The Life of Mohammad Part 15

Two couriers, Zayd, his adopted son, and Ibn-i-Ruhah, sent on to carry the glad tidings, reached there before him. They arrived at the moment when the situation of the Believers in the city was becoming critical.

Gravediggers had not finished cleansing their hands from the earth with which they had just covered the last resting-place of Roghaid, Mohammad's daughter, married to Usman. She had been carried off by painful illness. "Hypocrites" and Jews put the most alarming rumours in circulation concerning the Prophet's fate and they were getting ready to attack his supporters....

The good news spread all over the town with lightning-like rapidity; causing confusion in the haunts of "Hypocrites" and Jews; rea.s.suring the Faithful and causing great enthusiasm in their ranks. All of them--a vast crowd of men, women and children--went forth to acclaim the conqueror, the procession marching to the cadence of drums. They sang in chorus the chant with which he had been welcomed when he first arrived: "The full moon hath risen above our head--Emerging from the Sanniyat-ul-Wida;--Numerous are the thanksgivings we must offer up to Allah--With the purest fervour of our supplications.--O thou His Messenger among us--The orders thou dost bring us shall be piously executed!"

Ever since this battle, for ever memorable, which by its results eventually changed the whole face of the world, although only fought out by a small number of men, the Wadi of Badr is visited yearly by thousands of pilgrims.

It is written by the traveller Abul Hosain ibn Zubair. "A small market-town, surrounded by ramparts, stands now upon its site ... What was once the well where the Unbelievers were buried, is now a clump of palm-trees, and a little farther off are the tombs of the martyrs.

"To the left of the road leading from Safra, is the Mountain of Mercy--Ar Rahman--by which the Angels descended from Heaven.

"The "arish," the shelter where Mohammad stood, is said to have been erected on the slope of a sandhill, called Jabl-ul-Tabl, the Mountain of the Drum, because the roll of supernatural drums is frequently heard there by pilgrims; this mysterious martial music celebrating the remembrance of the first victory of Islam."

There were as many prisoners as dead: three score and ten, mostly belonging to the best families among the idolaters.

Two of them, Aqbah and An n.a.z.ir, whose insults to the Prophet were beyond all measure, suffered the death penalty after condemnation.

Abbas, Mohammad's uncle, compelled by his pecuniary interests to remain behind in Makkah, had not yet made up his mind to embrace the Islamic faith. He had gone to the aid of the caravan in danger, and was taken prisoner. His commanding stature and bodily vigour stood him not in good stead, for he was captured by the weakest warrior among the Ansars and remained petrified with surprise. The ropes that bound him cut cruelly into his flesh. He sighed heavily in pain. One of the Faithful, recollecting the captive's handsome behaviour and that he was a relative of the Prophet, loosened his bonds most charitably.

Hearing of this and not admitting that a member of his family should be favoured, Mohammad ordered the bonds of all the other prisoners to be loosened in the same way.

It now remained to decide the fate of the captives. Abu Bakr, pretexting the ties of blood uniting victors and vanquished, was of opinion that a ransom should be accepted. Fierce Umar, recalling the fact that all the prisoners had made themselves conspicuous by their persecution of the Mussulmans and were responsible for the Prophet's banishment, proposed that they should be pitilessly exterminated. Both opinions rallied an equal number of partisans.

The Prophet sided with Abu Bakr. He gave orders to respect luckless valour and to treat the captives with the greatest humanity. He caused them to be freed from their bonds and had them guarded by all the Mussulmans in turn who, faithfully obeying his commands, deprived themselves of bread in favour of their prisoners; the Believers being content with dried dates.

The ransom was fixed according to each prisoner's wealth. Abbas, Mohammad's uncle, had to give the largest amount; the others were liberated without paying anything. Nevertheless, Mohammad required that before being set free, each captive knowing how to read and write, should give lessons to two children of the Ansars.

Among the prisoners was Abul' As ibn Rabiyah, a rich man in high repute. He had married Zainab, the daughter of the Prophet, before the Revelation, and was still an idolater. For the ransom of her husband, Zainab sent from Makkah a sum of money and a necklace, a wedding-gift from her mother Khadijah. The Prophet, recognising this piece of jewellery which he had ofttimes seen round the neck of his beloved and regretted Khadijah, was unable to repress his emotion and put this question to his disciples: 'If ye do not oppose me, I will send her husband back to Zainab, and renounce all claims to ransom.' No objection being raised, Mohammad told his prisoner that he was free.

'But only on one condition. Restore my daughter to my arms, for a woman of the Mussulmans cannot remain in the power of an idolater.'

The captive accepted most reluctantly, and as soon as he was again in Makkah, he kept his word.

The Quraish, however, hearing of Zainab's departure, started off in pursuit of her, and one of them, Hibar, struck her so brutally with the shaft of his spear, that he threw her out of her "hawdaj," (a kind of litter), and she dropped from the back of her camel to the ground.

Shortly after her arrival at Al-Madinah, the poor woman, not having recovered from her fall, and being pregnant, died from the effects of the ill-treatment she had thus undergone.

Under the influence of grief and despair, the Prophet gave orders that anyone putting his hand on the villain Hibar was to burn him alive.

But it was not long before Mohammad cancelled this cruel command, declaring: 'The Master of the Worlds alone hath the right to inflict the torture of Fire!' This was in allusion to the flames of h.e.l.l.

As for Abul'As, retaken by the Mussulmans while conducting a caravan back from Syria-, he was again liberated by the Prophet and became a convert to Islam.

Mohammad thus let no opportunity escape to prove his generosity to the prisoners, his own fellow-countrymen. The Prophet's clemency resulted immediately in the conversion of no small number of Makkans, marvelling at the tales told by the captives who, upon regaining the bosom of their families, bore witness to the kindness with which they had been treated.

Perhaps the fact of such compa.s.sion towards the enemies of Islam const.i.tuted peril in the future? So said a Revelation to the Prophet, blaming him at the same time. Mohammad was overwhelmed with profound sadness, at the thought that his generosity would cause the death of many Believers, as he dared not hope that goodness would sweep away all feeling of enmity.

As soon as the victory was won, the division of the booty was near to causing serious quarrels among the Faithful. Each man desired to keep to himself all he had plundered. Those who had fought without thinking of stripping the dead, put in a claim, saying to their comrades who wanted to keep that which they had taken: 'Had it not been for us, ye would have been unable to seize any booty at all.' Finally, the men of the rear-guard also complained: 'If we had not considered the Prophet's safety above all things, we should have fought with you and pillaged as ye did.' The debate seemed to be turning out badly when a Revelation put an end to the dispute: "_They will question Thee about the spoils. Say: The spoils are Allah's and The Apostle's._" (THE QUR'AN, VIII, 1.)

Back again in Al-Madinah, Mohammad divided the booty with the most scrupulous fairness, and gave out that not only the rearguard should receive their share, but also a few of the Faithful who had remained in the city to uphold the cause of Islam during the absence of their chief.

Thus did Mohammad succeed in contenting everybody. So far as he was concerned, he only took the same share as a common soldier; but it was settled that in future the fifth part of the booty "_should belong to Allah and to the Apostle and to the near of kin and to orphans, and to the poor and to the wayfarer_." (THE QUR'AN, VIII, 42.)

The Makkans were joyfully celebrating the return of the great caravan that had caused them such immense anxiety, when the remains of the routed army began to straggle back.

At first, the citizens refused to believe such dire disaster, so great had been their confidence in the superiority of the numbers and equipment of their soldiers. The fugitives were considered to be cowards deserting before the battle had begun.

But when doubt was no longer possible, profound consternation overtook Allah's enemies. The fury of Abu Lahab, the real organiser of the expedition, was inconceivable. In his presence, one of the fugitives told of the miracles he had witnessed and which, in his opinion, were an excuse for the defeat. 'The Mussulmans, a.s.suredly, were granted supernatural succour, for I saw, with my own eyes, in the whirling tempest, many warriors gifted with superhuman strength, wearing white tunics, mounted on dapple-grey horses, and fighting side by side with our enemies.'--'By Allah! verily, they were angels!' exclaimed one of those present, Abu Rafiah, a servant of Abbas, Mohammad's uncle.

Abu Lahab, enraged at the impression of terror produced by this story and the remarks that had followed, hurled himself on Abu-Rafiah, threw him down and beat him unmercifully in the most savage fashion. 'Art thou not ashamed thus to profit by the master's absence to strike his serving-man?' the wife of Abbas, revolted at the sight, shouted to Abu Lahab. Catching up a spear, she struck him in the face with it, and drew blood. The punishment was so well deserved that no one protested.

Abu Lahab, humiliated in the eyes of all, hastened to hide his shame and rage in the most secluded part of his dwelling. Not being in the best of health just then, he could not master the exasperation he felt. His blood was turned; the whole of his body broke out in reddish pustules, known as "adsah", and he was carried off in less than a week.

As for Abu Sufyan and his wife, Hind, in despair at the death of their son, Hanzalah, and debased by the defeat, they showed themselves conspicuously as being athirst for vengeance. Abu Sufyan exercised his authority by prohibiting all show of grief. 'Weep not for your dead,'

he proclaimed. 'Do not give way to the usual funereal lamentations.

Let poets be careful not to compose elegies. O Makkans! avoid causing the joy of our foes by the sight of your sadness. Let only one thought absorb your minds--that of vengeance!'

He took a solemn oath to abstain from going near his wife or making use of his perfumes until the day when striking revenge should bring balm to his heart.

The effect of the Prophet's victory spread far and wide among all the tribes of Arabia. The tidings crossed the seas; the Prophet having despatched an emissary to the Najashi of Abyssinia, to announce the result of the battle and to inform all the Believers, who had taken refuge at this monarch's court, that they would be in safety behind the walls of Al-Madinah, at Mohammad's side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Calligraphy (end chapter 5) _Believers! when ye confront a troop, stand firm and make frequent mention of the name of Allah; haply it shall fare well with you._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Ornamental page) CHAPTER THE SIXTH]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _"As Sidjah", or Prostration._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Calligraphy) _And be not faint-hearted, and be not sorrowful; For ye shall gain the upper hand if ye be believers._]

CHAPTER THE SIXTH

[Sidenote: ALI'S MARRIAGE]

By reason of admirable devotion, indomitable courage and the absolute purity of his way of living, Ali had become one of the most popular heroes of Islam, but his extreme poverty forced him to hire himself out to an Ansar, a garden landlord. When Ali was not engaged in prayer, he pa.s.sed the hours in watering date-trees. He deserved that this lowly situation, bearing no comparison with his exploits, should have been changed so as to give him new l.u.s.tre in the eyes of the people.

Abu Bakr and Usman, finding him one day busily engaged in drawing water from a well, bade him halt in his work, and reminded him of a former desire of his, when he had thought of marrying Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter. Ali got out of temper. 'Ye know how poor I am,' he told them. 'It's cruel of you to bring up a dream that can never come true!'

But they were so persistent, affirming that he could count upon their good offices, that Ali repressed his timidity, and carrying his sword, armour and sandals, that const.i.tuted his sole wealth, went and knocked at the Prophet's door. Mohammad welcomed him with these words: 'Here stands a man more dear to me than any other.' Ali remained silent, with bowed head. 'Speak!' commanded Mohammad.--'O Prophet!' Ali made up his mind to reply at last, 'thou didst bring me up, an orphan boy, with a father's love. This day have I arrived at an age when a man should have a home of his own. Once more I seek thine aid. I come to ask thee to give me thy daughter Fatimah in marriage.'--What dower bringest thou?'--'Thou knowest my poverty. I bring thee all I possess: my sword, armour and sandals.'--'Thy sword belongeth to thy religion, I cannot accept it. But thy good right arm is strong enough to defend thy breast better than any cuira.s.s. Go sell thine armour and bring me the price thereof to serve as my daughter's dower.'

Ali, all his wishes gratified, sought out a buyer. Usman offered him a good price and then gave him back his armour, begging him to accept it as a wedding-present.

The marriage was soon arranged; ratified by Mohammad saying to Ali: 'Verily, Allah gave thee my daughter in Heaven before I gave her to thee in this world.'

A great number of the Faithful, summoned by Bilal, were present to listen to the "khutbah" (sermon) of their chief, who wished to apprise them of the betrothal of his daughter to Ali. Bilal was charged to procure the few simple things indispensable in a household. Half the dowry served to buy a mattress and a pillow of palm-fibre, a goat-skin for water and a few earthenware platters. With the other half, were purchased b.u.t.ter, dates, and flour, forming the frugal betrothal repast.

When, according to custom, a group of women came to fetch the bride and lead her into her husband's room, the Prophet, in memory of her on whom this duty would have devolved, namely Khadijah, Fatimah's mother, was overtaken by a profound fit of sadness. Showers of tears coursed down his cheeks. When he had mastered his emotion, he placed Ali at his right hand, with Fatimah at his left, saying to them: 'May Allah cause to be born to you n.o.ble descendants, who shall be an honour to our race!'

For three days and three nights, the newly-married couple remained absorbed in prayer. It was only on the fourth night that chaste Ali, to whom Mohammad declared that he hoped a long line of male children would spring from this marriage, dared to approach his wife in whose veins coursed the blood of the Prophet.

Nine months later, Fatimah brought into the world a son who was named Hasan. A year after the birth of Hasan, his brother Husain was born.