To make the assurance of a safe entrance to Medina doubly sure,
however, Mohammed lingered four days at Koba. Even then he took no
dangerous chances, for he requested the Medinese descendants of his
revered great-grandmother, the spouse of Hashim, to attend him into
the city; and in the meantime he had slept only when some of his
most trusted underlings kept watch. These super-precautions proved
to be needless, for tribe after tribe came flocking forth to see
which could outdo the other in paying reverence to him. On every
hand rose the earnest request: “Alight here, O Prophet! We have
abundance with us, means of defense and weapons and room. Abide with
us!”--and many suppliants emphasized their requests by seizing the
halter of Al-Kaswa. On this occasion Mohammed’s superb political
ability was again evidenced. He would show no favoritism, but, by
means of a camel and an omen--both inexpressibly dear to every
Arab’s heart--he would choose his abode by supernatural means. To
all these fervent ejaculations he replied: “The decision rests with
the camel; make way for her; let her go free.” So Al-Kaswa, unguided
by rein, moved forward until she entered the eastern section of
the city, where, seeing a few date-trees in an open courtyard, she
quite naturally ambled toward their grateful shade and awkwardly sat
down. And in this way was the site for the Mosque chosen--the famous
Mosque where, for the remainder of his days, the Prophet dwelt,
married, prayed, preached, emitted new revelations, planned his
schemes of conquest, greeted his friends, and uttered maledictions
against his foes; where, also, he sickened, died and was buried.
Yet certain abominable sceptics have intimated that Mohammed knew
beforehand that this particular spot was already hallowed as a place
of prayer, and that the rein of Al-Kaswa’s halter was not so very
slack after all.
The Prophet at once negotiated to buy the sacred site. Its owners
wished to make him a present of it, but he would not stoop to accept
it as a gift; accordingly, it was purchased with ten gold pieces from
Abu Bekr’s wallet. For seven months Mohammed lived in the lower story
of an adjacent house, owned by Abu Eiyub, while the construction
of the Mosque, with its adjoining apartments for himself, went on.
His bodily wants were provided for by the citizens, who contended
with each other for the honor of sending him the choicest viands
they could procure. As might be expected, Abu Eiyub was exceedingly
solicitous for the comfort and safety of his distinguished roomer.
Once, when a water-pot was accidentally broken in the upper story,
Abu and his wife quickly sopped up the water with their clothes,
and then rushed down to Mohammed’s apartment in great fear lest a
drop or two might have defiled his garments. Meanwhile the building
of the Mosque was pushed at full speed. The Prophet himself joined
heartily in the work, thus stimulating all his helpers to increase
their efforts, and united with them in their labor-lightening song:
“O Lord! there is no joy but the joy of futurity.
O Lord! have mercy upon the Citizens and the Refugees!”
All this led to a spirit of fellowship between these two classes,
and, in order that the union might be made more firm, Mohammed,
after first setting the example, paired off individuals in each.
“Become brethren every two and two of you,” he gently commanded,
and it was done.
One danger, unforeseen even by the perspicacious Prophet, soon
threatened the refugees. The climate of Mecca, while excessively
hot, was dry and salubrious; but, though Medina’s altitude was
unusually great, her drainage paradoxically enough was very poor,
and the noxious exhalations from her stagnant water, abetted by
intense heat at day and intense cold at night, soon prostrated large
numbers of the refugees with fever. This misfortune so dampened the
enthusiasm of many that, in their frenzied delirium, they would
moan out their desire to go home. When Mohammed heard of this, he
looked upward and raised this prayer: “O Lord! make Medina dear unto
us, even as Mecca, or even dearer. Bless its produce, and banish
far from it the pestilence!” But, for some inscrutable reason,
Allah, the Hearer and the Answerer of Prayer, remained deaf for a
time; and at one period Mohammed was one of the very few persons
who were able to stand during prayers. When, however, he informed
the recumbent invalids that “the prayer of one who sits is worth
only half the prayer of him that stands,” they all made desperate
efforts to rise.
Nevertheless, the first few months at Medina were on the whole happy
and auspicious. The elements of disaffection that lurked among the
Jews and the unbelievers bided their day; the refugees and the
citizen converts, or allies, gladly rushed to fulfill the smallest
desire of the Prophet, whose fascinating personality completely
charmed his friends and even intrigued his enemies--for a time.
Who could resist the appeal of a man who gracefully bestowed names
of good omen upon converts previously burdened with inauspicious
Pagan titles, and who dignified those of his subordinates who
were enslaved in the ignoble calling of “hucksters” by altering
the forbidding word to “Merchants”? In an excess of praiseworthy
devotion, they quaffed the sacred water in which the Prophet had
bathed, and piously treasured his hairs and nail-parings as charms
and forget-me-nots. And Mohammed, ever extraordinarily swift to
take hints, soon formed the habit of wrapping up these personal
relics and bestowing them upon new converts as a peculiar evidence
of his esteem.
While his worshipers thus fawned and his foes maintained an
ominously quiet peace, the Prophet calmly assumed the attributes
of a sovereign and sacerdotal office. As self-appointed ruler
of the city, he exercised the right of deposing and selecting
whatever chiefs he desired; as priestly dictator of all Islam, he
established those multitudinous rules and ordinances that still
defy the assaults of time. Motivated probably by a statesmanlike,
if rather cautious, wish to win or at least placate the Jews, he
inaugurated a complicated system of devotion based principally upon
the famous precepts that had been given to Moses. The detractors of
Islam have so exaggerated its largely fictitious sensuality that
its rigorous rites have too often been forgotten: its lustrations,
its fastings, its prodigality of genuflections. The business of
lustration, for example, was very complicated. Before prayer the
Moslem must wash his face from the top of the forehead to the chin
and sideways as far as both ears, bathe his arms and hands as far
as the elbows, and cleanse his feet as far as the ankles; and all
this must be done in the strictest silence, broken only by such
prayers as the votary might think appropriate. While scrubbing his
teeth, he might say if he chose: “Vouchsafe, O Lord, as I clean my
teeth, to purify me from my faults, and accept my homage, O Lord!
May the purity of my teeth be for me a pledge of the whiteness of
my face at the Day of Judgment.” If, through a momentary lapse into
sin, the hapless believer had defiled his body, he thus washed away
his iniquity: three successive times he poured water upon his right
and left shoulders, and a like number of times on the top of his
head; and should one hair on the entire body be left untouched,
the act of purification was wholly vain.
The Prophet also instituted various fasts which, with certain
alterations, have also endured. These fasts were, if possible,
even more laboriously meticulous than lustration. While abstaining
from food and drink, the Moslems must take the most scrupulous
precaution to see that absolutely nothing entered the body. If they
smelled perfumes, bathed, or carelessly swallowed their spittle,
the fast was broken; the most ardent disciples would not even open
their mouths to converse, for fear of inhaling too much air; and,
if a thoughtless faster allowed a particle of food, no matter how
small, to become wedged between his teeth, he was deemed to be a
backslider from the faith.
December was for a time annually sanctified by fasting, and several
rather diverting details followed. In the first place, most of
the Moslems took the responsibility with such complete and abject
seriousness that they unintentionally disturbed the Prophet’s
slumbers. Very late one evening they came to the Mosque for the
service of prayer; and, observing that Mohammed was not on hand,
they approached his house and coughed loudly before the door. The
Prophet, now thoroughly aroused, came forth and addressed them
thus: “I have observed for some days your coming for the nightly
prayer at the Mosque, until I feared that it would grow by custom
into a binding ordinance.... Wherefore, pray ye at eventide in your
houses.” He then returned to resume his interrupted repose; but a
further trouble awaited him. His humble supporters, it appeared,
were obsessed with the monkish idea that they should abstain from
every conceivable pleasure during the whole month; but Mohammed
was too wise to permit such immoderate asceticism. Allah, it was
soon revealed, “willeth not for you that which is difficult.... It
is lawful unto you, during the nights of the Fast, to consort with
your wives. Now, therefore, sleep with them, and earnestly desire
that which God hath ordained for you; and eat and drink until ye can
distinguish a white thread from a black thread, by the daybreak.
Then keep the fast again until night.... Thus God declareth His
signs unto mankind, that they may follow Piety.” The consequent
popularity of the fast, indeed, brought new adherents to Islam in
great abundance, until an unforeseen contingency arose. Abstinence
from food and drink during the short days of December caused little
difficulty; but the Prophet, trusting in that quaint omniscience
which universally attends the assumption of prophetic robes,
introduced an intercalary system based upon the lunar months. The
sacred month, therefore, gradually shifted from winter to summer,
when the sixteen-hour days made what had previously been a pleasure
a great burden; nevertheless, Mohammed persevered in his oddity,
for to have done otherwise would have impugned his infallibility.
So his faithful zealots groaned and were troubled, and longingly
anticipated the new moon, when the fast was joyously broken by the
bestowal of alms upon the poor and the resumption of normal bodily
activities.
Five times a day the believers, no matter how pleasantly occupied,
must turn to prayer: at dawn, at midday, in the afternoon, at
sunset, and at the coming of complete darkness. On six days these
devotions could be performed anywhere, though preferably in
congregation at the Mosque; but every Friday the Moslems, unless
detained by extraordinary causes, were commanded to worship in a
body at the Mosque. The ever efficient Gabriel informed Mohammed of
Allah’s desire that the time for each prayer should be announced
by a crier, who must shout: “Great is the Lord! Great is the Lord!
I bear witness that there is no God but the Lord: I bear witness
that Mohammed is the Prophet of God. Come unto prayer: come unto
salvation. God is great! God is great! There is no God but the
Lord!” So Mohammed instructed his negro servant, Bilal, to be the
public crier; and early every morning Bilal would clamber upon a
high house and rouse the slumbering Moslems with these words, adding
this salutary invention of his own: “Prayer is better than sleep!
Prayer is better than sleep!” Then, climbing down from his lofty
perch, he would approach Mohammed’s door and shout: “To prayer, O
Apostle of God! to salvation!”
At the special Friday service, the Prophet ascended the pulpit,
gave a stereotyped salutation of peace, and then seated himself
while Bilal shouted the stentorian summons to prayer. Descending
from the pulpit, Mohammed then led the prayers; reascending, he
delivered one or two exhortations. The assembly, fixing their rapt
glances on his earnest gesticulations, would swallow every word
and at the end join in a loud “Amen!” or something like it. When
all was over, his mantle of striped material from Yemen, and his
girdle of splendid Oman cloth, were carefully folded up and laid
away until the next service. The pulpit itself was soon endowed with
an awful sanctity. Disputes were settled at its base; and should
anyone take a false oath in its presence, “even if the subject were
as insignificant as a toothpick”--and toothpicks were not wholly
unknown in Islam--he thereby doomed himself to eternal damnation.
Before it had been built, Mohammed had supported himself during
his sermons by leaning on a post--an object of which he grew so
fond that, after it was no longer needed, he commanded it should
be interred beneath the pulpit. The post itself reciprocated his
touching sentiment; for, when it was abandoned, it moaned loudly and
would not stop until the Prophet placed his hand upon it, whereupon
its grief was assuaged.
[Illustration: VI]