The Life of Mohammad Part 3

I'll answer thee!'

Thereupon Bahira interrogated him on everything that was of interest, such as his family, his position in life, his dreams that, now and again, disturbed his slumbers, and many other things. Finally, just as the youth, after having taken leave of the saintly scholar, turned to go away, the collar of his tunic yawned slightly and Bahira caught sight of the "Seal of Prophecy," imprinted on the lad's back, below the nape of the neck, on the exact spot indicated by the Sacred Texts.

Bahira's last doubts vanished--here, indeed, standing in his presence, was the Prophet whose advent had been foretold. Therefore, the monk went up to Abu Talib and spoke to him, saying: 'What relation is this lad to thee?'--'He is my son.'--'No! He is no son of thine!'--'True enough! He is not my son, but that of my brother.'--'What hath become of thy brother?'--'He died while his wife was still pregnant with my nephew.'--'Thou dost speak the truth. Mark then my words: lose no time in returning to thy country with thy brother's son and watch over him with constant vigilance. Above all, beware of Jews! If they saw him and learnt what I have just learnt about him, by Allah! they would do him harm, for this son of thy brother is chosen to play a great part in the world!'

Abu Talib, much impressed by the warnings of a man whose scientific reputation was universally recognised, made haste to finish his business at Busra in Syria, and started back home to Makkah with his nephew, where they arrived safe and sound.

Protected by Allah and guided by his uncle, who watched over him with true paternal care, Mohammad grew up and became an accomplished young man. He was extremely chaste. Abu Talib being busily engaged in executing some repairs in the Zamzam well, several Quraish striplings, among them being Mohammad, fetched and carried big stones fitted to the work. So as to be more at their ease, they lifted up their _izars_ (a kind of tunic) in front, pa.s.sing them over their head and rolling them round the neck, thus protected from the sharp edges of the stones carried on the shoulders; and all this was done without troubling about the fact that they were showing their nakedness. Mohammad was obliged to imitate them; but so soon as he felt his nakedness exposed to every eye, he was seized with a fit of atrocious anguish; great drops of sweat stood out on his brow; a shudder of shame shook his entire frame and he fainted away.

Such innate modesty, and the protection granted by Allah to his Elect, safeguarded the young man from the excesses in which lads often fall at the period of p.u.b.erty. Among all the youths of the same age, he was the best-looking; the most generous; the most easygoing; the most truth-telling; the most devoted friend; and the most devoid of debauchery, to such an extent that his fellow-citizens called him "Al-Amin," which means: "The Reliable Man."

[Sidenote: THE SECOND SYRIAN VOYAGE (_A.D. 594_)]

Like Abu Talib, most of the men of Makkah were obliged, to eke out a living, to traffic with Syria and the Yaman.

Their town, situated in one of the most frightfully barren countries of the world, offered no resources and its citizens only made both ends meet by dint of trading with these two countries between which it served as a link.

Its caravans crawled to the Yaman to procure raw materials from that region, known as Arabia Felix; and also products brought from overseas, imported from Ethiopia, India and even far China. The camels came laden with fragrant spices, sweet-smelling incense, ivory, gold dust, silks and many other articles of luxury. Arriving in the Hijaz, they added dates from Yasrib or Taif. Then they wended their way into Syria, to exchange these goods for agricultural produce, such as grain, wheat, barley, rice, figs and raisins, as well as for imports of Greek and Roman civilisation.

Even women carried on this kind of trade, confiding their goods to those who organised caravans. These female traffickers sold the merchandise in return for a share of the profits.

Khadijah bint Khuaild, a rich and n.o.ble widow, at the head of a thriving enterprise of this kind, hearing that everybody was unanimous in extolling Mohammad's well-merited reputation for prudence and probity, thought it would be well to entrust him with the direction of her commerce. She sent for him and, as a beginning, proposed that he should take charge of a caravan she was despatching to Syria and offered a salary twice as large as she was generally in the habit of paying.

Mohammad accepted; but Abu Talib, calling to mind what the monk Bahira had told him, grew uneasy when the camels were ready to start. He spoke privately to each of the caravaneers, urging them to watch over his nephew, and making them responsible for any harm that might come to him. It was with Maisarah, a slave, Khadijah's right-hand man, that Abu Talib was most solemn in his warnings. About to travel with Mohammad, Maisarah, a good servant, simple-minded and devoted, already greatly impressed by the confidential observations of such a prominent citizen as Abu Talib, fell under the sway of the charm and influence exercised by his young master over all who approached him. Maisarah felt great liking and boundless admiration for Mohammad.

In every incident of the journey, Maisarah noted miraculous tokens, proving the superhuman disposition of the man he served, and indeed, certain events showed that the slave guessed aright. The road he had so often travelled, knowing all its fatigue and danger; the interminable tracks where the inexorable orb of day dried up the water-skins and gave the mortals who went that way a foretaste of the flames of Jahannam; the paths marked out by the bones of men and animals that had succ.u.mbed to pitiless thirst, were pa.s.sed as easily as if they had been enchanted.

Every day, at the hour when the sun, rising high over the heads of the travellers, threatened them with its deadly, blazing rays, light clouds, like the feathers of a bird, floated in the azure sky. They increased and met; then they were stretched out in long lines resembling the beam-feathers of enormous wings, opened to protect Mohammad beneath their shade. When the sun, losing its formidable power, began to sink gradually below the horizon, the feathers of these clouds dropped away one by one, vanishing in the last golden rays that the incandescent orb threw out through s.p.a.ce before disappearing. The protecting wings, now useless, closed, making room for the stars which sparkle nowhere in the world so brilliantly as over deserts. Even the camels seemed overjoyed; they doubled the stride of their great long legs and the path seems to fold itself backwards as they advance. No dead body of any of them was added to the sinister skeletons left behind by previous caravans.

Once only during the whole journey, a couple of Khadijah's camels showed signs of exhaustion and lagged behind the convoy. Despite the insults and blows showered on them, Maisarah failed to bring them in line with the others. The two wretched beasts were completely bathed in sweat, a certain sign that they would soon fall, never to rise again. Maisarah, devoted to his mistress's interests, was extremely perplexed. He did not want to forsake his tired camels; but on the other hand, he had not forgotten Abu Talib's pressing recommendations concerning the young man then leading the caravan, so the slave ran to apprise him of what was taking place.

Mohammad halted and came back with Maisarah to see the pair of camels who were lying down, uttering painful, pitiful groans each time an effort was made to make them get up. He leant over them and, with his blessed hands, touched their feet hacked by the sharp pebbles of the Hammadah, and the poor beasts that had not even stirred under the lash, suddenly rose to their feet and with enormous strides, grunting joyously, caught up with the leaders of the caravan.

Good luck lasted when the caravan reached Busra, in Syria. Mohammad sold out all the goods he brought with unexpected profit, and found, at extraordinarily advantageous rates, what he had come to get, without even having to undergo the horrors of never-ending haggling, according to Oriental custom.

He awakened the sympathy and interest of everyone by his winning ways, frankness and honesty; but above all, by that mysterious radiance emanating from Predestinated Beings; which the old masters interpreted by a golden aureola, called magnetism by the scientists of the present day, because they lack the power of explaining its nature.

In this region, where enthusiasm for questions of religion ran high; where every hill is topped by a monastery and where every stone calls up the remembrance of a Prophet, this young traveller, before whom Nature itself seemed to bow down, excited in the highest degree the curiosity of all these monks. They were renowned for researches in sacred texts and lived in hopes of the coming of a new Apostle of Allah. All flocked to put questions to Maisarah, known to many among them during previous journeys. They soon divined that he was Mohammad's confidential slave; and a Nestorian monk, named Jordis, predicted great things to the devoted serving-man, making the same kind of recommendations as Bahira had made to Abu Talib.

All transactions being terminated, the caravan turned homewards, and immediately the mysterious cloud, that seemed to be awaiting the travellers, took its place over Mohammad's head and never ceased to accompany him until the journey's end. On the outskirts of Makkah, at the spot called Bathen Mou, Maisarah prevailed on Mohammad to go on ahead of the convoy, so as to carry to Khadijah, without the least delay, the good news of their return.

The widow was in the habit of going up with her servants to the top of her house whence she could see the road to Syria, dipping, in a north-easterly direction, into the ravine overlooked by the Jabal Quayqwan. She certainly felt no anxiety concerning her goods, but without confessing as much to herself as yet, she was fearful lest anything harmful should happen to the man to whom she had confided them: young Mohammad who, by his n.o.ble bearing and upright disposition, had so deeply impressed her that his absence weighed her down. It seemed to be never-ending.

One day, among all these weary weeks of waiting, when the sun at its zenith was setting the town in a blaze, preventing the inhabitants from stirring out in the streets or mounting to the housetops, Khadijah lingered at her usual observatory. Her beautiful eyes, their lids scorched by dint of staring searchingly into the depths of the white-hot horizon, had just reluctantly closed, in despair at not seeing the caravan so impatiently desired ... All of a sudden, the house became filled with delicious, cool air; while the blinding reverberation of sunlight on the white terraces and calcined rocks was softened by a gauzy veil of sheltering violet shade ... Just then, the door opened and Mohammad entered Khadijah's dwelling.

Doing his duty like a scrupulous manager, he turned in all the accounts of his expedition, and enumerated the magnificent results thereof. She thanked and complimented him warmly, but without being very much astonished at his success, for she began to think he was predestinated.

The coincidence of his arrival with that of the cloud which granted such beneficent shade had not failed to strike her, and she divined the obvious connection of the circ.u.mstances. 'Where is Maisarah?'

quoth she.--'With the caravan over which he watches.'--'Go back at once and fetch him; increase the camels' speed, for great is my haste to admire the riches thou dost bring me.'

Mohammad heard and obeyed; and the cloud, flying away from the house, followed and accompanied him on the Syrian road. Henceforward, Khadijah's doubts were dispelled, and her faithful slave Maisarah, who soon arrived, confirmed her opinion. 'The cloud thou didst remark,' he told her, 'accompanied us unceasingly from the day we left Makkah until we returned. Ever since we went out of Busra, and enlightened by the predictions of the learned monks of the Hauran, I am forced to acknowledge that it was formed by the wings of two angels whose mission was to protect my master from the sun's ardent rays.'

He then narrated all those incidents of the journey in which he could make out miraculous tokens and Khadijah never grew tired of questioning him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Flocks_ 2 views]

[Sidenote: THE MARRIAGE OF MOHAMMAD AND KHADIJAH (_A.D. 595_)]

This n.o.ble, generous woman rewarded Mohammad by giving him double the salary she had promised and thenceforward had but one idea: to get him to take care of her entire wealth. The best way was to marry him, and the dictates of her heart urged her to carry out her plan. There was but one objection: the difference in their ages. Mohammad had only just attained his twenty-fifth year, while she was close upon forty.

Nevertheless, Khadijah's age did not prevent her from being the most marrigeable lady in all the town, not, as might be rightly thought, on account of her riches (according to Arab customs, the husband brings the dowry and has no right to his wife's property), but because of her personal qualities, charming ways, distinguished manners, chast.i.ty and aristocratic descent, Khadijah being the daughter of Khuaild bin Asad, bin Abdul Ozza, bin Qusaiy, bin Kilab, bin Morra, bin Kab, bin Lawaiy, bin Ghalib....

She was therefore the queen of a court of suitors trying to dazzle her, some by the purity of their pedigrees; others by the extent of their riches. But all in vain. Since the death of her second husband, Abu Hala, it seemed as if she had made up her mind to end her days without contracting a third alliance. When she met Mohammad and began to appreciate his moral qualities, all her resolutions soon weakened and the feelings that drew her towards him increased each day in intensity. She determined to sound him.

Maisarah has said: "Two months and twenty days after our return from Syria, my mistress sent me to my master and I questioned him thus: 'O Mohammad! hast thou any reason for remaining a bachelor?'--'My hands are empty. I do not possess the wherewithal to furnish the dowry of a betrothed bride.'--'But if the small amount thou hast should be considered enough by a rich, worthy and n.o.ble lady--what then?'--'To whom dost thou allude?'--'I mean Khadijah!'--'Why joke with me? How, with the trifle I could offer as a dowry, should I dare to seek her presence and offer to take her in marriage?'--'Rest easy on that score. I'll see to it.' My master's accents and looks sufficed for me to become aware of his feelings towards my mistress. Without further delay, I sought her out and told her what I thought. Beaming with joy, she made all her arrangements for speedy nuptials."

At first, Khadijah had to obtain the consent of Khuaild, her father, who so far had inexorably repulsed all suitors, as he never found any rich or n.o.ble enough for his daughter. To gain her ends, she resorted to trickery.

Coached by her, Mohammad made arrangements for a big feast, inviting his uncles, Khuaild and a group of Quraish tribesmen of the highest rank. Khuaild's weak point was a love of fermented beverages and, as was his wont, he drank a little more than was reasonable. His daughter seized the opportunity to speak to him thus: 'O my father? Mohammad ben Abdullah asks me to marry him and I beg thee to bring about our union.'

Khuaild, giddy with the fumes of wine, and seeing everything tinted with a rosy hue, gave his consent without reflecting, and Khadijah, immediately, following the custom prevailing at that epoch, bedewed her betrothed with perfumes and threw a sumptuous mantle over his shoulders.

Khuaild woke up out of his fit of drunkenness and interrogated his daughter: 'What doth all this signify?'--'Thou knowest full well, O my father! Thou hast just now settled my betrothal with Mohammad, son of Abdullah.'--'Could I have done this thing: marry thee to the orphan adopted by Abu Talib? Ah no! Never will I consent while I live!'--'Dost desire then to dishonour thyself in the eyes of the Quraish chiefs here this day, by confessing thou wert drunk just now?'

She continued in this strain, until at last Khuaild, finding nothing to say in response, was obliged to give his definite consent.

Thereupon Abu Talib made the following speech: 'Praise be to Allah who created us, the Bani Hashem, descendants of Ibrahim (Abraham) and of the seed of Ishmael, who did appoint us to be custodians of His House, the Holy Ka'bah, and Administrators of His Sacred Territory; and who made us as Lords over the Arabs. Here before ye standeth my brother's son, Mohammad bin Abdullah; no man can be weighed in the balance with him, for he is far above all others as regards n.o.bility, merit, generosity and wisdom. If he be not favoured by fortune, remember that wealth is naught else than a pa.s.sing, inconstant shadow; a loan to be repaid eventually. Now the soul of Mohammad bin Abdullah leaneth towards the n.o.ble dame Khadijah, whose soul eke leaneth towards him; and he doth beg at this hour that thou, O Khuaild! in thy generosity, should give her to him to be his wife. As dowry, he bringeth twenty young female camels, and I call upon ye to be my witnesses, O my Quraish brethren!'

The marriage took place, and so as to celebrate it duly, Khadijah had her young and graceful slaves to dance to the sound of tabors, before the company a.s.sembled; all unanimously overjoyed at this alliance between two such n.o.ble families.

Khadijah was Mohammad's first wife. She never had a rival in her husband's heart, and, until the day of her death, she was his sole, beloved spouse. She gave him seven children; three sons: al-Qasim, at-Tahir and at-Taiyib; and four daughters: Ruqaiyah, Fatimah, Zainab and Ummu Kulsum.

After the birth of al-Qasim, the eldest boy, a familiar surname, "Abul Qasim," that is to say, the Father of Qasim, was bestowed on Mohammad, full of joy at the coming of a scion of his house. Unfortunately, the poor child, greatly cherished by his father, was destined to die in infancy. The same fate overtook his brothers, at-Tahir and at-Taiyib, who pa.s.sed away in like fashion in "The Days of Ignorance." Only Mohammad's daughters witnessed the advent of Islam and were counted among its first and most faithful servants.

[Sidenote: HOW THE TEMPLE OF THE KA'BAH WAS REBUILT (_A.D. 605_)]

After partial destruction by fire, the Ka'bah had been badly restored.

The roof fell in, and thieves took advantage of the breach to get into the Sanctuary and carry off part of the treasure, const.i.tuted by pilgrims' offerings.

Fresh repairs were urgently needed; but as bad luck would have it, the walls were so dilapidated that they could no longer bear the least weight. There was nothing to be done but to raze them to the ground.

If, however, the idea of rebuilding such a revered monument met with no objection, its demolition seemed to be the most dangerous sacrilege imaginable.

After much hesitation, finally dispelled by a series of obvious miracles, the Quraish men came to the resolution of tearing down the old walls of which the remains were in heaps on the ground. Then, as the ancient foundations were formed of blocks of stone admirably fitting one into the other, each clan of the Quraish tribe undertook part of the task of rebuilding.

The workers, actuated by the zeal that always arises from rivality, soon built up the walls to the height at which the famous Black Stone, "al-Hajaru'l-Aswad," should be fixed. Who was to have the honour of putting the precious relic back in its place? There was not the slightest chance of coming to an agreement on this point, and, in consequence of each party pleading the precedence of the purest n.o.ble descent or the greatest merit, the discussion grew so heated that most tragical results were to be feared. Under the influence of jealousy, groups were formed and stood face to face. The Bani Abed-Dar, joining the Bani Adiyy bin Kab, brought forth a bowl filled with blood, plunging their hands therein, and swearing they would die sooner than relinquish the privilege in anyone else's favour, because they thought it devolved upon them by right.

For four days and four nights, the adversaries, with threatening mien, remained on the look-out, absorbed in the task of vigilantly watching each other. At last, Abu-Ummayah, their senior, spoke out, saying: 'There will come a time when all this must finish and this is what I propose: name as umpire the first man who cometh into our midst, and let him settle the dispute that destroyeth our union.'

The advice given was not displeasing to the stubborn rivals and they finally agreed to follow it. It happened then, at that very moment, that they saw coming towards them a young man about thirty years of age. They recognised him as "Al-Amin" (The Reliable); in other words: Mohammad. Nothing could have been more fortunate, and all being as of one mind on this point, they accepted him as arbitrator at once, submitting the cause of their conflict to his judgment. When they terminated explaining the case, Mohammad, instead of hearkening to their respective claims, only said: 'Bring a mantle and spread it out on the ground.'

When they had obeyed his behest, he took the Black Stone in his hands and placing it in the middle of the cloak, he went on: 'Let the most influential person of each party take hold of the mantle by the corner that is in front of him.' All did as they were told, and then he turned towards those who held the corners of the mantle. 'Now, lift the cloak,' he continued; 'all together, up to the height of the wall which is being built.'