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(From Chapter 2, "The Wrath of Allah" by Robert E. Burns)
One day about 570 CE in Mecca, Abd Allah ibn Abdul-Muttalib went to the house of another wife he had besides Amina bint Wahb. However he was still dirty from his work and she did not accept his advances. He left her, washed himself and then went out to go to Amina. The other wife saw him and called out to him but he went on to Amina and possessed her.
She then conceived Muhammad. Then he went to the other woman and asked her if she were willing; she said "No, When you passed by me there was a white light between your eyes. I called to you and you rejected me. You went to Amina and she has taken away the light."
Abdallah died at Yathrib (later to be called Medina, "the City") while on a caravan trip to Syria, but Amina had a vision and was consoled by it. She was conscious of a light within her and one day it shone forth so intensely that it illuminated even the castles of Bostra in Syria.
A voice spoke to her saying "Thou art pregnant with the prince of this nation. When he is born on this earth thou must say, "I place him under the protection of the Only One, from the evil of every envious person."
The babe was born on a Monday, on the thirteenth day of Rabi in the year of the Elephant (570CE?)
It was a custom of the Meccans to employ a wet nurse from the nomads - for one thing it was healthier out of town. It was a year of drought and the wet nurse Halimah, her she-ass, old she-camel and sheep were all near dry; no sooner had Halimah put Muhammad to her breasts when she overflowed with milk for him. He drank his fill and likewise his milk-brother. The camel's udders were also full and on returning to her camp she found that her sheep were filled with milk.
One day, while Muhammad was with his milk-brother, two men in white robes appeared bearing a golden plate full of snow. "They took hold of me, opened my belly, extracted my heart, split it open and took out of it a black lump of blood which they threw away. Then they washed my heart and belly with snow, until they had purified them. Then one of them said … "weigh him against one thousand of his people." This he did and I was found more heavy …"
Halimah could see no sign of blood or any wound on the lad nor could she budge the two boys in their story so, in alarm, returned Muhammad to his mother. Amina died three years later while at Medina, and was buried there.
When he was about nine years old, Muhammad accompanied his uncle, Abu Talib, to Syria. There at Busra was a Christian monk named Bahira. From the distance, he had seen the Meccan caravan approaching, with a cloud following over it. Could it be that the expected Prophet had at last come, and was among these travellers?
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… One glance at the boy's face tallied with what he had read in his ancient manuscripts. He conversed with the lad and asked him to remove his cloak. There on Muhammad's back between his shoulders was the white oval mark designating his prophethood. "Take thy nephew back to his country", Bahira told Abu Talib, "and guard him against the Jews, for if they find out about him they will contrive evil against him. Great things are in store for this brother's son of thine."
* * *
Little more is known about the Prophet's life until he was twenty-five years old. He often took caravans of goods across the desert and had come to be called al-Amin, the Honest, the Trustworthy, the Reliable. Once a business associate asked Muhammad to wait for him at a street corner, however he forgot the appointment. For three days and three nights Muhammad stood waiting for him until something jogged his associate's memory.
* * *
A rich widow, Khadijah sent Muhammad together with a male slave Maysara on a trip to Syria. There another monk, Nestor informed Maysara of Muhammad's mission and, indeed, the slave lad saw two angels shading the apostle from the sun. These facts he told Khadijah and they made her more determined to marry Muhammad even though she was his employer and fifteen years his senior. He never married another wife until she died.
Muhammad was in the habit of retiring to a cave in Mount Hira, not far from Mecca. Many was the time, after leaving the town, that he clearly heard the words "Peace be on thee, O apostle of Allah.", but looking around all he could see were trees and stones.
* * *
On the 26-27th of Ramadan when he was in his fortieth year and alone in the cave there came to him an angel in the form of a man. Gabriel recited what was to become the first five verses of the Qur'an of sura 96. Muhammad recited these words after the angel. He later said, "It was as though the words were written on my heart."
Khadijah helped calm her husband and went to tell her cousin, Waraqah. He reassured her that Muhammad had been called on as a Messenger but warned him, "thou wilt be accused of falsehood, thou wilt be persecuted, exiled and attacked."
Muhammad continued to receive Revelations from Allah, although spasmodically at first. Some were spoken to him in the same manner as the first, but others came to him like the reverberations of a bell and these were very hard on him.
The Prophet spoke of the Revelations to those who were closest to him but asked them not to divulge his secret for the time being.
One day while he was on the hillside, gabriel came to him, struck the ground with his heel causing a spring to gush forth. Then he performed the ritual ablution to show the Prophet how to purify himself for worship. Then Gabriel showed him how to pray and what to say. The Prophet went home and taught Khadijah and his followers all that he had learnt. The new religion was established.
* * *
One convert was the young Abd Allah ibn Masud who was herding sheep. The prophet asked if they could have a drink of milk. The lad replied that the sheep were not his own to give of their milk. Thereupon the Prophet said:"Hast thou a young ewe that no ram hath ever leaped?" Having had one brought to him, the Prophet her udder and prayed, whereupon the udder filled with milk. When all had had their fill, muhammad said to the udder:'Dry" and it dried.
* * *
Some time later, Muhammad was told to warn his family. Most of the clan of Hashim, about forty men in all, came to a meal. Ali, the Prophet's young cousin, had prepared the leg of mutton and a cup of milk. The Prophet took a piece of meat, bit on it and put it back on the plate. The forty men ate their fill and drank their fill and still there was more. However even this miracle did not convince the non-believers.
* * *
The early group of Muslims started to be more open, even insulting the Meccan gods; some found it necessary to pray in private, however. One day, overcome by ridicule, Sa'd of Zuhrah struck one of the disbelievers with the jawbone of a camel and caused blood to flow. This was not the last time that Islam shed blood. The Ummah (Muslim community) decided to refrain from violence and this patient endurance was verified by the next Revelation: "Deal calmly with the disbelievers, give them respite for a while.: (86:17)
* * *
One of the first non-Meccans to be converted was Abu Dharr, of the Bani Ghifar, and returning to his tribe, he converted many of them. Moreover, he was a highwayman and, having robbed a caravan, he would offer to return the goods to those who accepted Islam.
* * *
The Quraysh, the main tribe of Mecca, had a profitable business catering for pilgrims to the Ka'bah which, at that time, included three hundred and sixty pagan idols. They, the Quraysh, tended to tolerate the new religion until they realised that, being directed against their customs, it could seriously affect their income. Nor did it improve matters when the Prophet reaffirmed to them that their fathers and forefathers would be pinished in the Hereafter as there was no respectivity in salvation.
A leading Meccan who came to hate Muhammad was Abu Jahl. Hearing him speak derisively about him, the Prophet said:"And as for thee, Abu Jahl, a calamity shall come upon thee. Little shalt thou laugh, and much shalt thou weep."
One day while the Prophet was praying, Abu Jahl went to smash his head with a rock. Fortunately Allah was with the Prophet. Abu Jahl was rushed at by a stallion camel with the skull and teeth the like of which he had never seen. He dropped his stone and ran from the apparition.
On another occasion while the Prophet while the Prophet was prostrate praying, Abu Jahl went to trample his neck but when he came near him he could be seen trying to ward off something with his hands. Allah interposed a ditch of fire and terror and wings. The Prophet said, "If Abu Jahl were to have come near me, the angels would have torn him to pieces." (Sahih Muslim Chapter 1160)
The tribal elders tried a different tack. If he would desist in his abuse, they offered him wealth, the kingship of the tribe, and free medical help until he was cured of the visiting spirit. The Prophet was reassured by Revelation of the Sura, "The Pen".
"Thou, O Prophet; by the grace of thy Lord art not possessed! (by jinn)
And truly a boundless recompense doth await thee,
For thou art of a noble nature (patiently bearing the taunts of the unbelievers)
But thou shalt see and they shall see
Which of you is the demented." (68:2-6)
Its offer having been refused by Muhammad, the tribe went back to slandering and insulting Islam. At last Muhammad could take no more and told them: "O Quraysh, will you hear me? Verily by Him who holdeth my soul in His hand, I bring you slaughter."
* * *
The conversion of Rukana showed the Prophet's miraculous powers. Muhammad was fifty and Rukana was physically powerful. Twice Rukana was thrown to the ground when he went to tackle the Prophet. As a bonus, Muhammad called to a tree which moved until it was at his feet; then he said to the tree, "Return to thy place!" and it returned to its place.
The worst five mockers of Muhammad had been warned in Revelation thus: "We shall suffice thee against the mockers who worship another god with Allah; they will know."
Indeed they did find out. Gabriel came to the Prophet while the five were ambulating around the Ka'bah. "When the first mocker passed by, Gabriel threw a green leaf in his face and he became blind. He pointed to the abdomen of the second, who died of dropsy. The third had a scar on his heel which opened again and killed him. When the fourth passed by he pointed to the soul of his foot, and thereupon a thorn penetrated it and the man died. When the fifth man passed by Gabriel pointed to his head and it began to ferment with poison and he died."
* * *
One night on a full moon a group of disbelievers asked the Prophet to split the moon in two as a sign that he was the Messenger of God. To the delight of the believers, the moon did indeed divide and each half shone on either side of Mount Hira. Some of the hesitants entered Islam but those whose hearts were hardened rejected the miracle as mere magic.("Muhammad, His Life Based on the Earliest Sources", M. Lings P68) Sura 54, "The Moon"
"The hour hath approached and the moon hath been cleft;
But whenever they see a miracle they turn aside and say,
This is well-devised magic
And they have treated the Prophets as Impostors, and follow their own lusts; …
On the Day, the Summoner shall summon to a stern business."
However Allah did not always oblige with signs: His main miracle was The Revelation of the Qur'an. Many were the people converted on hearing its recitation. Indeed Islam teaches that ijaz is the incapacity of any mere mortal reaching the perfection of composing the Qur'an."
To those who wanted angels to be sent down as signs the Qur'an replies:"The day they behold the angels, on that day there will be no good tidings for the evil-doers." (25:22) "A day that shall turn the hair of children grey." (73:17)
What did surprise the Muslims was the way in which some Meccans, previously well-regarded, could turn nasty. "We give them cause to fear, yet it doth but increase them in monstrous outrage." (17:60) One of these was an uncle of Muhammad, Abu Lahab, who was convinced that his nephew was self-deceived if not a deceiver. Allah revealed a short sura, "The Flame" about the Prophet's uncle:
"In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the Merciful
Let the hand of Abu Labah perish and let himself perish!
His wealth and his gains shall avail him not.
Burned shall he be at the fiery flame,
And his wife laden with firewood - (as fuel)
On her neck a rope of palm fibre." (111:1-5)
Apparently his aunt had strewn the Prophet's path with thorns on one occasion. When she heard of the verse she went in search of the Prophet carrying a pestle to hit him with. He was sitting with Abu Bakr but she saw him not. She recited a little poem about the Prophet:
"We disobey the reprobate
Flout the commands he doth make
And his religion hate."
When she had left, Abu Bakr expressed his amazement to the Prophet. "She saw me not,' he said "Allah took away her sight from me."
Later Abu Lahab was killed by his sister-in-law Umm-el-Fadl, a secret Muslim, in an argument over religion.
* * *
One day Ubayy took a decayed bone to Muhammad and asked him sarcastically, "Can your Allah bring this back to life?" He then powdered the bone in his hand and blew the dust into the face of the Prophet, who replied:"Even so I do claim: He will raise it and thee too when thou art as that now is; then will He enter thee into the Fire."
* * *
The Meccans sent two envoys to the Jewish rabbis at Yathrib to question them about prophets. The Jews sent back two questions to test Muhammad. For fifteen nights the Prophet waited for a revelation and in the meantime he had to suffer the jibes of the unbelievers. Nor were the worst of the Meccans convinced but it did help many who were on the borderline.
One of the questions pertained to the sleepers of Ephesus. In the middle of the third century some young men who were being persecuted for the worship of the One God hid in a cave. Here they and their faithful dog were miraculously put to sleep for three hundred years (some say 309) until all danger was past. The dog whose name was Katmir, will be admitted into Paradise, or so Muslims believe. The story is given in Sura 18, The Cave
A second question related to the great traveller Dhu al Qarnayn, said by tradition to be Alexander the Great. How he came to be a Messenger of God we do not know.)
"When he reached the setting of the sun
he found a people who became subject to his laws.
He said:"Whoever doth wrong
him shall we punish: then
shall he be sent back to his Lord
(capital punishment) and He will Punish him with a punishment
Unheard of." (Hell) (Qur'an 18:86)
When Dhu al Qarnayn reached a valley between two mountains he came to a people who begged for protection from the Gog and Magog jinns. God gave him the power to restrain these jinns until shortly before the Hour of Judgement when they would break forth and wreak terrible destruction. (18:93-99)
"And We shall present Hell that day for Unbelievers to see." (18:100)
* * *
On one occasion after the Prophet had recited from the Revelations, a poet Nadr by name rose to his feet and said that he also had tales of old but that, unlike Muhammad, he admitted that his were only stories. Sura 83 was Allah's reply:
"Woe on that day, to those who treated our signs as lies,
Those that deny the Day of Judgement.
None can deny it but the transgressor, the criminal,
Who when Our signs are rehearsed to him, says
"Tales of the Ancients".
By no means, but on their hearts is the cover of rust …
Then shall they be burned in Hell-fire." (Qur'an 83:10-16)
Here and elsewhere is the concept that the heart and not the brain is the centre of mental activity. In a believer, the "eye of the heart" is receptive to faith.
* * *
For two years the Meccans had banned trade and marriage with the Prophet's clan. When they went to review the document which had been stored in the Ka'bah, it was found that the worms had eaten the ban, all except for the opening words "In thy name, O Allah."
* * *
Nor was the Prophet sent to the world of men only. In 620 CE while Muhammad was praying at Naklah seven jinn, created from fire, stopped to listen to him. They were converted and returned to their community to spread the Word of Allah. Some would be saved and some would be punished.
"But those who stray from it shall be fuel for Hell." (Qur'an 72:15)
* * *
On the night of the 17th of Rabhy, twelve months before the Hijrah, Gabriel woke the Prophet and led him outside. There was a white beast, half mule and half ass with wings at its sides. Its name was Buraq and he carried the Prophet, accompanied by Gabriel swiftly to the Temple at Jerusalem. (Apparently Muhammad did not know the "Furthest Mosque" (Qur'an 17:1) in 620 CE.
According to Caliph Omar in 638 CE, all that was left of the Temple Mount was a "dung heap".) There he prayed with Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other Prophets. Then two cups were brought to him, one milk and one wine. Muhammad drank the milk and left the wine and Gabriel said: "… Thy people are likewise guided; wine is prohibited to them."
Next a ladder was brought to the Prophet and he climbed to the Gate of the Keepers. Here he met a stern angel, Malik, the keeper of the fire. When Malik removed its cover the fire raged and rose so furiously that the Prophet thought it would devour everything.
As he climbed higher he met Adam who checked the souls as they arrived. He saw men with lips like camels who stuffed lumps of fire into their mouths. This fire issued from the other end of their bodies when they farted. These, he was told were men who had wrongly devoured the property of orphans.
The next men he saw had absolutely huge bellies. Chasing them into the fire were crocodiles charging like mad camels. These, he was told, had been usurers.
After that the Prophet saw men who had the choice of beautiful meat and foul, putrid meat, but who ate the latter. These, he was told, were men who had left the women that Allah had permitted them, going instead into women prohibited to them.
Lastly while still in the first heaven he saw women hanging from steel hooks through their breasts. These, he was told, were women who attributed to their husbands children they did not father. "The wrath of Allah is very great towards a woman who introduces into the family one who does not belong to it, to eat their plunder and observe their nakedness."
In Paradise, the Prophet saw a black houri who took his fancy. She was, he was told, destined for Zayd ibn Haritha. Later Zayd, the freed-man of the apostle, was well and truly pleased with this good news.
Seventh Heaven contained the Lote-tree, the loftiest spot in Paradise on thr right hand throne of Allah. "Its leaves are fabled to be as numerous as the population of the world and each leaf carries the name of an individual. This tree is shakenjust after sunset on the 15th of Ramadan each year. The leaves which drop are for the people who are to die that year: how much green remains on the leaf indicates the number of months or weeks the person has yet to live." The Lote-tree was enshrouded in Divine Light and here the Prophet was told, by Allah, that his followers should pray five times daily.
In 621 CE at Aqabah, the Prophet came across six men of Khazrai from Yathrib. He converted them to Islam and they went back to Yathrib to convert more of their tribe. Later the Muslims at Yathrib were to be known as Ansars (helpers). This new development was to be a turning point in the fortunes of Islam.
* * *
After Khadijah died, Muhammad dreamed that he was to marry A'isha, the daughter of Abu Bakr. She was six and he was fifty. But firstly he married the widow Sawdah who was very motherly towards his children and, a few months later, to his child bride A'isha. She continued to play with her dolls for several years until, at the age of nine, her marriage was consummated.
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