kureisch.
Omar's conversion did not have the effect of softening the Kureischite
fury. On the contrary, the event seems to have stimulated them to
further persecution, as if they had some foreshadowings of their waning
power, and had determined with a desperate energy to quell for ever, if
it might be, this discord in their midst. Their next step was to try an
introduce the political element into this conflict of faiths by putting a
ban upon the house of Hashim and confining it to Abu Talib's quarter of
Sheb. This act, instigated mainly by Abu Jahl, who now becomes prominent
as the most terrible of Mahomet's persecutors, had a very notable effect
upon his position as well as upon the qualities of the cause for which
his party was contending.
For the first time the political aspect of Islam obtrudes itself.
Mahomet's followers are now not only the opponents of the Kureischite
faith and the enemies of their idols, but they are also their political
foes, and have drawn the whole house of Hashim into faction against the
ruling power--the Omeyyad house. Moreover, Mahomet and his companions,
now shut up and almost besieged within a definite quarter of the city,
were precluded from all attempts to spread their faith. Mahomet had
secured his little company of followers, but cut off from the rest of the
city his cause remained stationary, neither gaining nor losing adherents,
during the years 617-619.
The suras of this period show some of the discouragement he felt at the
time, but through them all beats a note of endurance and confidence:
God is continually behind his cause, therefore that cause will prevail
against all obstacles. Mahomet has become more familiar with the Jewish
Scriptures, and many of the suras are recapitulations of the lives of
Jewish heroes, especial preference being given to Abraham as mythical
founder of his race, and to Lot as the typical example of one righteous
man sent to warn the iniquitous. The style has certainly matured, and in
so doing has lost much of its primal fire. It is still stirring and
vibrant, but passages of almost bald narrative are interposed, shadows
upon the shining floor of his original zeal. He has become increasingly
reiterative, too,--a quality easily attained by those who have but
one message, in this case a message of warning and exhortation, and
are feverishly anxious to brand its urgency upon the hearts of their
fellow-men.
Confined within so limited an area, his energy recoiled upon itself, and
the despondency that so easily besets men of action when that necessity
is denied them, overcame his mind. Only at the yearly pilgrimage was he
able to gain a hearing from his Meccan brethren, and then, says the
chronicler bitterly, "none would believe." The Hashim could not trade or
intermarry with any outside their clan, and there seemed no chance of
circumstances removing their disabilities. Mahomet's hopes of embracing
all Mecca in his faith wavered and fled, until it seemed as if Allah no
longer protected his chosen.
But after two years of negation and impotence, an end to the persecution
of the Muslim was in sight, and in 619 the ban was removed. Legend has it
that when the chiefs of the Kaaba went to look upon the document they
found it devoured by ants, and took this as a sign of the displeasure of
their gods. The ban was thus removed by supernatural agency when its
prolongation would have meant final disaster for Mahomet. In the light of
later knowledge it is evident that the removal of the ban was the result
of the exertions of Abu Talib, and it was owing to his high reputation
among the Kureisch that they pardoned his turbulent and blasphemous
nephew. At the end of two years also, the Muslim were considerably
weakened, both in staying powers and reputation. They were now allowed to
go freely in the city, and the immediate prospect seemed certainly
brighter for Mahomet when there fell the greatest blow that could have
afflicted his sensitive spirit.
Khadijah, his companion and sustainer through so many troublous years,
died in 619, having borne with him all his revilings and discouragements,
his source of strength even when there appeared no prospect of the
abatement of his hardships, much less for the success of his cause.
Mahomet's grief was too profound for the passing shadow of it even to
darken the pages of the Kuran. He paid her the compliment of silence; but
her memory was continually with him, even when he had taken many fairer
women to wife. Ayesha, in all the insolence of beauty, scoffed at
Khadijah's age and lack of comeliness:
"Am I not dearer to thee than she was?"
"No, by Allah!" cried Mahomet; "for she believed when no one else
believed."
It was her strength of character and sweetness of mind that impelled him
to utter the amazing words--amazing for his time and environment,
seventh-century Arabia--"women are the twin-halves of men."
But fortune or Allah had not finished the "strong affliction" whereby
Mahomet was forced to cast off from his moorings and venture into strange
and perilous seas. Five weeks after the death of his wife came the death
of his uncle, Abu Talib. If the first had been a catastrophe affecting
his courage and quietude of mind, this was calculated to crush both
himself and his companions. Abu Talib was well loved by Mahomet, who
manifested throughout his life the strongest capacity for friendship. But
more important than the personal grief was the loss of the one man whose
efforts bridged over the widening gulf between himself and the Kureisch.
As such, his death was irreparable damage to Mahomet's safety from their
hostilities.
Abu Lahab, it is true, touched a little by the sorrows crowding so
thickly upon his nephew, protected him for a time, but very soon withdrew
his support and joined the opposition. Ranged against Abu Lahab and Abu
Jahl, with their influential following, and lacking the support hitherto
provided by Abu Talib, Mahomet perceived that a crisis was fast
approaching. His band was too numerous to be ignored or even tolerated by
the Kureisch, but against such odds as Mecca's most powerful citizens,
Mahomet was too wise to attempt to resist. There seemed no other way but
the withdrawal of his little concourse to such place of safety as would
enable them to strengthen themselves and prepare for the inevitable
struggle for supremacy. No more conversions of importance had taken place
since Omar's and Hamza's allegiance to Islam, and now three years
had passed. Mahomet felt increasingly the need for their exodus from the
city of his birth. It is not evident from the chroniclers that he had any
definite political aims whatever when he first considered the plan of
evacuation. His motive was simply to obtain peace in which he might
worship in his own fashion, and win others to worship with him. With this
idea in mind he cast about for a suitable resting-place for his small
flock, and discovered what he imagined his goal in Taif, a village
south-east of Mecca, upon the eastern slopes of Jhebel Kora.
Taif is situated on the fertile side of this mountain range, the side
remote from the sea. It stands amid a wealth of gardens, and is renowned
for its fruits and flowers. Thither in 620 Mahomet set out, filled with
the knowledge of his invincible mission, strong in his power to conquer
and persuade. Zeid, his slave and foster-child, was his only companion,
and together they had resolved to convert Taif to the one true religion.
But their adventure was doomed to failure, and though we have necessarily
brief descriptions of it, all Mahomet's biographers naturally passing
quickly over so painful a scene, there is sufficient evidence to show how
really disastrous their venture proved.
The chief men of the city remained unconvinced, and at last the populace,
in one of those blind furies that attack crowds at the sight of
impotence, egged on the rabble to stone them. Chased from the city, sore,
bleeding and despairing, Mahomet found shelter in one of the hill gardens
of the locality. There he was solaced with fruit by some kindly owners of
the place, and there he remained, meditating in profound dejection at his
failure, but still with supreme trust in the support of his God.
"O Lord, I seek refuge in the light of Thy countenance;
It is Thine to cleanse away the darkness,
And to give peace both for this world and the next."
In this valley of Nakhla, too, so runs the tale, he was consoled by
genii, who refreshed him, after the fashion of angels upholding the weary
prophets in the wilderness. Mahomet was now in dire straits; he could not
return to Mecca at once, because the object of his Taif journey was
known; as Taif had spurned him, so he was forced to halt in Hira until he
obtained the protection of Mutaim, an influential man in Mecca, and after
some difficulty made his way back to the city, discredited and solitary,
except for his former followers. For some months he rested in obscurity
and contempt at Mecca, gaining none to his cause, but still filled with
the fervent conviction of his future triumph, which neither wavered
nor faltered. The divine fire which upheld him during the period of
his violent persecution burned within his soul, and never was his
steadfastness of character and faith in himself and his mission more
fully manifested than during these despondent months.
He now began to seek in greater measure the society of women, although
the consuming sexual life of his later years had hardly awakened. While
Khadijah was with him he remained faithful to her, but her bright
presence once withdrawn, he was impelled by a kind of impassioned seeking
to the quest for her substitute, and not finding it in one woman, to
continue his search among others. He now married Sawda, a nonentity with
a certain physical charm but no personality, and sued for the hand of
Ayesha, the small daughter of Abu Bekr.
Mahomet at this time was not blessed with many riches. His frugal,
anxious life led him to perform many small duties of his household for
himself. His food was coarse and often scanty, and he lived among his
followers as one of themselves. It is no small tribute to his singleness
of mind and lofty character that in the "dreary intercourse of daily
life," lived in that primitive, communal fashion, which admits of no
illusions and scarcely any secrets, he retained by the force of
personality the reverence of the faithful, and ever in this hour of
defeat and negation remained their leader and lord--the symbol, in fact,
of their loyalty to Allah, and their supreme belief in his guidance and
care.