LIFE IN MECCA
'We would know the world--not to censure, not to boast ourselves, but
that sympathy may be wider and wider.'--LYNCH.
[Sidenote: Mohammed's Position as Prophet in Mecca.]
Mohammed had now crossed the Rubicon. He had taken the decisive step
of his career. To turn back was impossible. Islam was no longer a
secret society. The issues at stake were clear both to Mohammed and
to the men of Mecca, and they opposed his attack upon their shrine
with a bitterness reinforced by a kind of patriotism. Mohammed
himself was inviolable through the protection of Abu Talib, but an
incessant petty persecution was maintained against his converts. As
the opposition increased so did Mohammed's teaching grow in
positiveness, and his violent vituperations increase in fury. 'Whoso
obeyeth not God and His Prophet, to him verily is {48} the fire of
hell.' Mohammed was never meek, and when assailed and contradicted
his cheeks blazed fury, while his lips poured forth a torrent of
curses upon his enemies.
The advantage of secrecy during the first few years had been great;
it had saved the cause from being crushed at the outset. Ridicule
and contempt can more easily be borne where some hundred persons are
involved. Mohammed made his public _début_ not in the _rôle_ of an
eccentric sage but as the leader of a party, a force to be reckoned
with; and soon his fame spread along every caravan route of Arabia.
[Illustration: A CAMEL MERCHANT. '_Mohammed's fame spread along
every caravan route of Arabia._']
Mohammed now set up with some state and dignity in a central position
in the 'House of Al Arkam,' still famous throughout the Moslem world
as 'The House of Islam.' The house was put at his disposal by one of
his richer early converts. Here the Prophet held meetings of his
followers, received enquirers, and held audiences of pilgrims and
others who pressed upon him. At these audiences Mohammed played the
Prophet's part to perfection; he wore a veil, and assumed a benign
and patriarchal {49} manner. When he shook hands he would not
withdraw his first, nor would he remove his searching gaze till the
other turned away. His toilet, according to all accounts, was very
elaborate; every night he painted his eyebrows, and he was strongly
scented with perfume. Arab-like, he allowed his hair to grow long
till it fell upon his shoulders, and when it began to turn grey he
dyed it. He possessed the power of winning confidence at slight
acquaintance, though it is said that new converts returned often from
their first audience not only with a feeling of awe and chill, but of
dislike. The stories of these meetings and interviews show us the
kind of rugged earnestness of the man, and at the same time the
motives to which he appealed in winning men's allegiance.
[Sidenote: Mohammed's Preaching.]
One day, as he sat with the men of Mecca in the common meeting-place
around the Kaaba, a certain Utba, whose younger brother had recently
joined the new Faith, sat down beside him and said:
'O son of my friend, you are a man eminent both for your great
qualities and for your noble birth. Although you have {50} thrown
the country into turmoil, created strife among families, outraged our
gods, and taxed our forefathers and wise men with impiety and error,
yet would we deal kindly with you. Listen to the offers I have to
make to you, and consider whether it would not be well for you to
accept them.'
Mohammed bade him speak on, and he said:
'Son of my friend, if it is wealth you seek, we will join together to
give you greater riches than any man of the Koreish has possessed.
If ambition move you, we will make you our chief, and do nothing save
by your command. If you are under the power of an evil spirit which
seems to haunt and dominate you so that you cannot shake off its
yoke, then we will call in skilful physicians, and give them much
gold that they may cure you.'
'Have you said all?' said Mohammed; and then, hearing that all had
been said, he poured forth on his amazed listener the 41st chapter of
the Korân:
'This is a revelation from the most Merciful: a book whereof the
verses are distinctly explained, an Arabic Korân, {51} for the
instruction of people who understand.... It is revealed unto me that
your God is one God.... This is the disposition of the mighty, the
wise God. If the Meccans withdraw from these instructions, say, I
denounce unto you a sudden destruction.... The unbelievers say,
Hearken not unto this Korân; but use vain discourse during the
reading thereof, that ye may overcome the voice of the reader by your
scoffs and laughter. Wherefore we will surely cause the unbelievers
to taste a grievous punishment.... This shall be the reward of the
enemies of God, namely, hell fire; therein is prepared for them an
everlasting abode, as a reward for that they have wittingly rejected
our signs.... Say, what think ye? If the Korân be from God, and ye
believe not therein, who will lie under a greater error than he who
dissenteth widely therefrom? ... Is it not sufficient for thee that
thy Lord is witness of all things?'
[Sidenote: Conversion of Ali.]
Another time we hear him preaching publicly in a different strain: 'I
know no man in the land of Arabia who can lay before his kinsfolk a
more excellent offer than that which I now make to you. {52} I offer
you the happiness of this world, and of that which is to come. God
Almighty hath commanded me to call mankind unto Him. Who, therefore,
among you will second me in that work, and thereby become my brother,
my vice-regent, my Khalifa (successor)?'
In the audience that day was his young cousin, Ali, Abu Talib's son,
whom Mohammed had adopted shortly after his marriage with Kadijah,
and this sermon is said to have been the cause of his conversion.
'I, O Apostle of God, will be thy minister,' he exclaimed; 'I will
knock out the teeth, tear out the eyes, rip up the bellies, and cut
off the legs of all who shall dare to oppose thee.' Then in the
presence of all the assembly the prophet embraced him, exclaiming,
'This is my brother, my deputy, my Khalifa: hear him and obey him.'
In such manner did this Peter of Islam receive his commission.
[Sidenote: Conversion of Omar.]
There is one other story of this time which must be told. Its
central figure is that of the man who later on succeeded Abu Bakr as
second Caliph, who captured Jerusalem and Alexandria and conquered
{53} Persia, and ruled an Empire as wide as that of Rome. He left
for ever the stamp of his dauntless spirit upon Islam.
He was one of Mohammed's bitterest opponents and was engaged in
elaborating a plot upon the Prophet's life, when he heard that his
own brother-in-law and sister were secret converts. His wrath was
aroused and he proceeded at once to their house. As he drew near he
heard the low murmur of reading.
'What sound was that I heard just now?' he demanded in his rage.
'Nothing,' they replied, as many have done before and since.
'Nay,' he said with an oath, 'I hear that ye are renegades.'
'But, O Omar, may there not be truth in another religion than thine?'
The argument ended in a free fight in which the woman was injured.
Then at last Omar showed some signs of manhood; shamed by her
bleeding head, he suggested by way of compensation that he would read
the paper.
The sister persisted: 'None but the pure may touch it.'
Then Omar arose and washed himself {54} and took the paper; it was
the twentieth sura, and he read it. His mood completely changed, and
when he had finished its perusal he said:
'How excellent are these words and gracious.' The brother-in-law was
not slow to follow up the opportunity.
'O Omar, I trust that the Lord hath verily set thee apart for himself
in answer to his Prophet; it was but yesterday I heard him praying
thus: "Strengthen Islam, O God, by Abu Jahl or by Omar.'" That
completed the work of conversion, and Omar proceeded boldly to the
house of Al Arkam and greeted Mohammed with these words:
'Verily I testify thou art the Prophet of God.'
Filled with delight the Prophet cried aloud, 'Allah Akbar,' God is
most great. Henceforth Omar was a staunch follower, of whom Mohammed
one day said: 'If Satan were to meet Omar, Satan would get out of his
way.'
[Sidenote: Persecution.]
So there were added to the converts men of very varying types, not
outcasts only now, but men of wealth, of learning, and of social
position. As Mohammed {55} grew stronger, opposition to him
increased. At one time a price was set upon his head, and those of
his followers who were not protected by influential patrons were
persecuted and boycotted in the town.
Mohammed was by no means without consideration for his followers.
The persecution and violence, which befell especially the slave
portion of his adherents, pressed upon him heavily. In the fifth
year of his teaching he advised a large party of them to seek refuge
with the Christian King of Abyssinia: 'Yonder,' pointing to the west,
'lieth a country wherein no one is wronged--a land of righteousness.
Depart thither and remain until it pleaseth the Lord to open your way
before you.' A strange step, it seems to us, when we reflect upon
the usage he and his successors meted out to Christians in a few
years' time. It reads not unlike a story of Huguenot refugees of
later days. The Koreish sent their envoys to beg the King not to
harbour the enemies of their country, who had forsaken the religion
of their fathers, and were preaching another 'different alike from
ours and from that of the King.' The Moslem representatives refused
to prostrate {56} themselves, as the custom was, saying boldly: 'By
our Prophet's command we prostrate ourselves only before the one true
God.'
The Koreish set forth their case. Then, with that most convincing
rhetoric of simple, personal narration, the Moslems declared how they
had once been idolaters till it pleased Allah to send them his
message through his apostle, 'a man of noble birth and blameless
life, who has shown us by infallible signs proof of his mission, and
has taught us to cast away idols, and to worship the only true God.
He has commanded us to abstain from all sin, to keep faith, to
observe the times of fasting and prayer ... to follow after virtue.
Therefore do our enemies persecute us, and therefore have we, by our
Prophet's command, sought refuge and protection in the King's
country.' We are told that the King and his bishops were melted to
tears. They offered the exiles a safe asylum.
[Sidenote: Mohammed's attempted Compromise, c. 615 A.D.]
In spite of the growth in the number of his followers, Mohammed was
much exercised just at this time by the failure of his mission: the
fate of Islam seemed to be {57} hanging in the balance, and once at
least he allowed himself to be betrayed into the path of compromise.
He was preaching one day in his accustomed place before the Kaaba,
and he recited the fifty-third sura:
'BY THE STAR WHEN IT FALLETH YOUR COMPANION ERRETH NOT, NEITHER IS HE
MISLED, NOR SPEAKETH HE FROM LUST.... ONE TAUGHT HIM WHO IS MIGHTY
IN POWER. HAVE YE CONSIDERED AL LÂT AND AL UZZA AND MANÂT, THE THIRD
WITH THEM? THESE ARE THE EXALTED MAIDENS, AND VERILY THEIR
INTERCESSION MAY BE HOPED FOR.'
The Koreish were as much delighted as astonished. This was _their_
doctrine. When he ended his sura with: 'Wherefore bow down before
God and serve Him,' the whole assembly obeyed. The new popularity,
however, disquieted him, and he was man enough to see there could be
no sound building upon such a compromise. Besides, too, the very
heart of his message--the unity of God--was gone. Accordingly, a few
days later he publicly retracted the verse, ascribing the words to
Satan. Afterwards Mohammed dubbed Uzza and Lât 'names invented by
your fathers, for which Allah has given no authority.' It was the
first time, but not {58} the last, that he went back upon revelations
which in the most solemn words he had ascribed to God Himself. But
in the circumstances his recantation was the act of a strong man, and
a brave one, for he knew that the storm would break out with greater
fury than before. Surely, unless Mohammed found some hope in his own
heart through these long years of struggle, his courage must have
failed.
[Sidenote: Death of Khadîjah and of Abu Talib.]
In the tenth year of his mission the Prophet suffered two grievous
losses in the death of his faithful wife Khadîjah, and his life-long
protector Abu Talib. Mohammed is said to have tried unsuccessfully
to get his dying uncle to pronounce the Islamic confession. He,
therefore, was doomed to hell, and the utmost that his nephew could
procure for him was that while others would be in a lake of fire, he
should be only in a pool! The Prophet assured Khadîjah, on her
death-bed, that she, with the Virgin Mary, Potiphar's wife, and
'Kulthum, Moses' sister,' should be with him in Paradise.
When men recover quickly from a loss, unworthy souls are all too
quick to say that they don't feel it. And yet one cannot {59}
suppress an exclamation of surprise and shame when we find that
within two or three months of the death of the noble Khadîjah, the
wife, friend, and adviser of Mohammed, he was married to another
widow, by name Saudah, and had betrothed himself also to Ayesha, the
seven-year-old child of Abu Bakr. Yet in these two months of pain
and darkness and apparent hopelessness Mohammed had set forth upon an
expedition which, for sheer pluck and determination, is hardly
rivalled in the story of his life. A solitary man, despised and
rejected in his own city, he went forth to try to plant his teaching
in another. As it turned out, his choice was an unhappy one, for he
was quickly mobbed and driven forth, and Taif proved in future years
the last city of Arabia to hold out against the new Faith.
[Sidenote: Mohammed's Failure to impress Mecca.]
For six years or nearly seven Mohammed had been patiently seeking to
make an impression on Mecca. A very mixed band of about a hundred
converts of no particular influence was the result. There was no
turn of public opinion in his favour. The outlook was dark, when a
gleam of hope shot across his path.
{60}
[Sidenote: The men of Yathreb.]
It was the time of the yearly pilgrimage: Mohammed happened on a
group of men more open-eared than those of Mecca.
He asked the city whence they came.
'We come from Yathreb,' they said.
'Ah,' said he, 'the city of the Jews. Why not sit ye down a little
with me and I will speak with you?'
In the conversation which ensued Mohammed was both learner and
teacher; expounding his doctrines, he at the same time sounded the
possibilities of Yathreb for his cause. The Jews, as all men knew,
looked for a prophet to come; the Arab population of Yathreb were not
bigoted idolaters. 'What a different reception they would give my
teaching,' thought Mohammed, and further inquiries only strengthened
his belief. 'This man, if he could rule our quarrelling tribes,
might bring us peace and wealth once more,' so thought the men of
Yathreb. For Yathreb, although it was in one of the richest valleys,
and a veritable garden of Arabia, was torn with civil strife, and was
plunged in poverty and distress. They were as much pleased as
Mohammed. {61} There seemed possibilities here, but there was need
of caution.
[Sidenote: The First Pledge of Acaba.]
A year of uncertainty and doubt followed for Mohammed. But when at
the ensuing pilgrimage he sought the spot appointed for secret
conclave with his Yathreb friends, a narrow, sheltered glen not far
from Mecca, his fears vanished. Twelve citizens of note and
influence in Yathreb were ready there to pledge their faith to
Mohammed thus:
'We will not worship any but one God: we will not steal, neither will
we commit adultery, nor kill our children; we will not slander in any
wise, nor will we disobey the Prophet in anything that is right.'
It was a mild pledge by the side of what Mohammed demanded later, and
because there was no mention of the sword it was afterwards styled
'The Pledge of Women.' But it served for the present, and Mohammed
assured them:
'If ye fulfil the pledge, Paradise shall be your reward.'
With statesmanlike restraint Mohammed was content to wait another
anxious year.
The twelve were now committed to his {62} cause; he could count on
their zeal to propagate the new teaching and prepare Yathreb for his
coming.
[Sidenote: The Second Pledge of Acaba.]
A year later, at the time of the next pilgrimage, Mohammed, without
attendant, stands at the appointed trysting-place. It is midnight,
for the utmost secrecy is necessary, and they assemble 'waking not
the sleeper nor tarrying for the absent'; not twelve but seventy men
prepared to pledge their troth this time in no doubtful words.
Yathreb, they report, is honeycombed with the new teaching; a royal
welcome awaits the Prophet; they were prepared to see it through.
'Our resolution is unshaken. Our lives are at the Prophet's
service.' 'Stretch out thy hand, O Prophet.' And one by one, with
solemn Eastern ritual, the seventy struck their hands thereon in
token of their pledge.
It only remained now to remove the faithful in small parties to
Yathreb, and then for the Prophet and Abu Bakr to follow with as much
secrecy and as little disturbance as possible. For in the eyes of
the men of Mecca this was not merely a change of residence but a
transfer of {63} allegiance--they might even call it sedition.
[Sidenote: The Hegira, of Flight to Medina, 622 A.D.]
Abu Bakr was eager to set off, but still the Prophet lingered,
waiting, perhaps, till his followers were all gone; perhaps for some
favourable omen (for he was superstitious to the last); perhaps
dreading the long, toilsome, dangerous journey, or, as he said,
waiting till it was revealed that the time was come. Two swift
camels were bought and kept on high feed in readiness; money in
portable form was prepared; a guide, accustomed to the devious tracks
of the desert, was hired.
At last the night arrived. Stealing through a back window, they
escaped unobserved through a southern suburb in the opposite
direction to Yathreb, and after some hours' wandering, took refuge in
a cave near the summit of Mount Tûr.
They lay in hiding while Mecca raised the hue and cry.
Miracles and legends cluster around that cave and hide its Prophet.
Branches sprouted in the night and hemmed it in on every side, and
wild pigeons lodged upon them. A spider wove its web across the
entrance. Once again Islam hung in {64} the balance. Glancing
upwards at a crevice through which the morning light began to break,
Abu Bakr whispered:
'What if one were to look through the chink and see us underneath his
feet?'
'Think not thus, Abu Bakr,' the Prophet replied; 'we are two, but God
is in the midst, a third.'
Meanwhile scouts had been sent in every direction; but at last,
opining that Mohammed had escaped towards Yathreb by the fleetness of
his camel, they desisted. Then the fugitives came forth, and set out
for their desert journey of four hundred miles.
They were not quite 'out of the wood' yet. They met a scout
returning from the search. A Bedouin encampment where they sought
food held elements of danger. But at length they reached the garden
outskirts of Yathreb, to be known henceforth as El Medina--'The
City'--'The City of the Prophet.' For several days the town had been
in eager and excited expectation of its illustrious visitor. Still,
with his unrivalled restraint, Mohammed waited for four days to
recover from the effects of his journey. On a Friday he made his
state entry amid the cheers of {65} the populace, preached them a
sermon of religious exhortation and eulogy of the new Faith, and in
the midst of a circle of one hundred believers, conducted before all
the people the first great Mohammedan 'Friday Service.' It was in
the year of our era 622 Anno Domini, henceforth the 'First year of
Islam,' the year of the 'Hegira,' or 'departure,' the Flight of
Mohammed from Mecca to Medina.
Ten years of brave struggle, lonely leadership, and self-restraint do
not diminish dignity: Mohammed rode into Medina in all things
fulfilling the highest Oriental idea of the true king.
QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV
1. What were the advantages of keeping the Faith secret for some
years? Was it right?
2. Describe Mohammed's mode of life in Mecca. Was it suitable?
3. Give an account of the conversion of some one convert.
4. Is persecution good or bad for a religion? How far did Mohammed
and his followers suffer?
5. To what do you attribute Mohammed's failure to make his way at
Mecca? What circumstances led to the flight to Medina? Was this
flight a good thing?
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