Читать книгу Muhammad: Man and Prophet - Adil Salahi - Страница 10
ОглавлениеWHEN EARLY PROPHETS are mentioned, one often thinks of Abraham – not because he was the first Prophet, for according to Islamic tradition he was not, but because God honoured him by placing prophethood in his seed. Yet when Abraham was advanced in years he was still childless and his wife Sarah, whom he loved and cherished, was beyond the age of childbearing. With unshakeable faith that God was always able to do what He willed, Abraham still hoped that one day he would have a child who would give him pleasure and happiness in his old age.
Sarah had a maid called Hagar whom she had brought from Egypt. She gave that bondswoman to Abraham and said: “I am now an old woman, well beyond the age of childbearing. I am giving you my bondswoman, Hagar, and hope that God may give you a child through her.” Before long Hagar was pregnant. She gave birth to a son, who was named Ishmael.
Abraham’s joy was great, and so was Hagar’s. She felt now that her position in the house was no longer that of a bondswoman. She was the mother of the only child of the family. As Sarah watched Hagar looking after her newborn son, her feeling of jealousy grew stronger every day, especially when she noticed that Abraham was now looking after Hagar and Ishmael, showing them great love and tenderness.
Yet Abraham was very eager to keep Sarah happy. After all, she was his wife with whom he had shared his life for many years. He felt that the only way to keep both women happy was to separate them. While pondering how to do that, he received Divine orders which settled matters for him. A perfect model of a believer who was always ready to carry out God’s orders, Abraham travelled with Hagar and Ishmael, along unfamiliar routes and deep inside the Arabian peninsula, until he arrived in the area where Makkah now stands. At that time the place was barren, with no vegetation or water. Nobody lived there. But Abraham was commanded by God to leave his son Ishmael with Hagar in that place. Since Abraham never disobeyed a command from God, he left his son there with his mother, giving them a sack of dates and whatever little water he had with him. He started on his way back to Palestine where he had left Sarah.
Hagar asked him how he could leave them in that barren valley. Abraham did not answer. He could not even look back, for he was so sorry to leave them there. It is easy to imagine that his eyes were full of tears as he moved away and left them alone. Desperate to be reassured, Hagar shouted to him: was he abandoning them there on God’s orders? When he answered in the affirmative, she said: “He who has ordered you to do that will not abandon us.”
Travelling back on his long, lonely journey, Abraham must have experienced all the feelings of an old father abandoning his only child, very young, alone with his young mother in the desert. As a firm believer in God’s wisdom, however, he felt that he could nevertheless entrust them to the care of God. He raised his hands and repeated this heartfelt prayer: “Our Lord, I have settled some of my offspring in a valley where there is no vegetation, close to Your sanctified House, so that, Our Lord, they might devote themselves to prayer. Cause You, therefore, people’s hearts to incline towards them and provide them with all sorts of fruit, so that they may have cause to be grateful.” (14: 37) With the feeling that God would not abandon those two helpless souls who were so dear to Him, Abraham continued his journey with a new sense of relief.
A Lonely Mother with Her Child
Back in the barren valley, Hagar devoted herself to her young child, reassured that God must have a purpose for their arrival in that lifeless desert. She felt no need to despair. For a few days she and her son survived on the dates and water Abraham had left. She praised God for His bounty and prayed Him to be merciful to her and to her son. Soon, however, her supply of dates and water was exhausted. She had nothing to feed herself or her young boy. The two were soon very hungry and thirsty. With the cries of the little boy sharp in her ears, Hagar felt desperate, helpless. She was running here and there, hoping that she would find something to quieten Ishmael. She climbed the nearest hill to try to observe the area around her. That hill was al-Ṣafā. But she could see no one. She came down and climbed the next hill, al-Marwah. Again, there was no sign of life around. She went back to the first hill and kept going to and fro between the two hills. Each time she thought she heard voices from the other direction. When she had run between the two hills seven times, and was on the top of al-Marwah, she heard a voice very close to her, but she could not see anyone. She said: “Whoever you are, help us if you can.” Turning towards her child in the bottom of the valley, she saw him rubbing the earth with his leg. She then heard the angel asking her who she was. She answered: “I am Hagar, the mother of Abraham’s son.” He asked her: “To whom has he entrusted you in this barren place?” She replied: “He entrusted us to the care of God.” The angel rejoined: “He has then trusted you to the All-Merciful, the Compassionate.”
At this point, while the boy was still rubbing his leg against the earth, water gushed forth between his feet. Hagar shouted: “God is Supreme.” She rushed back to her son and began to form a barrier around the new-found spring so that the water would not run into the valley. She filled her water container and the water continued to gush forth. After giving her child enough to drink, she drank herself and prostrated herself in a gesture of thankfulness to God for His grace. She felt that she had been brought into that area in order that a definite purpose of God be accomplished.
The water continued to gush forth and attracted birds. It so happened that an Arabian tribe called the Jurhum was travelling north across the desert when they saw a bird flying nearby. They realized that there must be a spring in the area for birds would only fly across an area where they saw water. Keen to replenish their stock of water, they tried to determine the exact position of the spring. Their emissaries soon came back with the happy news and they moved over to wash and drink. When they saw Hagar, they realized that the spring was hers. She, however, was more than pleased to see them and said that they were welcome to encamp.
The Jurhum liked the place, and Hagar was very happy to have them. They felt that they could settle there without the need to travel any further north. This was the beginning of settled life in the valley of Makkah. Ishmael grew up among the Jurhum tribe, learning their language, Arabic, and mixing with their children. When he was a young man, he married a Jurhum girl who gave him a number of sons and daughters. Ishmael was in effect one of the Jurhum. He and his children lived in that valley, and many generations later Muhammad, God’s Messenger and a direct descendant of Ishmael, was born in that very place.
Abraham did not just abandon his young child with his lonely mother and forget about them. Prophets do not abandon their families in that manner. Despite the long distance between Palestine and the place where Ishmael had been left, Abraham visited Hagar and Ishmael every now and then. He recognized God’s grace, which was manifest in the fact that the Jurhum came to settle in that valley, so that Ishmael could grow up among them.
The Great Sacrifice
On one of his visits, Abraham saw in a dream that he was commanded to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, for God’s sake. At that time Ishmael was in his teens, able to understand the fact that Prophets like his father did not see any ‘false’ dreams. It is the first mark of prophethood that the dreams a Prophet sees are as true as anything he sees in real life. The dream was repeated on three consecutive nights and Abraham realized that he had no choice but to carry out the Divine order. He put the matter as gently as he could to his son, who was still in the prime of youth, and asked him: “What do you say, son?”
Since Ishmael was brought up by a mother whose firm belief in God did not forsake her even at the moment when she was abandoned alone with her young boy in the middle of the desert, and by a father who was a Prophet, faith had been instilled in him ever since he was very young. He therefore faced the problem squarely and announced his readiness to submit himself to God’s will: “Father, do as you are bid. You will find me, God willing, patient and able to face death with fortitude.” (37: 102)
Both father and son went some distance out of the city, to the place known today as Minā, where they prepared to obey God’s command. Satan tried to dissuade Abraham from sacrificing his son. He tried to arouse fatherly love in him. Abraham’s submission to God’s will, however, showed no sign of weakness whatsoever. He stoned Satan in three different spots. His action is commemorated by pilgrims when they stone the Jamrahs as one of the duties of their pilgrimage. At the point when Abraham was about to cut his son’s throat in complete submission to the Divine will, an angel came to him and bade him stop. He was told that God had accepted his offering and was pleased with his obedience. He had spared Ishmael for the sake of his elderly father. The angel gave Abraham a fully grown sheep to sacrifice instead.
Building the Kaʿbah
On another visit, perhaps when Ishmael was already married and had some children, Abraham told him that God had ordered him to erect a House in that place, to serve as a consecrated temple. Ishmael expressed his readiness to help his father build the desired structure. Both father and son worked hard to lay the foundations and erect the building. Ishmael carried the stones and put each one in its place while Abraham made sure that the building was firm and well established. When the building was higher than Abraham’s reach, Ishmael brought a large stone for his father to stand on and continue the work. As father and son laboured to complete the building, they prayed God to accept their work and bless their seed. The Qur’ān quotes their prayers:
When Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, they prayed: “Our Lord, accept You this from us, for You are indeed the One Who hears all and knows all. Our Lord, make us submit ourselves to You, and make out of our offspring a community which will submit itself to You, and show us our ways of worship, and accept our repentance. You are indeed the One Who accepts repentance, the Merciful. Our Lord, raise up in the midst of our offspring a messenger from among themselves, who shall convey to them Your revelations, and instruct them in the Book and in the wisdom, and cause them to grow in purity. You alone are the Almighty, the truly Wise.” (2: 127-129)
God accepted the work done by Abraham and Ishmael, and answered their prayers. He made the building they erected a centre of worship to which people from all over the world came on pilgrimage. God instructed Abraham to announce to mankind that God required them to make the pilgrimage to that House. Abraham asked: “How far can my voice reach, my Lord?” God told him that it was his task to make the announcement and God Himself would ensure that it was heard all over the world. Abraham complied, and God caused his announcement to be heard far and wide. People started coming to the House, which was called the Kaʿbah, from the time of that announcement. Abraham taught them the rituals of pilgrimage, as he was taught them by God through an angel. God told Abraham that it was His will that Makkah should be a consecrated city where fighting was forbidden. Its animals were to move about safely without fear of being hunted. It was forbidden to cut down its trees. People were secure and safe there. Such has been the status of Makkah ever since Abraham built that House which was the first ever to be erected as a centre of worship for mankind.
Abraham was instructed by God to build the Kaʿbah so that it could serve as a focal point for those who worshipped God alone and ascribed no partners or equals to Him. It was also meant to be a refuge, where everyone felt secure. The Kaʿbah was always a structure of dark stones which had no special significance of their own. The ceiling was raised over pillars made of the best wood. The sanctity the Kaʿbah has come to acquire is the result of the memories with which it has been associated. More importantly, its sanctity is due to the concept for whose propagation it is a symbol: the oneness of God, the only deity worthy of worship. Anyone who assumes that the Kaʿbah itself, or any part of it, can have any beneficial or harmful effect of its own accord is guilty of idolatry, which Islam will always fight with all its might to eradicate.
The Kaʿbah continued to be revered and sanctified by the Arabs, even at the height of their polytheism. Indeed, the Arabs who lived far from Makkah used to make the trip to visit the holy place. The Quraysh derived much of their prestige as the master tribe in Arabia from the fact that they were the custodians of the Kaʿbah.
God also answered Abraham’s and Ishmael’s prayer to send among their offspring a messenger to instruct them in the pure faith based on total submission to God. That messenger was Muhammad, the last of all Prophets.1
The building of the Kaʿbah and the regular pilgrimage to it gave Makkah a special importance in Arabia. In time, other tribes came to settle there. The authority in Makkah, however, belonged to the tribe which looked after the Kaʿbah and held its custody. They held the keys to it and led the pilgrimage, showing the pilgrims how to perform their rituals. That was a position of great honour and the Arabian tribes competed among themselves to win over the custody of the Kaʿbah. When any tribe had the upper hand in Makkah, its nobility enjoyed that honour for as long as they could keep it in the face of constant opposition from other tribes.
Naturally, the custody of the Kaʿbah belonged at first to Ishmael and his offspring. It continued in their hands until it was later taken over by the Jurhum tribe. The takeover was completed without violence, since the Jurhum were considered the ‘maternal uncles’ of the Ishmaelites, because Ishmael was married to a Jurhum woman. The Jurhum continued to be custodians of the Kaʿbah for a long while. As time passed, however, they allowed changes to creep into the rituals of pilgrimage and their rule became tyrannical. Always, in the history of Makkah, whenever the custodians of the Consecrated Mosque, that is, the Kaʿbah, allowed corruption to spread, God would cause them to lose the honour of the custody of the Kaʿbah to some other tribe. Thus the Jurhum ceded to the Khuzāʿah the supreme honour of holding the custody of the Kaʿbah. The Jurhum, however, did not surrender willingly. When they realized that they were unable to defend their position, they collected all the treasures which were dedicated to the Kaʿbah and buried them in the well of Zamzam, the spring which had gushed forth between Ishmael’s feet when he was a very young boy. They levelled the well and removed all traces of its position. When they had made sure that no one would be able to discover the position of the well, they left Makkah for some other place.2
For a long time the Khuzāʿah continued to be the custodians of the Kaʿbah. They were the rulers in Makkah until the Quraysh took over. The Quraysh enjoyed the noblest lineage in Arabia because they were the direct descendants of Ishmael and Abraham (peace be upon them both). The man who gained that honour for the Quraysh was Quṣayy ibn Kilāb,3 the fifth grandfather of our Prophet Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh.
It is important to mention here that these political changes were matched by far-reaching changes in the beliefs of the people of Arabia. Over the years, the concept of God’s oneness weakened its hold on people’s minds. The introduction of a physical symbol of the Divine power was the beginning of idolatry. As symbols increased in number, they came to be viewed as deities and partners with God. By the time Quṣayy was master in Makkah, pagan beliefs had spread throughout Arabia.
Quṣayy Assumes Leadership in Makkah
The story of Quṣayy’s ascendancy is worth telling. His father died when he was very young. His mother married a man from the tribe of Quḍāʿah, called Rabīʿah ibn Ḥarām. Rabīʿah took his wife and her young son to live with his tribe in the north of Arabia, close to the border with Palestine. Quṣayy lived there thinking that he was Rabīʿah’s own child. When he was a young man he learned that he belonged to the Quraysh and that his brother Zuhrah was the chief of the Quraysh. He therefore travelled to Makkah, where he joined his brother.
It was not long before the whole of Makkah recognized that Quṣayy was a young man of great promise. He combined a serious character with great sagacity and a noble heart. He made many friends. When he wanted to marry, his choice was none other than Ḥubbā, daughter of Ḥulayl ibn Ḥubshiyyah, chief of the Khuzāʿah and Master of Makkah who held the position of the custodian of the Kaʿbah. Ḥulayl recognized the qualities of leadership in Quṣayy and was very fond of him. He treated him like his own son. On his deathbed, Ḥulayl made it known that Quṣayy was his choice to succeed him as custodian of the Kaʿbah and ruler of Makkah. The transfer, however, was not completed without resistance from the Khuzāʿah. Quṣayy sought help from his brothers in the tribe of Quḍāʿah and they came over with speed and a large army to support him. He soon subdued the Khuzāʿah and was Master of Makkah.
Fighting broke out between the two sides, leading to much bloodshed. Arbitration was then agreed and the arbiter, Yaʿmur ibn ʿAwf, ruled in Quṣayy’s favour. When Quṣayy was the undisputed leader of Makkah, he called in all the clans of the Quraysh, which were scattered all over the place, to come and resettle there. He assigned to each clan their district so that they were in complete control of the whole city. All the Quraysh were extremely happy with Quṣayy’s leadership. They called him the Assembler because he had caused the Quraysh to regroup. They felt that he was a man of good omen. They honoured him to the extent that no man or woman from the Quraysh would be married, no consultation in any public matter and no declaration of war could be made unless it was done in his home. His request was an order and his word was a religion to them. He built a big hall close to the mosque to serve as a meeting-place for the Quraysh and called it Dār al-Nadwah. They assembled there for any occasion of joy or distress, held their consultations and arranged their parties and social events. Dār al-Nadwah was associated with Quṣayy and continued to serve its purpose after his death.
One of Quṣayy’s noble acts was the initiation of a practice which came to be known as Rifādah. He noted that pilgrims were always coming to Makkah from distant places. By the time they arrived they were weary, their camels or horses in a state of utter exhaustion. They were ill-fed and ill-clothed, especially those who were of limited means. He recognized that Makkah must be much more hospitable to them. He therefore called in the Quraysh notables and said to them:
People of Quraysh, you are God’s neighbours and the custodians of His House who live in this consecrated city. God has chosen you for this honour. In the pilgrimage season you welcome those pilgrims who have come to visit God’s House, revering its sanctity and performing its rituals. They are God’s guests in His House. The guests most worthy of hospitality are God’s guests. You must be hospitable to them. Let us, then, provide them with food and drink in the days of pilgrimage until they have left our city to return to their homes and families.
The Quraysh responded well to Quṣayy’s appeal and approved his suggestion. Every family subscribed a specific quantity of food and drink according to their means. They put it all at Quṣayy’s disposal and he supervised the arrangements by which all pilgrims were given enough to eat and drink. Quṣayy himself took part in the work and offered the pilgrims whatever the Quraysh prepared for them – bread, meat and various dishes. This increased the Quraysh’s prestige and enhanced Quṣayy’s honour. He in effect combined all the symbols of honour and leadership. No one could enter the Kaʿbah unless Quṣayy himself opened the door for him. During the pilgrimage season no one ate or drank anything except what Quṣayy provided. His honour was the Quraysh’s honour; they loved and revered their leader.
When Quṣayy died, the institutions he had established continued to prosper. The leader of the Quraysh was the most respected chief in Arabia. The Quraysh itself commanded a position of great respect.4
Quṣayy was succeeded by a number of able chiefs from his own offspring. They continued his traditions of looking after the tribe and taking care of pilgrims. That latter concern and the custody of the Kaʿbah were matters of great honour for the Quraysh. Hāshim, Quṣayy’s grandson, put hospitality to pilgrims on an unprecedented level. He was very wealthy and his hospitality was commensurate with his wealth. He told the Quraysh that he would not have asked them to contribute anything to the feeding of pilgrims had his own resources been sufficient for the purpose. That was great encouragement for his people to make generous contributions. Hāshim got his wealth through trade. When he was the chief of Makkah, he was eager that all the Quraysh should benefit from his commercial expertise. He started the biannual commercial trips which soon became a well-established tradition in the life of the Makkans. In the summer a large commercial caravan went from Makkah to Syria, and a similar one went to Yemen in winter. Each caravan was a joint enterprise in which all Makkan people shared. It brought profit to the people and prosperity to the city.5
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s Leadership
Hāshim was succeeded by his brothers before his son, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, took over. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was the Prophet’s grandfather. He continued the traditions of the Makkan chiefs and proved himself a man of great integrity and an exceptional leader. His popularity in Makkah and in the whole of Arabia was unequalled by any of his predecessors.
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib continued the institution of Rifādah, which meant supplying pilgrims with food during their stay in Makkah and their fulfilment of the rites of pilgrimage. Providing them with water to drink, however, was exceptionally difficult. There were only a few scattered wells in Makkah which hardly sufficed for the needs of its own population. Fetching the water from these wells and carrying it in leather sacks and containers was a hard task. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib thought carefully about a solution to the problem. He would have given anything for any method which would guarantee the provision of enough water for the pilgrims.6
One night, as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was concentrating his thoughts on this problem, he was overtaken by sleep. In a dream, he heard someone saying to him: “ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, dig the good one.” He asked: “What is the good one?” but received no answer. The following night he heard the same voice telling him: “ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, dig the blessed one.” He asked: “What is the blessed one?” Again he received no answer. The third night the same voice told him to dig “the treasured one”. Again he received no answer to his question about what he was supposed to dig. All day long he thought about those cryptic messages. He felt very uneasy about the whole thing, which was becoming an enigma to him. He was reluctant to go to sleep the next night lest he should hear more of these mysterious words. He prayed that the whole question should be resolved one way or another.
In his sleep that night, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib heard the same voice telling him “Dig Zamzam”. He shouted angrily: “What is Zamzam?” This time he received the answer he was seeking. The voice told him that it was the water spring which would be sufficient for the needs of pilgrims, and gave him enough signs to determine its exact position. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib woke up very happy. He was full of hope.
The place was between the two hills of al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, where pilgrims did their walking duty. In those pagan days, the Arabs had an idol placed on each hill. Isāf was the idol on top of al-Ṣafā and Nā’ilah was placed on top of al-Marwah. In pre-Islamic days, the Arabs made their sacrifice at that particular spot.
That morning, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib went to the place with al-Ḥārith, his only son. They brought all the digging equipment they needed and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib began to dig while al-Ḥārith helped him with clearing the sand.
Alarmed by the digging, many people from the Quraysh came over. They told ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib that he could not dig in that spot, so close to the Kaʿbah and to their two idols, Isāf and Nā’ilah. He explained to them that he was only doing what he was bid. They did not accept his pleadings, and indicated that they were prepared to prevent him physically. Some of them told him that he had only the one son, while they had many children. This was very painful to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. He prayed God to give him ten sons to support him and give him the protection he needed. He even pledged that should he be given ten sons, he would sacrifice one of them for God’s sake. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s position, his earnest pleadings and his apparent distress moved those Qurayshī people to change their attitude. They let ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib continue his digging, but no one helped him. He continued to dig for three days before he began to sense a feeling of despair. He even began to doubt whether the voice he had heard on those four nights was a voice of truth. When thoughts of stopping the whole enterprise began to press on his mind, one shovel stroke hit something metallic. That renewed ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s hopes. He went on removing the sand around the metallic object, and soon he discovered two gold deer and a quantity of shields, swords and weapons. He recognized that these were the stuff buried in Zamzam by the Jurhum when they left Makkah. He continued his digging with renewed strength, and soon he found the well. He shouted: “God is supreme. This is indeed Ishmael’s well. This is Zamzam, the drinking water of pilgrims.” When the Quraysh heard ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s shout, they realized that he had found the water and rushed to him, claiming a share in everything he had discovered.
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib told them that the gold and the weapons did not belong to anyone. They were offered as gifts to the Kaʿbah and they would remain so. No one was to have anything. The water, however, was his and nobody else had any share in it. After all, he was the one given the information which determined its exact spot and selected to dig it. The Quraysh told him that it was the well of their grandfather, Ishmael. It belonged to them all. He could not claim it all for himself. There was much argument on this point. Being a man with a keen sense of justice, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib suggested that they should choose an arbiter. If the arbiter ruled that the water belonged to them, he would relinquish his claim. If the arbiter ruled in his favour, they would do likewise. They felt that this was fair and accepted arbitration.
Dispute Referred for Arbitration
It was customary at that time to refer such disputes to fortune-tellers and people who claimed supernatural abilities. A report exists by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib who, like the Prophet, was ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s grandson. This report indicates that they all agreed to refer the matter to a woman fortune-teller from the tribe of Saʿd Hudhaym who lived near Syria.
The Quraysh chose a delegation of twenty men from different clans. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib also had a twenty-man delegation from his clan, ʿAbd Manāf. They travelled together through some well-known routes and desert areas where there was no established track. While they were travelling in one such desert area, they lost their way. Soon, all the water ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his delegation had was finished. They were extremely thirsty and were certain of death unless they could find some water. They asked the other delegation to share their water with them, but they refused. Their excuse was that they were all in a desert area and they feared the same fate for themselves. In his desperation, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib asked his men what they thought they should do. One man said: “We are certain of death. If we were to continue travelling we should die one by one and we shall be lost without trace in this desert. Let us stay here, and let every one of us dig his own grave. When any one of us dies we will push him to his grave. In this way, only the last one may be lost. This is better than all of us being lost. Who knows, our people may find our graves one day.”
They accepted this suggestion, and started to dig their graves, awaiting their death. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, however, told them: “To await death so passively, without doing anything to try to avert it, is indeed the worst option we have. Who knows, God may give us water in some place or another. Let us move on and hope to be rescued.” They picked up their belongings and prepared their camels, with the other delegation looking at them. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib mounted his camel and signalled her to rise. As she started to move, a spring of water gushed forth from under one of her hoofs. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his kinsmen shouted: “God is supreme.” They dismounted and drank their fill, then filled all their containers. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib then called on the Quraysh people to drink and take all the water they needed. He said to them: “God has given us this water. Come along and drink.” When they had done so, they said to him: “God has given His verdict in your favour, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. We will never dispute your rights to Zamzam. The One Who has given you this water in this desert is the One Who has given you Zamzam. Let us go back, and we pledge to honour your rights to Zamzam.”7
They turned back without continuing their journey to meet the fortune-teller. Zamzam remained the sole property of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his offspring. They in turn continued to use it to provide water for pilgrims.
Many years passed and ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had his dearest wish fulfilled: he now had ten sons, all of them adults. In addition, he had six daughters. In all, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had five wives.
One day, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib summoned all his sons to tell them about his pledge to God, which he had made while he was digging Zamzam. He said it was time he fulfilled this pledge by sacrificing one of them to God next to the Kaʿbah. They all expressed their readiness to submit themselves to be sacrificed. It was then a matter of choosing one of them. He suggested that they followed the Arab custom: have a toss between them administered by the man in charge of the Kaʿbah. They all went to him for the toss.
ʿAbdullāh was the youngest of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s sons. He was also the dearest one to him. He was a young man of great promise, mild temperament, very sociable, not given to wild practices and, at the same time, he was a man of high moral values. All these qualities endeared him even more to his father. The old man therefore thought that if ʿAbdullāh could be spared, the pain of sacrificing one of his other children would be a little less.
The toss, however, came out against ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s desire: it was ʿAbdullāh who had to be sacrificed. By that time, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was a very old man and had been the chief of Makkah for a great many years. He had no hesitation in fulfilling his pledge. He took his son by the hand, and took his knife and went to the mosque to sacrifice him. One of ʿAbdullāh’s sisters tried to pull him away. She was shouting and screaming, appealing to the Quraysh to save him. She cried and screamed and appealed. A number of Quraysh men were moved to act. They went straight to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and said to him: “You shall not slaughter him until all alternatives have been explored.” When ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib protested that it was a pledge he had made to God and there was no choice for him in the matter, they pointed out the serious danger which they saw his action would bring. They told him: “You are our leader. You are well respected in the whole of Arabia. If you were to sacrifice your son now, your action would be imitated by others. Many a man would bring his son here to slaughter him. That is bound to weaken us and cause havoc in our society.” Al-Mughīrah ibn ʿAbdullāh, who belonged to the same clan as ʿAbdullāh’s mother, said to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib: “Only when we have determined that there is absolutely no alternative may you sacrifice him. If it is possible to pay a large ransom for him we will certainly pay it, no matter how large it is.” Some men from the Quraysh counselled ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib to wait until he had seen a woman fortune-teller in Yathrib who was known to have contacts with the jinn. If she could find a way out of the problem, he would spare his son. If not, he could still fulfil his pledge.
When the fortune-teller was well apprised of the story she asked ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his companions to wait for a while until she had referred to her jinni. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was praying God all the time to spare his son. Although he could not see how that might be done, he still held to his faint hope that a solution could be found. It was not long before the woman found that solution for him. She asked him how much they paid as blood money for someone who was killed accidentally. They replied that they gave ten camels. She said to them: “Go back to your town and arrange a draw to be made between your man [meaning ʿAbdullāh] and ten camels. If the draw comes out against the man, add ten more camels. Continue to do so as long as the draw comes out against him. When the draw shows that the camels are accepted, this means that your God has accepted the offering and spared your man. You slaughter those camels as a ransom for him.”
One Life Spared
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and his companions went back to Makkah happy with this solution. When the draw was made, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib stood up praying God to spare his son. Every time the draw was made, it came out against ʿAbdullāh, but they increased the camels ten by ten. When there were a hundred camels, the draw indicated that the camels should be slaughtered. All this time ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was praying and appealing to God to spare his son. When he was told the news, he wanted to make sure. He asked the man who supervised the draw to repeat it three times. Each time it came out with the same result. The camels were brought forward and slaughtered, and left for everybody to come and take what they needed of their meat.8
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was extremely happy when his son’s life was spared. He felt that his youngest son was reborn. Like every loving father, he wanted to do his best to make his son happy. He therefore took immediate steps to arrange ʿAbdullāh’s marriage. He went to Wahb ibn ʿAbd Manāf, chief of the clan of Zuhrah, and proposed that ʿAbdullāh should be married to his daughter, Āminah. The proposal was accepted, and only a few days later the marriage was celebrated.9
It was a happy marriage; both partners soon became very fond of each other. They seemed to have hit the right note from the first day and suited each other extremely well. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib wanted his children to acquire all the practical experience which was available in their society. He advised his youngest son to join the trade caravan which was about to travel to Syria that summer. Although Āminah did not like the idea of being separated from her husband so soon after their marriage, she realized that ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib wanted only what was good for his son. As ʿAbdullāh was about to start on his journey, Āminah broke to him the happy news that she was pregnant. He then set off on his journey with his thoughts firmly centred around his wife, cherishing the hope of a bright and a happy future.
The trip was very hard on the young man. Travelling in the desert in the blazing summer sun did not suit his constitution. Although he was still a young man in his early twenties, full of vigour, he contracted some sort of disease which sapped his strength, yet he had no choice but to travel with the caravan. On the way back, his illness gradually got worse. His condition cried out for proper treatment. When the caravan arrived in Yathrib (later to be known as Madinah) it was obvious to all that ʿAbdullāh needed to be nursed. He therefore stayed behind to be looked after by his cousins of the clan of al-Najjār.
When the caravan arrived in Makkah, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was alarmed not to see his son with them. Informed that he had been left to spend a few days in Yathrib to regain his strength before continuing his journey, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib dispatched his eldest son, al-Ḥārith, to help his brother on the journey home. On arrival in Yathrib, al-Ḥārith was given the sad news that ʿAbdullāh was dead.10
The tragic news was too much for ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib in his extreme old age, and for Āminah, the youthful bride now expecting her fatherless baby. Yet ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib could not but reflect that ʿAbdullāh was spared only for his life to be prolonged by a few months. It seemed that it was his destiny to live only for Āminah’s pregnancy to take place. Little did he know that Āminah’s baby was to be the last Messenger God would send to mankind.
A Campaign to Destroy the Kaʿbah
Meanwhile, a very serious event took place in Arabia that year. It affected all the Arabs and their faith, and remained so vivid in their minds that they used to date other events by reference to it. At that time, the Arabs had no specific calendar to date their events. When something very serious took place in their lives, they referred to it as a date mark.
The various reports on this event which have come to us mention that after the Abyssinians had expelled the Persians from Yemen and established their own rule there, the Abyssinian governor of Yemen, Abrahah, built a superbly luxurious church in this area, giving it the name of the Abyssinian emperor at the time. He did this after he had witnessed the love and enthusiasm of Yemeni Arabs – the same as those felt all over the Arab land – for the Kaʿbah, the sacred mosque at Makkah. His aim in building it was to make the Arabs forsake their attachment to the mosque of Makkah and turn instead to this new luxurious church.
But the Arabs did not turn away from their sacred House, the Kaʿbah. They believed themselves to be the descendants of Abraham and Ishmael who built the House. For them, this fact was a source of pride in line with their tradition of taking pride in their forefathers. The whole idea of directing their affection and respect towards this new church built by an ordinary army commander who followed a religion which they considered inferior to theirs was totally absurd. Abrahah’s whole enterprise was a subject of ridicule among them. One of them went so far as to use the most splendid spot in that church for doing his toilet, to emphasize the contempt with which the Arabs viewed Abrahah’s idea.11
When Abrahah was informed of this, he decided to pull down the Kaʿbah in order to achieve his objective of turning the Arabs away from it. He therefore marched at the head of a great army, equipped with elephants. At the front was a very big elephant which enjoyed special fame among Abrahah’s men. The news of Abrahah’s march and his objective spread throughout the Arab land and among the Arabs very strong feelings arose against the destruction of their sacred House. A nobleman of the royal family of Yemen, Dhū Nafar, tried to stop the Abyssinian governor, calling on his people and other Arabs to fight Abrahah and defend the Kaʿbah. Some Arab tribes joined him in a battle against Abrahah which Dhū Nafar lost, and he was then taken prisoner. Later, as Abrahah travelled on, he was attacked by Nufayl ibn Ḥabīb al-Khathʿamī, who had mobilized two Arab tribes as well as troops from other supporting tribes, but Abrahah won the battle again and captured Nufayl. Nufayl then agreed to act as guide to show Abrahah his way in the Arab land. When the Abyssinian governor approached Ṭā’if, a number of its leaders went to him to say that the House he wanted to pull down was in Makkah, not at Ṭā’if. They did this so that he would not destroy the house they had built for their idol, al-Lāt. They also provided him with a guide to show him the way to the Kaʿbah.12
On arrival at al-Mughammas (a valley midway between Ṭā’if and Makkah) Abrahah dispatched one of his commanders to Makkah where he looted some possessions from the Quraysh and other Arabs, including 200 camels which belonged to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. The Quraysh, Kinānah, Hudhayl and neighbouring Arab tribes gathered to fight Abrahah, but realized that they stood no chance of winning, so they did not proceed. Then Abrahah sent a messenger to Makkah to meet its chief and convey to him that the governor of Yemen had come not to fight the Makkans but simply to pull down the House; if they left him to accomplish his purpose, he would be pleased not to cause any bloodshed. Abrahah also ordered his messenger to bring with him the Makkan chief if the latter did not propose to fight. When the messenger communicated his master’s message to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the latter said: “By God, we do not want to fight him, and we have no power to resist him. This is God’s sacred House, built by His chosen friend, Abraham. If He protects it against him, it is because the House is His, and if He leaves it to him to destroy, we cannot defend it.” ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib then went with the messenger to Abrahah.
Despite his very advanced age, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was a most handsome, charming and attractive person. When Abrahah saw him he felt much respect for him. He felt that ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was too noble to sit beneath his royal couch, but at the same time Abrahah did not wish to be seen by the Abyssinians sitting with him on his couch, so he came down and sat with ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib on the carpet. Then Abrahah ordered his interpreter to ask his guest what he wanted. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib said he wanted to request ‘the king’ to give him back his two hundred camels which had been looted by his commander. Abrahah ordered his interpreter to tell ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib on his behalf: “I admired you when I first saw you, but when I spoke to you I was disappointed. Do you come to talk to me about two hundred looted camels and forget about the House which is the embodiment of the religion in which you believe, as did your forefathers, and which I have come to destroy? You did not even say a word to persuade me to spare it.”
ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib replied: “I am only the master of my camels, but the House has its own Lord who is sure to protect it.” Abrahah snapped: “It cannot be defended against me.” The Makkan chief said: “You take your chance!” Abrahah returned his camels.
One report suggests that a number of Arab chiefs went with ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib to meet Abrahah. They offered to give the Abyssinian commander one-third of all the revenue of their land if he would go back without destroying the Kaʿbah. He refused their proposal. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib went back to the Quraysh and told them of his encounter with Abrahah. He ordered them to leave Makkah and seek shelter in the surrounding mountains. Then he went with a few important members of the Quraysh to the Kaʿbah, where they all prayed hard to God for His help and protection for the House. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib is reported to have held the door ring in his hand in a gesture of a most earnest plea. He is said to have recited the following lines of poetry in his prayers:
Our Lord, a creature protects his property, so protect Yours. Let not their cross and their might ever overcome Your might. If You are leaving them to destroy our House of worship, then You surely have something in mind.
In the morning, Abrahah gave orders to his army to prepare to march with the elephants to complete their mission. While they were making their preparations, Nufayl went to the elephant and whispered in his ear: “Sit down, elephant, or go back where you came from. This is God’s sacred city.” The big elephant sat down when the army was just outside Makkah, and refused to go any further. The soldiers exerted every effort to persuade the elephant to enter the city, but their efforts were in vain. This particular incident is a fact acknowledged by the Prophet. When his she-camel, al-Qaṣwā’, sat down some distance away from Makkah, on the day when the al-Ḥudaybiyah peace agreement was concluded, the Prophet said to those of his companions who claimed that she had become mulish, that she had not, and that mulishness was not in her nature. “But”, the Prophet added, “she has been prevented by the same will which debarred the elephant from entering Makkah.” (Related by al-Bukhārī.)
Then God’s will to destroy the Abyssinian army and its commander was fulfilled. He sent flights of birds to bombard the attackers with stones of sand and clay, leaving them like dry and torn leaves, as the Qur’ān tells. The majority – but not all – of the soldiers were hit by these stones. Whoever was hit was sure to die quickly. Abrahah suffered physical injuries. Those of his soldiers who were spared carried him back to Yemen, but his limbs began to separate from the rest of his body, and he started to lose one finger after another, until he arrived at Ṣanʿā’. According to various reports, Abrahah died after his chest was broken apart.
Thus God foiled Abrahah’s scheme to destroy the Kaʿbah. In their way, the Arabs were very thankful to God for saving His House from destruction at Abrahah’s hands. When God sent His Messenger with His final message, He reminded the Arabs of this event in a short sūrah in the Qur’ān which carries the title ‘The Elephant’, by way of recounting aspects of His favours to the Arabs. This sūrah was revealed as an endorsement of the Prophet’s call to the Arabs to accept Islam. It says: “Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the people of the Elephant? Did He not cause their treacherous plan to be futile, and sent against them flights of birds, which pelted them with stones of sand and clay? Thus He made them like devoured dry leaves.”13
NOTES
1. Ismāʿīl ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah, Maktabat al-Maʿārif, Beirut, Vol. 1, pp. 153-167. [All the details of Abraham’s family history given here are based on Ibn Kathīr’s account.]
2. ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, Dār al-Qalam, Beirut, Vol. 1, pp. 116-118.
3. Ibid., pp. 119-123 and 130-137.
4. Ibid., pp. 123-124.
5. Ibid., pp. 138-140.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid., pp. 150-153.
8. Ibid., pp. 160-164.
9. Ibid., pp. 164-165.
10. Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, ʿUyūn al-Athar, Dār al-Turāth, Madinah, 1996, pp. 78-79.
11. Ibn Hisham, op.cit., pp. 43-47.
12. Ibid., pp. 47-49.
13. Ibid., pp. 49-56.
