Makkah, where he hoped to make his entry victoriously without shedding
the blood of his fellow-countrymen, he offered up thanksgivings to the
Most Generous, bowing down deeply until his beard swept the pummel of
his saddle. He then placed his troops for the occupation of the city:
Zubayr was to go in by the Kuda road; Khalid ibn Walid, by the
outlying western districts; Sa'd ibn Ubayda, by the pass of Al-Kada.
But as the latter chieftain, in his ardour, let drop this remark:
'To-day is a day of carnage; allowable even in the holy precincts!'
Mohammad bade Ali deprive the rash speaker of his command and take
charge of the standard in his place.
Zubayr, Ali, and Ubayda met with no resistance and, without striking a
blow, occupied the parts of the city assigned to them. As for Khalid,
just as he passed through the suburbs, a volley of arrows disturbed
his troops and several of his men were killed. The darts came from
marksmen in ambush, posted by Safwan ibn Umayya and Ikrimah, behind
the rocks of the Jabal Al-Khandama. Without the least hesitation,
Khalid called on his soldiers to storm the position. He routed the
enemy, massacred many and pursued the survivors, putting them to the
sword. Some fled to the Temple; others ran towards the sea.
From the summit of Al-Hajun, which the Prophet had just reached, he
saw the sparkle of spearheads and swords. 'What's this?' he cried.
'Did I not forbid all fighting?' He despatched an Ansar to Khalid and
when he came into the presence of Mohammad, he upbraided him severely
for having given battle against his strict orders.
'The enemy were the agressors. They riddled us with their arrows,'
replied Khalid. 'I held back as much as I could, but I was obliged to
unsheath my sword to defend ourselves.... And Allah granted us the
victory!'--'The Will of Allah be done!' concluded the Prophet, getting
ready to make his own entry into the town.
He rode Qaswa, his favourite she-camel. Behind him, on the same
animal, was Usama, the son of Zayd ibn Al-Haris. Mohammad prostrated
himself on his saddle and recited the surah of Victory: "_Verily, We
have won for thee an undoubted victory * In token that Allah forgiveth
thy earlier and later faults, and fulfilleth his goodness to thee, and
guideth thee on the right way. * And that Allah succoureth thee with a
mighty succour._" (THE QUR'AN, XLVIII, 1, 2, 3.)
Round the red-striped drapery that covered his head, the Prophet
rolled a black turban, letting one end hang down between his
shoulders. He rode to the Ka'bah to perform the "tawaf", and without
leaving the saddle, saluted the Black Stone by touching it with the
end of a hooked stick. He then alighted to enter the sanctuary, but
seeing the idols that dishonoured it, he started back in horror. In
front of an image of Abraham holding divining arrows, he cried out:
'May Allah annihilate all those who represent our ancestor Abraham
trying to peer into futurity by means of arrows!' Mohammad ordered the
impious statue to be destroyed. With his own hands, he shattered a
dove carved in wood and went in proclaiming: 'Allah is Great!'
[Illustration: _Bird's-eye View of Makkah, the Most Sacred City, as
seen from the Jabal Abi-Qubais._ 2 views]
He then went up to the three hundred and sixty idols ranged round the
Temple. Beginning with the biggest: Hubal, he pierced its eyes with
the hooked stick, saying: 'Truth hath come, error hath vanished; error
is perishable!' The idol fell face downwards, shattered in a thousand
pieces.
One after the other suffered the same fate, as he passed in front of
them. A single effigy remained standing--the idol of the
Khuza'a--fashioned out of bronze and enamel. It stood superbly erect
on the Temple's terrace-roof. 'Kneel down,' was the order given by the
Prophet to Ali. Mohammad mounted on his shoulders. 'Rise!' Ali was
unable to do so, despite all his bodily strength. He felt himself
crushed by supernatural weight: that of the Prophecy. Seeing this, the
Prophet got down, knelt in his turn and said to Ali: 'Climb up on my
back to destroy that idol!' Ali, overcome by confusion, refused; but
finally obeyed, as Mohammad persisted.
Quoth Ali: "I stood upon the Prophet's shoulders; he drew himself up
erect and I felt myself lifted by some unknown force by which I could
have risen to heaven had I tried.
"The idol was fixed by iron clamps, but at the words of the Prophet:
'Truth hath come; error hath vanished,' it tottered without the least
effort on my part and falling to the ground, crumbled away in dust."
The people, recovered from affright, stole gradually forth from their
dwellings and, dumb with stupor, looked on while their impotent idols
were being destroyed.... When the last vestige of idolatry had
disappeared, the Prophet, turning towards the Ka'bah, proclaimed:
'There is no God but Allah! He hath no associates! He hath kept his
word and succoured His Servant and dispersed His enemies!' Mohammad
turned to the Makkans: 'O Assembly of the Quraish! how shall I treat
you, do ye think?'--'With generosity, O generous brother, son of a
generous man!' they replied, devoured by anxiety.--'Begone!' he told
them. 'Ye are free!' (According to the laws of war, they were slaves
and captives.)
The only exceptions to this magnanimous amnesty were made in the cases
of eleven men and six women whose conduct had been inexcusable. He
ordered them to be put to death, wherever found. The sentence was
immediately carried out, and a few of the condemned were executed,
including Huwarith, who brutally ill-treated Fatimah, the Prophet's
daughter and Ali's wife, when she went away from Makkah.
In order to establish the new state of affairs firmly, Mohammad
proceeded to appoint immediately the two most important functions of
Makkah: the custodian of the Ka'bah and that of the Zamzam well.
He sent to claim the keys of the Temple from Uthman ibn Talha who,
after having in a fit of fury locked the gates, took the keys away
with him to his house. The Prophet had them torn from him forcibly,
and intended to confide them to his uncle Abbas whom he maintained at
his post as Superintendent of the Zamzam well. But a Revelation made
the Prophet alter his mind and he was ordered to reinstate the former
custodian of the Temple. Mohammad therefore charged Ali to take the
keys back to Uthman and say to him: 'O son of Talha, take the keys
once more and with them the appointment as custodian of the Ka'bah.'
This official, touched by such generosity, so little deserved,
hastened to give the Prophet the promise of sincere gratitude and
absolute fidelity.
Just then a touching group approached: there was Abu Quhafa, an old
blind man, bent beneath the burden of his eighty-seven years, and
leaning on the arm of his son, Abu Bakr. 'Why didst thou not let this
noble old man remain in his dwelling, whither I could have gone to see
him?' said the Prophet to Abu Bakr.--'It is only right that he cometh
to thee, and not that thou shouldst go to him,' replied Abu Bakr.
Mohammad made the venerable sightless man sit by his side, paying him
great attention, stroking his breast affectionately, and was overjoyed
to hear that Abu Quhafa had come to announce his conversion to the
faith of Islam.
[Sidenote: THE PROPHET AT SAFA]
Next day, all the inhabitants of Makkah wended their way towards the
hill of Safa where the Prophet had called them together to receive
their submission.
Tranquilized already by the generosity of the first utterances and
acts of their conqueror, they did not seem to be affected by the
feelings of sadness, shame and dejectedness that usually overcome the
vanquished. Was not their conqueror one of their own people? Would not
his glory become their glory; his triumph, their triumph; and his
empire, their empire? As a matter of fact, despite their hostility
towards him, most of them had suffered cruelly at being separated from
their genial fellow-countryman; the man who, in the heyday of his
youth, had been called by them: "Al-Amin," the Reliable. They were
greatly moved as they called to mind the mysterious charm of his
personality and the irresistible allurement of his speech.
For some time past, in secret, they had feverishly longed to join the
enthusiastic religious movement that Mohammad stirred up throughout
the whole of Arabia, and become converted in their turn. How derisive
their idols seemed now; the miserable fragments of the graven images
swelling the garbage heaps swept out of the city! Even those men who
exploited the superstition surrounding the false gods of wood or
stone, were the first to arrive at Safa, being in a hurry to get the
fact forgotten that they had been the priests of such a coarse cult.
Despite the levelling humility which Mohammad required of all his
disciples, those who had waxed fat on the proceeds of commercial
idolatry were inwardly proud of the family ties binding them to the
Prophet upon whom, of old, they had showered the vilest insults.
As for Mohammad, it is impossible to describe the sublime emotion that
seized upon his great soul when he saw flocking to him from all parts,
their eyes at last open to the Light, all those among his
fellow-countrymen who had so stubbornly fought against him and whom he
cherished, notwithstanding their injustice. Seated beneath the
Prophet, Umar, as his deputy, received the submission of the Makkans
who all came, one after the other, to strike his palm, and in the name
of Mohammad, he pledged his word to protect them. When this grand
ceremony was finished, a most poignant scene was enacted on the slopes
of the hill.
An odious barrier, formed by the idols, which for nigh upon twenty
years separated the Quraish Mohadjirun from the Quraish dwelling in
Makkah, was broken down never to be set up again, and all the enemy
brethren threw themselves in each other's arms, reconciled and
reunited in "the Path of Allah."
A third group of brothers rejoined them soon. They were the Ansar
citizens of Al-Madinah, the rival town to Makkah; and the two cities,
now having become two sisters, called themselves by the glorious name
of "Al-Haramani, the two Sacred Cities."
One incident, however, cast a gloom over this unforgettable
manifestation that realised so perfectly the dream which had haunted
the Prophet, filling him with superhuman perseverance. The Khuza'a,
falling across one of the murderers of their brethren, cut his throat.
Mohammad caused the guilty parties to be brought before him and, after
blaming them severely, he added: 'I will compensate your victim's
relatives myself, but cease all reprisals. Too much blood hath been
shed already. On the day when He created the Heavens and the Earth,
Allah declared the territory of Makkah to be holy; its sacred
character hath remained for all before me and shall remain for all
after me. Not only shall the lives of human beings be sacred here, but
it is likewise forbidden to hunt game, fell trees and cut grass.'--'In
this prohibition, O Prophet! the Idhkhir must be excepted,' remarked
Abbas. 'It furnisheth us with that which we cannot do without, to wit:
fuel for the forge and the cooking of food.' After a moment's silence,
the Prophet concluded: 'With the exception of the Idhkhir, which it
will be allowable to uproot.' Following this declaration, all those
condemned to death, and who had not been executed the first day, were
granted a free pardon.
Among the crowd of Makkan women who came to declared their devotion,
Mohammad's attention was drawn to a female hiding herself behind her
companions. Despite the fact that she was disguised, he recognised
ferocious Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan. 'Aye! 'tis I!' she cried,
throwing off her veil, 'I am Hind, and I implore pardon for the past!'
The Prophet, in spite of the odious mutilation of the body of his
uncle Hamzah, forgave her. Hind, when she returned to her dwelling,
lavished insults on her private family idol: 'O impotent idol! How mad
we all were to rely on thy succour!' And she smashed it to pieces.
The son of Abu Jahal, Ikrimah, who had organised the ambush that
nearly entrapped Khalid, fled to the sea coast. The fugitive's pardon
was granted to Umm Hakim, his wife, who rejoined him when he was on
the point of embarking. She brought him back, and the Prophet, fearful
lest his companions, remembering how he had been so often outraged by
Abu Jahal, Ikrimah's father, might seek to be avenged on Ikrimah
personally, declared: 'Ikrimah hath come to Islam. Let no one insult
his father's memory! To insult the dead is to wound the living!' And
Ikrimah, deeply moved by such rare tolerance, became one of the most
ardent defenders of the Religion.
Al-Uhayha, the slayer of Hamzah, was pardoned likewise, after becoming
a convert to Islam. Habbar who, by a blow of the shaft of his spear,
had brought about the death of Zainab, Mohammad's daughter, had fled,
fearing deserved punishment; and then, confiding in the infinite
clemency of the Prophet, came and gave himself up, after having
embraced the Islamic faith in all sincerity. 'Go thy way in peace,'
said Allah's Apostle. 'Thy conversion doth wipe out the past; but
never let me see thee more!'
Safwan, the second instigator of the ambush in which Khalid was to
have fallen, profited also by the victor's magnanimity; and as he
begged for a delay of two month's reflection before abjuring idolatry,
the Prophet replied: 'I grant thee four months.'
Ibn Abi Sarh was the only man who had great trouble in softening the
just wrath that his defection had kindled in Mohammad's heart. Ibn Abi
Sarh was well versed in the arts of calligraphy and horsemanship.
Formerly in the Prophet's employ as secretary, he had shamelessly
changed words and altered the sense of the Revelations whilst copying
them out, in order to make a mockery of the Word of Allah. When his
crime was discovered, he fled to Makkah and reverted to idol-worship.
When the town was taken, he took refuge under the roof of Usman ibn
Affan, his foster-brother. After having kept the faithless scribe in
hiding for some time, Usman made up his mind to take him to the
Prophet and beg for mercy, but in vain. At each supplication, he
averted his head. Finally, giving way to fresh and pressing
entreaties, Mohammad consented to grant a free pardon, but when the
guilty wretch was gone, the Prophet said to his companions: 'If I kept
silence just now, it was but to give one of you time to kill
him.'--'We were only waiting for one glance of thine eyes to put him
to death.'--'A sign by a look of the eye is a treacherous act,' he
replied, 'ill befitting one of Allah's Messengers.'
From the foregoing examples, it can be seen how carefully the Prophet
tried to win over his fellow-countrymen by gentleness, but
nevertheless never deviating from inexorable firmness when anything
concerning idolatry was in question. His mercy led to results which
could never have been obtained by sanguinary repression.
He conquered all hearts. With the exception of the Hawazin and the
Saquifs, all the neighbouring tribes came in at once and made their
submission. From that day onwards, no one could earn the title of
Mohadjer by emigration, because Islam was as firmly establised in
Makkah as in Al-Madinah.
[Sidenote: GHAZWAH OR EXPEDITION OF HUNAIN (_6th day of Shawwal,
Year VIII of the Hegira, 28th of January, A.D. 630_)]
Relying on the solidity of the ramparts surrounding their town of
Taif; hoping to be able to take refuge there in case of defeat, the
Hawazin and the Saquifs had refused to bow down to the Prophet. They
even got ready to fight him and, under the leadership of two
celebrated warriors, Malik ibn Awf and Durayd ibnu's-Simma, they
mustered in the valley of Awtas.
Mohammad, being told about their plans, sent Ibn Abi Hadrad as scout.
When he came back with positive information, the Prophet resolved to
set out and face his foes.
His ten thousand soldiers were joined by more than two thousand
Makkans, lately converted, and impatient to prove their devotion and
fervour. The effect produced by the army of the Believers was so
imposing that a voice in the group of the Banu Bakr, it is said, cried
out: 'Truly we need not fear defeat with such a big army!'
This exclamation of pride displeased the Prophet greatly, for vanity
weakens endeavour and causes forgetfulness of the fact that victory is
granted by Allah. Mohammad blamed the boastful cry in the most severe
terms.
On the bank of a "wadi," the troops saw a big green tree, growing by
itself, which the idolaters worshipped and looked upon with
superstitious awe. Beneath its shade, they sacrificed victims and, on
its branches, they hung their weapons, imagining they would become
invincible by this verdant contact. Several soldiers, their minds not
yet sufficiently purified from the stain of fetich observances, longed
to possess likewise a tree, "Dhat Anwat,"--"Carrier of Weapons"--and
sent in a demand to the Apostle which made him very indignant.
'Your demand,' he replied, 'is just as abominable as that of the
Banu-Isra'il, when saved by a miracle from Pharaoh's hosts and the
waves of the sea, they asked Moses for an idol in human shape. Ye are
a stupid "qawm" accustomed to adopt without reflecting the vilest
custome of your neighbours!'
Quoth Jabir ibn Abdullah: "Shortly before daybreak, we reached the
"wadi" of Hunain, at the entrance of an extremely narrow and deep
defile. All of a sudden, while we were still in the black shadows of
the lofty crags, the first rays of the sun, on the other side of of
the pass, lit up a sight that made our hearts leap impatiently.
"Under the careless guard of a few sentinels, our enemies' tents were
pitched in the plain. Between them, women and children passed to and
fro. Round the encampment, countless flocks of sheep and herds of
camels were about to depart to pasture-land. Without waiting for the
Prophet's orders, overwrought by the hope of plunder, we rush into the
pass, so narrow that we were pressed together, shoulder to shoulder.
No sooner was the entire army in the defile, when a lengthy, whistling
murmur was heard in the air and, like great swarms of locusts, clouds
of arrows darkened the sky. The darts were showered on us, aimed from
two ridges, overlooking the pass.... We had fallen into an ambush
organised by cunning Durayd.
"In consequence of the sting of the arrows from which there was no
escape, for not one was lost in the soil, all finding a target as
they pierced with a hissing noise the flesh of men, horses and camels,
mad terror overcame us. Indescribable panic was also caused by our
foes, lying in wait, concealed at the egress of the pass and who, with
savage shouts, charged into our ranks. Tugging at the bridles of our
camels, we turned round, the poor beasts grunting gloomily and shaking
their long necks bristling with arrows. In the inextricable confusion
of their stampede and fright, they tripped each other up and rolled
over on the ground with their riders, who were at once trampled on by
fleeing comrades....
"Whilst the archers continued to distress us with their darts, we
discovered that the entry into the pass was barricaded by another
detachment of our enemies who had allowed us to ride through and now
awaited our return. At their head was a soldier of the Hawazin,
bestriding a gigantic red camel and he was signalling with a spear to
which he had fixed a black flag. When a Believer passed within reach,
he lowered his lance to run him through, and perchance he missed, he
signalled with his flag lifted again to those following him, and they
pursued the Mussulman and put him to death."
The defeat seemed irretrievable. Already many of the Prophet's old
enemies, their hearts still brimming with, rancour, began to gloat
over the critical situation of the Mussulmans. 'Their flight will not
cease until they reach the sea coast!' cried Abu Sufyan, who busied
himself with consulting his divining arrows which he carried concealed
in his quiver. 'Mohammad's sorcery is powerless this day!' exclaimed
Kalada ibn Hanbal in his turn. But his brother Safwan, although not
yet converted, silenced him with these words: 'May a gag close thy
mouth!'
In the midst of general confusion, the Prophet alone was cool and
collected. He posted himself on a low hill, to the right of the
valley. 'I am the Prophet of Allah and no impostor!' he declared, and
urging his mule forward, went to throw himself in the thick of the
fight. Abu Bakr rushed in front of the animal and, seizing the bridle,
held it back. To try and rally his troops, Mohammad ordered Abbas to
shout: 'O Ansars and Mohadjirun, my companions! O ye who took their
oath over there!' (at Al-Hudaibiyah). When, from the top of a rock,
his stentorian voice carried the Prophet's cry to the fugitives, they
were covered with great confusion. Regaining their self-control, they
replied: 'We are here at thy service!'
But what was to be done to stem such a torrent of fleeing men and
beasts, crowded together between the two vertical sides of the ravine?
The Faithful did their best to lash the camels, twisting their necks
by pulling the bridle contrariwise. With great strides, the frightened
animals kept on in their flight.... It was then that the warriors of
Allah slung their shields round their necks and jumped out of the
saddle, leaving their camels to go on alone. Unsheathing their swords,
the soldiers turned back to begin fighting again.
The Prophet, standing up in his stirrups, saw with joy that the
situation was changed, and when his gaze fell upon the countless
warriors rushing into the brazier of the battle, he cried out: 'The
furnace is alight!'
Ali, accompanied by an Ansar, resolved to put a stop to the exploits
of the Bedouin of the Hawazin, proudly waving his spear adorned with
the black flag. With one blow of his scimitar, Ali hamstrung the
camel, and at the same moment, the Ansar brought down the Infidel by
slicing his leg from the knee to the heel, putting an end to his
misery as soon as he was flattened out on the ground.
Mad terror seized the idolaters when thinking they had crushed the
Mussulmans, they resumed the offensive. It was now the Infidels' turn
to give way.... Mohammad ordered his mule to lie down. The animal bent
its knees until its belly rested on the ground. Then taking up a
handful of dust, the Prophet, as he had done at Badr, threw it towards
his enemies whose flight became a mad rout. It seemed as if they had
been blinded by this dust and that their soldiers were dispersed
exactly the same as these impalpable atoms....
"_Now hath Allah helped you in many battle-fields, and, on the day of
Hunain, when ye prided yourselves on your numbers; but it availed you
nothing; and the earth, with all its breadth, became too strait for
you: then turned ye your backs in flight. * Then did Allah send down a
spirit of tranquillity upon His Apostle, and upon the Faithful; and He
sent down hosts which ye saw not and punished the Infidels._" (THE
QUR'AN, IX, 25, 26.)
Harried by the sword during their retreat, Malik and the remains of
his army managed to find safety in the fortified town of Taif.
Less lucky, Durayd, the Infidels' second leader, was unable to escape
his fate. Ninety years of age and blind, he was unable to direct his
camel when abandoned by his panic-stricken fellow-countrymen, and he
fell into the hands of a mere lad, Rabi'a ibn Rafia. When he saw the
litter in which reclined this celebrated warrior, paralysed by the
infirmities of great age, the youth thought he had captured a woman.
He made the camel kneel, parted the hangings and was petrified at only
finding an old man. Vexed and disappointed, he dealt Durayd a
sabre-cut, but the aged fighter did not even seem to know that he had
been struck. 'What sort of weapon hath thy mother placed in thy hands,
O little vagabond?' he asked in accents of supreme scorn. 'Take my
sabre, hanging from my camel's saddle. Lift the blade aloft and hit
between the vertebrae of the back and those of the head. That was how
I used to strike men down.'
Abashed at his first failure, Rabi'a followed this piece of advice and
the famous warrior rolled dead in the dust.