The Life of Mohammad Part 4

They obeyed and when the lifted cloak was level with the spot where the Black Stone was to be built in, Mohammad took the Relic and with his own hands, put it in its place.

Thanks to his presence of mind, all cause of discord disappeared. He had given satisfaction to each of the rival groups, without favouring one more than the other; and caused the proud Arabs to be reconciled without bloodshed, for the first time in all their history; in short, there was honour due to him which no one contested.

High above the Black Stone, the walls rose rapidly, carried up by the workers toiling as friends. The ribs of a ship wrecked on the Jeddah coast furnished a flat terrace-roof, and when the monument was finished, it was entirely draped with a veil of the finest lawn, woven by the Copts.

In later years, the veil consisted of striped Yaman cloth; and still later, the Ka'bah was covered by Hajaj bin Yusef with the "Kiswah," or garment of black silk, such as is still thrown over it at the present day, being renewed yearly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Calligraphy) _And provide for your journey; but the best provision is the fear of Allah._]

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: _"At Takbir", or Glorification._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Calligraphy) _Verily, we have caused It (the Qur'an) to descend on the night of Power._]

CHAPTER THE THIRD

[Sidenote: DESERT RETIREMENT]

To him they called "Al-Amin," (the Reliable), his fellow-citizens were ready to grant the highest and most coveted honours, with a post of preponderance in their city.

But being of a disposition equally devoid of vanity or ambition, he disdainfully refused to reply to their flattering advances, and his fortuitous intervention in the dispute arising from the rebuilding of the Ka'bah was the only time he was mixed up with public affairs during a period of fifteen years, dating from his wedding-day.

How did he pa.s.s his time? Allah had inspired him with the love of solitude, and Mohammad loved more than anything to wander all alone on great empty plains stretching away farther than the eye could reach.

What were the causes of this liking? Doubtless, in the gloomy desert surrounding Makkah, he conjured up over and over again the delightful memories of his childhood, pa.s.sed in the Badya; but his highly-gifted soul found satisfaction of a more exalted kind. In the first place, he was spared the sight of the moral and religious errors of the Arabs at that period.

The Arabs were, in the highest degree, aristocratic, proud, independent and courageous. Their generosity towards their guests was exemplified in a refined manner that has never been surpa.s.sed; and, among them, a certain Hatim Tay may be looked upon as the Prince of Generous Hosts.

By their natural gifts of eloquence and poetry, they can bear comparison with the most brilliant orators or magnificent poets of the universe. Their poetry, above all, allowing them to celebrate heroic exploits; and their open-minded generosity by which they were led to sing love's joy and sadness, became, for such hot-blooded men, the object of pa.s.sionate adoration, marvellously well served by the most enchanting language ever known.

Their public fairs, particularly that held at Okaz, furnished an opportunity for real poetical contests, where the winner heard his poem applauded by a madly delighted throng, and then it was written out fully in letters of gold, and hung up in the Temple of the Ka'bah.

Of these poetical triumphs, called "Al-Muaalaquate," ("The Suspended"), seven have been handed down to us and prove what great heights were attained by the genius of the Bedouin primitive poets.

But, at the same time as we admire such brilliant qualities innate in the Arabs, we have to deplore great errors. The monotheistic religion of their great ancestor Ibrahim (Abraham) was entirely forgotten, despite their continued veneration for the Temple built with their own hands. They had become "Mushrikun," ("a.s.sociates"). To Allah, the Only One, partners were adjoined in the shape of idols, who were generally preferred. Every tribe and family possessed a favourite idol; and, at that epoch, three hundred and sixty false G.o.ds, of wood or stone, dishonoured the Holy Ka'bah.

The most gross superst.i.tion flourished in addition to idolatry. Games of chance, divining by arrows, drunkenness and sorcery debased the brains of these men, all otherwise remarkably gifted. Fretting under all restraint, lacking all ideas of decency, they married as many women as they could afford to feed; and as widows were considered to belong to their husbands' estate, revolting unions took place between stepmothers and stepsons.

Still more abominable was the custom of the "Wa'du'l-Binat," (Burying Girls Alive). By some strange morbid decay of the feeling of honour, and also through fear that the debauchery of daughters or their capture by an enemy might one day bring opprobrium on their families, many unnatural fathers preferred to get rid of their female offspring, by burying them alive as soon as they were born.

To sum up: the Arabs' leaning towards ostentation, their aristocratic prejudice and overweening pride, caused them to rebel against all discipline or authority. Consequently, union and progress becoming impossible, incessant warfare and pitiless vendettas between tribes and families submerged all Arabia in a sea of blood.

Such were the errors that saddened Mohammad. He could no longer bring himself to look upon them, and as he saw no cure for such deep-rooted and general evil, which he thought was infallibly destined to draw down on his people the terrible punishment of Heaven, such as annihilated the inhabitants of Thamud and Ad, he hid himself away in the most deserted spots he could find. Far from the contact of human beings, he was able to drive out of his memory the odious remembrance of their iniquity.

It was then that he gave way entirely to the imperious need of meditation and religious worship that mastered his soul. He wandered in sandy ravines, following capricious meandering watercourses, or climbing up the steep sides of rocky mountains, to recline at their summits and let his glance and imagination be lost in the depths of the arid expanse that stretched away at his feet as far as the most unattainable horizon.

During many long hours, stock-still in the midst of such impressive empty s.p.a.ce; in this ocean of light where deathly silence reigned, he would be engrossed in mute and ecstatic contemplation of the sight--incomparably grand and varied--offered to him by the elements of heaven and earth obeying a mysterious, unknown, inconceivable, universal and unique Power....

He gazed on dunes and rocks, veiled at first by the dawn's rosy gauze, studded with humble pebbles that became sparkling precious stones when the early rays of the sun broke forth. Next came the shroud of dazzling light which the orb of day, at its zenith, spread over the tired earth that was as still as a corpse. Then followed a golden flood that the sun, as it declined, let loose in great waves all over the world, as if wishing that its departure should give rise to even greater regret. At last was seen the moon's scarf, irisated like a pigeon's breast, splashing the sky with its sparks that changed into myriads of stars.

And there arose proud columns that in still weather the sand erected joyously, as if trying to reach the blue vault above; or furious spouts which, on stormy days, gushed from the bottom of ravines, to attack dark, lightning-loaded mists. Caravans of clouds sometimes careered, shaped like flocks of white sheep, driven by the wind away from the high peaks where they were formed; forced to depart before they could bedew their birthplace with rainy tears. On other days, diluvian storms broke in cascades over bare mountains, vomiting forth impetuous torrents, thundering in the valleys.

In comparison with these formidable elements, which never dared to rebel against the law imposed upon them by Supreme Power, how weak and arrogant Humanity seemed to be! It relied upon the strength of mundane inst.i.tutions, and now such feeble trifles were liquefied by the mirage viewed by Mohammad in the mirrored waves of seething ether, as if to proffer the image of the absolute vanity of the things of this world.

The "Khelous" (Desert Retirement), was the main source of Mohammad's education. It cleansed his heart of all worldly thoughts. That is why tradition has named it "Safat as Safa,"--The Purity of Purity.

Little by little, the soul of the boundless Desert penetrated his soul, bringing him the intuition of the unlimited grandeur of the Lord of All the Worlds. The most imperceptible secrets of Nature communed in the uttermost hidden depths of his being, impregnating his mind so violently that these eternal truths were on the point of escaping from his lips. Carlyle, the great thinker, cannot restrain his admiration in this connection. "The word of such a man is a Voice direct from Nature's own heart. Men do and must listen to that as to nothing else;--all else is wind in comparison." (_The Hero as Prophet_, London, 1840.)

How is it that some Orientalists of the West have put forward the theory that Mohammad profited by this retirement to arrange and elaborate his future task in its most minute details? Some of these scholars have even gone so far as to insinuate that, during his seclusion, he composed the Qur'an in its entirety. Have they not noticed that, in this Divine Book, there is no preconceived plan according to human methods; and that each of the Surahs, taken alone, is applicable to events that happened later, extending over a period of more than two decades and which it was impossible for Mohammad to foresee?

That they could find no other explanation of his long meditation is due to their ignorance of the Arab mind. If these learned men had lived among the Bedouins long enough to understand that the contemplation in which the denizens of the desert are often seen engrossed, squatting on a hill-top, staring into vacancy, is not that state of empty-headed idiocy described by a few travellers, possessed of more humour than observation. If, above all, they themselves had the opportunity of revelling in the unutterable charm of the ecstasy, which can only arise from viewing the immensity of the desert, they would have acknowledged that thereby surprising advantage accrues to the intuitive faculties of the intellect, and therefore they could never have been so clumsily mistaken.

This contemplation is as a crucible in which melt nascent emotive feelings and thoughts, issuing therefrom in a state of extraordinary purity. It may be also be compared to an acc.u.mulator storing up supernatural force, although hidden and unknowing, such as the latent power of fire lurking in the core of a tree-trunk. The forces acc.u.mulated by contemplation remain unsuspected by all, even by those in whom they reside. But let the tiniest spark fly out and a flashing flame will immediately rise heavenwards to dazzle the universe.

At that epoch, it is certain that Mohammad had none of the intentions with which Orientalists have credited him. He had not even made a plan of any kind. In his "Khilwah" there was meditation, but no premeditation. Mohammad, at last, enjoyed luminous visions and heard mysterious calls, at the moment fixed by Providence to manifest His bounty by the intervention of the man He had chosen to be His Prophet.

Mohammad has said: "For ten months before the first Revelation, my sleep was disturbed by dazzling dreams, like unto the rays of early dawn, and when I could no longer be seen from the houses, I heard voices calling: 'O Mohammad! O Mohammad!' I turned round and looked behind me, first to the right, then to the left, but I could only see shrubs and stones. It was then that I was overwhelmed with frightful anguish. Hating sorcerers and diviners, I feared lest I had become like them, unknowingly and against my will. These voices that seemed to spring from inanimate objects, might have been those of the Jinn in hiding--the Jinn that give informations to wizards and fortune-tellers concerning celestial matters and so help them to carry on their nefarious trade."

[Sidenote: THE REVELATIONS (_A.D. 611_)]

Hollowed out of a block of red granite on the Jabal An-Noor, or Mountain of Light, about three miles from Makkah, to the left of the Arafa road, is the grotto of Hira, chosen by Mohammad to seek seclusion there yearly for one whole month, living day and night in absolute retirement.

He would take some provisions, consisting mainly of "Kaak" (a kind of biscuit cooked in oil and which possessed the advantage of remaining indefinitely in a good state of preservation), so as not to be forced to return to the town. If, by any chance, his stock of food became exhausted and he was obliged to go and fetch other eatables, he went back to his cave, for any interruption of his ecstatic meditations made him suffer greatly.

He was now forty, and, for the last fifteen years, by dint of anxious Adoration, he tried to rid the Hanif religion, that is to say the monotheistic creed of his ancestor Abraham, of the vulgar modifications from which it had suffered at the hands of the citizens of Makkah, when one night, the twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh or twenty-ninth of the month of Ramadhan (January 15-17, or 19, A.D.

611), the unforgettable Event occurred by which the Merciful One proved His generosity to His creature, by sending His Revelation on earth in the first verses of the Qur'an, by the lips of His Messenger.

The Prophet has said: "I had fallen asleep in the grotto of Hira, when the angel Jibra'il appeared to me, and unfolding before my eyes a long strip of silken stuff embroidered with written letters: 'Read!' said he.--'I am not one of those who read,' I replied. He caught hold of me at once, tightening the silken folds round my limbs, mouth and nostrils with such violence that I could not breathe. I thought the hour of my death had arrived.

"Letting me go, he repeated: 'Read!'--'I am not one of those who read,' I answered as before. Again he clutched me and I felt my last breath about to escape from my breast. Finally he loosened his hold and repeated for the third time: 'Read!'--'What am I to read?' I asked, in my affright lest he tighten the silk around me anew and this time I felt certain that my lungs would not have held out.

"It was then that he said to me: '_Read! in the name of thy Lord who created * Created man from clots of blood * Read! For thy Lord is the most beneficent * Who hath taught the use of the pen * Hath taught Man that which he knew not._' (THE QUR'AN, XCVI, 1-5).

"I recited these words after him. He vanished. Starting out of my sleep, I had the impression that the whole of a Book had just been engraved on my heart.

"I went out of the cave to collect my thoughts, when halfway down the mountain, I heard a voice that came from Heaven, crying out to me: 'O Mohammad, thou art the Prophet of Allah and I am Jibra'il!' I raised my glance to the sky. It was filled by Jibra'il's presence. Despite all I could do to turn my eyes, wellnigh blinded, in the direction of other parts of the horizon, the angel's dazzling apparition was always before me. And I stood rooted to the spot, unable to go backwards Or forwards. I was petrified.

"For the second time, Jibra'il said to me: 'O Mohammad, thou art the Prophet of Allah and I am Jibra'il!' He then disappeared like a vision in a dream. It was then that in great haste, my heart beating in the most terrible anguish, I ran towards my dwelling...."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Encampment._ 2 views]

When the Prophet crossed the threshold of his house, he rushed to Khadijah, hiding his face in her lap and trembling as if in a fit of ague, as he cried: 'Cover me up! Cover me up!' His servants flocked busily round him, keeping him enwrapped until his emotion had subsided. Khadijah, much upset, questioned him: 'O Father of Qasim, where wert thou? By Allah, what befell thee? I sent some of my servants to meet thee, but they came back without having met thee, either at Hira, or on the outskirts of the city.'

The Prophet told her what had happened to him. 'I thought I should have died!' he added. 'That could not be,' answered Khadijah, regaining her composure. 'Surely Allah sought not to do thee harm, for thou art kind to thy family, merciful to the weak and helpful towards the victims of injustice. O son of my uncle! thou dost bring me excellent tidings and that I do affirm. I swear, by the name of Him who holdeth in His hands the soul of Khadijah, that I hoped for this news. There is no doubt about it--thou wilt be the Prophet of our nation.'