The secret séances in the House of Al-Arkam continued; a variety of
converts began to pour in; and by the fourth year of his mission
Mohammed dared to come boldly out into the open and proclaim that
he was the anointed representative of Allah. His proselytes at
first were mostly humble folk: slaves, women unable to achieve
matrimony, unsuccessful business men, and others who, discontented
with their lot, were either looking for excitement or willing to take
any chance however desperate. Yet it is a curious fact that every
devotee, except Abu Bekr, showed some aversion before whole-heartedly
accepting the new faith: “I never invited any one to the faith who
displayed not hesitation and perplexity, excepting only Abu Bekr,”
the Prophet himself admitted. The explanation may lie in the fact
that each proselyte was expected to remain true through thick and
thin; indeed, his life was forfeit if he apostatized--a stipulation
that, even today, makes the conversion of a Moslem a very difficult
task. Another possible explanation is this: the converts soon
discovered that Islam was not merely a gospel of salvation through
faith--an outstanding tenet of all great religions, because it makes
a peculiar appeal to the intellectually slothful--but a gospel that
demanded a vast amount of hard work. Mohammed, in fact, had much
more in common with James than with Paul. For if he was a fanatic
in emotional matters, his grosser intellectual endowments were
characterized by an admirable coolness and a logical precision that
often confounded his friends and his enemies alike--though it is
recorded that an early convert, who was commissioned to take down
one of the Prophet’s divine ravings, decided to renounce Islam
when he observed that he was permitted to pen whatever he chose.
Each newcomer recognized his brothers by the greeting “Peace unto
you,” a password of which Mohammed was especially fond; and if it
was dangerous for a time to speak the words openly, recognition was
made sure by the adoption of a peculiar style of turban. The new
sect was called Moslems, or “traitors”--an appellation that provoked
much merriment among Mohammed’s less serious-minded opponents. He
showed a typical lack of humor in accepting the sobriquet, they
remarked, but he was to be praised for making it an honorable term;
for, while it usually meant one who surrendered his friends to their
foes, it now signified one who yielded himself to God. The Koran,
however, settled the matter by affirming that the title had been
invented by no less an authority than Abraham himself.
While converts of every type were welcomed, preference was naturally
shown for those who had either physical or social strength. For
a time most of them came from the descendants or adherents of
the house of Hashim, and so Mohammed, doubtless with the idea of
strengthening the faith by breaking the strong family and tribal
ties, set up brotherhoods between those who came from different
sects. The largeness of his nature is shown by his readiness to
make amends for any wrong he had committed. A blind man once
interrupted him, while he was earnestly conversing with a prospective
convert, with the request that the Koran should be read aloud; and
the Prophet, incensed at the ill-timed interruption, snapped out a
harsh refusal. But his heart soon smote him, and he made atonement
for his error by pointing out in the Koran how unforgivable it
was for him to welcome the rich and powerful while neglecting the
poor and despised. The most valuable of the slave converts was the
negro Bilal, “small in body, but weighty in faith,” whom Mohammed
himself extolled as “the first fruits of Abyssinia.” Almost all of
the first score of converts remained staunch, though one of them,
Obeidallah, eventually weakened under the strokes of persecution,
became a Christian, and died in that faith; but Mohammed avenged
himself by marrying his widow.
By far the most important of the Meccan neophytes, except Khadija
and Abu Bekr, were the Prophet’s uncle Hamza--a mighty man in
hunting, wine and war, whose valorous conduct won him the title
“The Lion of God”--and Omar, a veritable Hercules. He had been a
clever trader who once outwitted the assessor of customs by making
his own camel swallow the gold it carried--and he then recovered
the money by killing the camel. His most cherished avocations had
been wine, wife-beating, coarse interference in delicate feminine
matters, and bitter hatred of Islam. Informed one day--so the most
plausible tradition of his conversion runs--that his own sister
and brother-in-law had yielded to its seductions, he hastened to
their house and greeted them with the brotherly salutation, “I
hear that ye are renegades!” When they tried to argue with him,
he violently kicked the man and wounded his sister in the face.
These activities so completely restored his good humor that he
asked to see the roll they had been reading. Having perused a part
of one Sura, he exclaimed, “How excellent is this discourse, and
gracious!” adding that he would like to meet Mohammed. So he went
immediately to Al-Arkam’s house, where the inmates, including even
the redoubtable Hamza, drew back in alarm; but the Prophet boldly
seized his skirt and sword-belt and asked, “How long, O Omar, wilt
thou not refrain from persecuting, even until the Lord send some
calamity upon thee?” The penitent Omar replied, “Verily, I testify
that thou art the Prophet of God!” whereupon Mohammed raised the
joyous shout: “Allahu Akbar! Great is the Lord!” So widespread was
the Koreishite fear of Omar that from this moment the Moslems prayed
openly in the city; and the happy Prophet continued to exult over
his prize acquisition in this fashion: “If Satan were to meet Omar,
he would get out of Omar’s way,” while one of his pet sayings was,
“I, Abu Bekr, and Omar.”
It seems probable that Mohammed at first offered his disciples no
promise of earthly rewards, but seduced them by painting gorgeously
graphic pictures of their eventual felicity in Paradise, as well
as the utter discomfiture of their foes in Hell. The Koran of this
period abounds with eloquent descriptions of both places. Paradise
is represented as a haven bulging with sensuous delights of the
most naïve and ephemeral sort. In fact, so much emphasis was put
upon food and drink that a jolly Jew objected on the ground that
such continual feasting must of necessity be followed by purgation;
the Prophet, however, swore that it would not even be necessary to
blow the nose in Paradise, since all bodily impurities would be
carried off by a perspiration “as odiferous as musk.” Furthermore,
he soon added particular attractions that were far more captivating
than mere gluttony, even though they still lacked the subtlety of
philosophic appeal.
“Verily for the Pious is a blissful abode;
Gardens and Vineyards,
And Damsels with swelling bosoms, of an equal age,
And a full cup.”
He continued to dilate on this theme, rhyming the heavenly
benefactions in pairs; but when he tried to include the angelic young
ladies in the divine catalogue, their number utterly ruined his
rigid metrical scheme, and he was therefore compelled to expatiate
on their charms in prose: “lovely large-eyed girls resembling
pearls hidden in their shells, a reward for that which the faithful
have wrought.... We have made them virgins, fascinating, of an
equal age.” While thus innocently occupied, the faithful were to
be further entertained by peering over the celestial battlements
and observing the tortures of the unbelievers, who would be vainly
trying to quench their thirst by drinking boiling water. “This
shall be your entertainment on the Day of reckoning!” promises the
Koran.
“Wherefore one day the Faithful shall laugh the Unbelievers to scorn,
Lying upon couches, they shall behold them in Hell.”
Spiritual inducements of this sort, not to mention the mundane
rewards soon to be offered to the pious and the swift earthly doom
promised for backsliders, did not fail in their effect. And still,
despite the accessions to Islam, the Prophet as late as 615 was
subject to public insult. The rigorous ban on bloodshed within
tribes saved him from serious personal danger, but he nevertheless
endured some very scurrilous abuse; his enemies would throw offensive
objects at his person, or on his hearth while he was cooking his
simple meals. One day they tossed in the entrails of a goat, and
Mohammed, putting the refuse on a stick, carried it to the door and
shouted: “Ye children of Abd Menaf! What sort of good neighborhood
is this?” While at his devotions near the window, he was at times
forced to crouch beneath a projecting stone to escape the missiles
of his foes. But the prestige of his old protector, Abu Talib, was
still very strong and, despite his regrettable adherence to the
ancient faith, he staunchly protected his incomprehensible nephew
from the Koreish. Once, it is true, Abu Talib’s patience was shaken,
and he asked Mohammed not to cast upon him “a burden heavier than I
can bear.” The Prophet, perturbed by his uncle’s apparent desertion
and by the prospect of his own consequent loss of protection, burst
out crying and started to leave the room. Then the aged ruler was
so moved that he cried: “Son of my brother, come back! And now
depart in peace! and say whatsoever thou wilt. For, by the Lord of
the Kaba, I will not, in any wise, give thee up for ever.”