CHAPTER II

THE MADINA PERIOD

 

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IN the year A.D. 622, probably in the month of June, Muhammad made his public entry into Madina, ⁹³ accompanied by about one hundred and fifty persons. The people were willing to receive him though they were not at one as regards his claim to be a prophet. Owing to their clannish spirit and the tribal feuds existing among them, Muhammad wisely held himself aloof from all their parties and selected, under divine guidance it is said, an isolated neutral spot for his future abode. ⁹⁴ He also soon erected a mosque in this same place, which thus became the centre of Islam and from which proceeded in due course many political and military orders.

The Muslim community was made up of two parts, one consisted of the Immigrants from Mecca, called the Muhajirun; the other of the first Madina converts, who were called the Ansar or Helpers.

The Muhajirun are said to be referred to in Sura An-Nahl (xvi) ⁹⁵ , 43, 111:—

As to those who when oppressed have fled their country for the sake of God, we will surely provide them a goodly abode in this world, but greater the reward of the next life, did they but know it. 43. [41]

To those who after their trials fled their country, then fought and endured with patience, verily thy Lord will in the end be forgiving, gracious. 111. [110]

The climate of Madina did not suit the Immigrants who longed for their native air, and so it was necessary to induce them to settle down by bringing them into greater unity with the Ansar. A feast of fraternity was made between the Muhajirun and the Ansar, and about fifty men from each party entered into a bond of brotherhood so close that in the event of one dying his adopted brother became his heir. This custom lasted about a year and a half, after which it was not needed and the usual law of inheritance was carried out.

The next step was to form a constitution, and a treaty offensive and defensive between all the Muslims (into which Jews for war purposes were admitted). ⁹⁶ The general purport of it was that they were to help one another, to avenge even on a believer the slaughter of a believer, to pay their own expenses in war, to hold Madina sacred and inviolable, to receive privileges for those under their protection, and in all matters of dispute to submit to the decision of the Prophet. The Jews were allowed to retain their own religion, but were not permitted to go to war without the express sanction of Muhammad. He thus, at this early stage, became the dictator in all matters, religious, civil and military, and made use of the Jews as auxiliaries in war. At this period, however, he did all he could to conciliate them. Margoliouth gives several instances from Muslim authorities which show this. ⁹⁷ When the chief of the Bani Najjar died, the Jews came to Muhammad and asked him to appoint a successor. He said, 'You are my maternal uncles, I belong to you, I will be your chief.' ⁹⁸

It was at this time when Muhammad was feeling his way in Madina that the famous verse, 'Let there be no compulsion in religion,' ⁹⁹ was revealed. Whether it refers to the attitude then to be adopted towards the pagans or the Jews of Madina, it is clear that it must have been said during this earlier part of his residence in that city. It could not have been delivered after the battle of Badr when its spirit was so completely set aside.

The state of affairs in Madina now is thus described by the historian Ibn Ishaq, 'When Muhammad had found a safe abode in Mecca [Madina], when his friends, the Immigrants, had united round him, and when the concerns of the Ansar had been arranged, Islam became firmly established. Public prayers were performed, fasts and poor-rates were established, penal laws were executed, things lawful and unlawful were determined, and Islam gained strength amongst the tribe of the Ansar. ¹⁰⁰ It had, in fact, become the chief power now in Madina, ruling over the Muslims in all matters, and powerfully influencing those who as yet held aloof from it.

But all its professors were not equally hearty and sincere. The ancient feuds were professedly forgotten, but it was not so in practice, and many a nominal believer was still influenced by the memory of former strife. Still, there was no actual open opposition, but in the hearts of many men there were doubt and misgiving. They are described by Ibn Ishaq as men 'who were in reality little removed from the idolatry of their fathers and the rejection of the true faith; only that Islam had by its prevalence overpowered them, the mass having already gone over to it. They, to save themselves from death, were compelled to accept Islam, at least in appearance; but in secret they were traitors, and their hearts were with the Jews in the rejection of the Prophet. ¹⁰¹ Thus early was force employed and a profession of Islam used as a 'shield from death.' These men were called the Munafiqun, or Hypocrites, and continued for a while to exercise an adverse influence. A few years later on, when Muhammad's power increased, he openly denounced them. Sura Al-Munafiqun (lxiii), which is said to have been delivered about the year A.H. 6, contains the Prophet's final sentence against them:—

When the Hypocrites come to thee, they say, 'we bear witness that thou art the sent one of God.' God knoweth that thou art His sent one, but God beareth witness that the Hypocrites do lie.

Their faith have they used as a cloak and they turn aside others from the way of God! Evil are all their doings. 1-2.

These are they who say to you of Madina, 'Spend not aught upon those who are with the Apostle of God, and they will be forced to quit him.' Yet the treasures of the heavens and of the earth are God's. But the Hypocrites have no understanding.

They say, 'If we return to the city, the mightier will assuredly drive out the weaker from it.' But might is with God, and with the Apostle, and with the Faithful. Yet the Hypocrites understand not. 7-8.

The Jews in Madina were a large and important section of the community on whom, at first, Muhammad placed great hopes, for to them the idea of a revelation was familiar. Muhammad had maintained that Islam and the Jewish and Christian religions in their purity had one common source—the Books from heaven. He seemed to expect that the Jews would admit the divine origin of Islam and acknowledge that he was a divinely-commissioned prophet, at least for the Arab people. As we have already seen he admitted them to certain privileges, used them as confederates and allowed them religious liberty. Nöldeke ¹⁰² I considers that verse forty-five [46] of Sura Al-'Ankabut (xxix), a late Meccan one, is a Madina verse and that it applies to this time. It reads thus:—

Dispute not with the people of the Book, except in kindly manner, except against such of them as deal evil with you. ¹⁰³

However this may be, there is no doubt that now he was very anxious to gain their allegiance and so in several ways he strove to win them to his side. They turned towards Jerusalem in prayer, so did he; they observed the Feast of the Atonement on the tenth day of the month by sacrifice and fasting, he ordered his followers to do the same. Thus he made it easy for certain Jews to pass over to Islam. These men proved most useful, for they could supply him with much needed information about the ancient Scriptures and they led him to believe that there were in them passages relating to his advent. These men are constantly referred to as his 'witnesses.' But the great body of the Jews did not accept him nor admit his claim. The prophet for whom they looked was to come of the house of David. Thus they formed a standing protest against the position he assumed, which was that their own Scriptures testified of him. Still, as Islam grew, it was clear that all else must give way. Many pagan Arabs and some of the Jews left the city. Ibn Ishaq says, ' Under these circumstances the Rabbis of the Jews became Muhammad's enemies. They were filled with envy because God had chosen his ambassador from amongst the Arabs.' Some Jews, however, from fear accepted Muhammad and the new religion. They are described by the Arab historian as those 'who sought shelter in Islam and accepted it only in appearance, whilst they were hypocrites at heart.' Thus there were Munafiqun both amongst the pagan and the Jewish converts. The enmity of the Jews was as dangerous to him as that of the idolaters, since the former did him hurt not only in war and politics but by sharp criticism and pointed sayings concerning Islam. Seeing that it was hopeless to win over the Jews as a body, Muhammad now changed his position with reference to them, and accused them of unbelief and of dishonesty in tampering with their Scriptures.

The Sura Al-An'am (vi) is almost the latest Meccan one, but verse ninety-one was evidently added at Madina:—

Say, who sent down the Book which Moses brought, a light and a guidance to man, which ye set down on paper, publishing part, but concealing most: though we have now been taught that which neither ye nor your fathers knew? Say, Allah; then leave them in their discussion to play. 91.

These words show that Muhammad did not charge them with the corruption of the text, for that they 'set down on paper,' but with suppressing or concealing portions of it to evade his claims. ¹⁰⁴ Sura Al-Baqarah (ii), the earliest Madina Sura, revealed in the early part of the second year of the Hijra, ¹⁰⁵ embodies many revelations against the Jews. It is far too long for detailed study, but a few extracts from it and other Suras will make the matter clear:—

O children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I showed favour upon you, and be true to your covenant with me; I will be true to my covenant with you; me, therefore, revere, and believe in what I have sent down confirming your Scriptures, and be not the first to disbelieve it (i.e., Qur'an), neither for a mean price barter my signs: therefore, fear ye me! and clothe not the truth with falsehood and hide not the truth when ye know it. 38. [40-42]

This second Sura also contains a long passage recounting God's mercy to the Jews under Moses and in the wilderness. There is a verse in it which has given rise to much controversy:—

Verily they who believe (Muslims), and they who follow the Jewish religion and the Christians and the Sabians—whosoever of these believeth in God and the last day, and doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord: fear shall not come upon them, neither shall they be grieved. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 59 [62]. ¹⁰⁶

This seems to show that all these religions are equally good, but this is not the generally received idea, for some commentators ¹⁰⁷ say that the words ' believeth in God and the last day; and doeth that which is right,' mean that non-Muslims must forsake their errors and become Muslims; others hold that the passage is abrogated by the verse:—

Whoso desireth any other religion than Islam it shall not be accepted of him, and in the next world he shall be of those who perish ¹⁰⁸ . Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 79. [85]

The hypocrisy of some of the Jews who had become Muslims is referred to in:—

When they fall in with the faithful they say, ' We believe,' but when they are apart one with another they say, ' Will ye acquaint them with what God hath revealed to you, that they may dispute with you about it in the presence of your Lord?' Understand ye their aim. ¹⁰⁹

Know they not that God knoweth what they hide, as well as what they bring to light.
But there are illiterates among them who are unacquainted with the Book, ¹¹⁰ but with lies only and have but vague fancies. Woe to them who transcribe the Book corruptly ¹¹¹ and then say, 'This is from God,' that they may sell it for some mean price. Woe to them for that which their hands have written, and woe to them for the gains they have made.

They say, 'Hell fire shall not touch us but for a few days.' Say, have ye received such a promise from God? for God will not revoke His promise, or speak ye of God that which ye know not?

But they whose gains are evil works and who are environed by their sins—they shall be inmates of the fire, therein to abide for ever—Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 71-5. [76-81]

In other ways the Jews gave offence. Baidawi says that Abu Bakr asked a Jew for a loan, saying 'Who will lend God a good loan? 'The Jew said, 'If God wants a loan, then He must be poor.' Abu Bakr struck him and the Jew forthwith complained to the Prophet, but got no redress. Then this verse came:—

Now hath God heard the saying of those who said, 'Aye, God is poor and we are rich.' We will surely write down their sayings and their unjust slaughter of the prophets and we will say, ' Taste ye the torment of the burning.' Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 177. [181]

The demand of the Jews for a prophetic sign is referred to in the following verse:—

To those who say, 'Verily God hath enjoined us that we are not to credit an apostle until he presents us a sacrifice which fire out of heaven shall devour.' Al-'Imran (iii) 179. [183]

The Jews said that the fire which descended from heaven on the altar of the Tabernacle (Leviticus ix. 24) and afterwards on the altar at the dedication of Solomon's Temple (2 Chronicles vii. 1) was constantly kept alive until the Chaldeans destroyed the Temple. They seemed to expect that a true prophet would re-kindle it.

Muhammad at once in the next [same] verse replied to their demand thus:—

Say, already have apostles before me come to you with miracles and with that of which ye speak, Wherefore slew ye them? Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 180. [183]

The commentators say that he here refers to Zachariah and Vahya (John the Baptist) ¹¹² and so argues that, if they slew prophets who had miraculous powers why should he gratify their wishes and cause fire to come down from heaven.

Those who did not admit that any part of the Scriptures referred to Muhammad are thus addressed:—

Believe ye then part of the Book and deny part? ¹¹³ But what shall be the meed of him among you who doth this, but shame in this life? And on the day of the resurrection they shall be sent to the most cruel of torments, for God is not regardless what ye do., Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 79. [85]

They would not recognize the Qur'an as a book of authority, a state of obstinacy which called forth from the Prophet the bitter imprecation:—

The curse of God be on the infidels—Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 83. [89]

He then goes on to say:—

For a vile price have they sold themselves, that they should not believe in that which God sent down, envious of God's sending down His grace on such servants as He pleaseth, and they have brought upon themselves wrath upon wrath. ¹¹⁴ Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 84. [90]

The protection of God is promised to Muhammad against all such as cut themselves off from him:—

If therefore they believe even as ye believe, then have they true guidance; but if they turn back then do they cut themselves off from you, and God will suffice to protect thee against them. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 131. [137]

The accusation about hiding the testimony of the Scriptures to Muhammad is made in:—

Who is more in fault than he who concealeth the witness ¹¹⁵ which he hath from God? Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 134. [140]

The next Sura in order is Sura Al-Baiyinah (xcviii) and here again the same charge is repeated:—

The unbelievers among the people of the Book and the polytheists did not waver until the clear evidence had come to them;

A messenger from God, reciting to them the pure pages wherein are true Scriptures.

Neither were they unto whom the Scriptures were given divided among themselves, till after this clear evidence had reached them. 1-3 [1-4] ¹¹⁶

The following verses continue the charge:—

And truly are there among them who torture the Scriptures with their tongues, ¹¹⁷ in order that ye may suppose it to be from the Scripture, yet it is not from the Scripture; and they say, ' This is from God,' yet it is not from God; and they utter a lie against God, and they know they do so. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 72. [78]

In the latest Sura of all we have:—

They shift the words of Scripture from their places and have forgotten part of what they were taught. Sura Al-Ma'ida (v) 16. [13]

O people of the Scriptures! Now is our Apostle come to you to clear up to you much that ye concealed of these Scriptures and to pass over many things. Now hath a light, and a clear Book come to you from God by which God will guide him who shall follow after His good pleasure to paths of peace, and will bring them out of the darkness to the light, by His will; and to the straight path will He guide them. Sura Al-Ma'ida (v) 18 [15-16]. ¹¹⁸

The charge in all these verses is not that of altering the written text of the Scriptures, but of hiding its truth, by which Muhammad meant allusions to himself which he asserted were contained therein.

It is not stated that the Scriptures themselves are so corrupted as to cease to be genuine. Indeed the evidence is all the other way:—

Verily we have sent down the Law (Torah) wherein are guidance and light. Sura Al-Ma'ida (v) 48. [44]

It is said that this statement is exclusively for Jews and Christians and that for Muslims all other religions are abrogated by the verse:— ¹¹⁹

Whoso desireth any other religion than Islam, that religion shall not be accepted from him. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 79. [85]

In this way conservative Muslims excuse themselves from paying that attention to previous Scriptures which the Qur'an so clearly enjoins. Other statements in the Sura Al-Ma'ida (v) to this effect are:—

But, if the people of the Book believe and have the fear of God, we will surely put away their sins from them and will bring them into gardens of delight, and, if that they observe the Law and the Evangel and what hath been sent down to them from their Lord, ¹²⁰ they shall surely have their fill of good things from above them and from beneath their feet. 70. [65-66]

Say, O people of the Book, ye have no ground to stand on, till ye observe the Law, the Injil and that which ¹²¹ hath been sent down to you from your Lord. 72. [68]

Here obedience to the Old and New Testaments, as well as to the Qur'an, is inculcated, which would not have been the case had the text of the former Books been tampered with. In. fact, no Books have been, according to Muhammad's own testimony as given in the Qur'an, so well safeguarded:—

And to thee have we sent down the Qur'an with truth, confirmatory of previous Scriptures and their safeguard. ¹²² Sura Al-Ma'ida (v) 52.[48]

It is clear from this that the Scriptures had not been corrupted before the time of Muhammad for the Qur'an confirms them; they cannot, from a Muslim standpoint, have been corrupted since for the Qur'an has been their safeguard, their 'trusty keeper.' Thus Muslims who make rash statements on this subject not only show great ignorance of the Qur'an itself, but treat it with the utmost disrespect when they thus impute failure to it in this most important duty which it claims to fulfil.

If then the Scriptures have been corrupted the Qur'an has failed of its purpose and has not been their safeguard. The fact is, that Muhammad had no real doubt about the authenticity and genuineness of the Scriptures, but now that he had no further use for the Jews it was necessary to discredit them and to show that they were not worthy of credit. ¹²³ It is instructive to note that all these passages about the perversion of the meaning of the Bible and the charge of concealing its predictions were revealed at Madina.

The Jews having been thus rebuked and set aside as no longer likely to be useful or necessary, there was no object whatever in assimilating the customs and practices of Islam to those of Judaism; so the Qibla (i.e., the direction towards which the prayers should be said) was now changed back again ¹²⁴ from Jerusalem to Mecca and, as usual, a revelation came to authorize the change.

It is immediately preceded by a long passage in the second Sura to show that the Ka'ba and the religion of Abraham, of which Islam is declared to be the revival, is better than the Qibla of the Jews and Judaism. The Christians, too, have a hint given them in the expression, 'The baptism of God have we received,' ¹²⁵ that in the reception of Islam consists the true regeneration of man. Then the change of the Qibla is openly stated in the verses: ¹²⁶ —

We appointed the Qibla, thou formerly hadst, only that we might know him who followeth the Apostle from him who turneth on his heels. The change is a difficulty, but not to those whom God hath guided. But God would not let your faith be fruitless for unto man is God merciful, gracious.

We have seen thee turning thy face towards every part of heaven; but we will have thee turn to a Qibla which shall please thee. Turn then thy face towards the sacred Mosque and, wherever ye be, turn your face towards that part. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 138-9. [143-144]

The Traditionists relate many stories connected with this event in the Prophet's life. One is, that 'when he found the Jews obstinate he said to Gabriel, "I wish God would change the Qibla to the Ka'ba;" Gabriel replied, "Thou hadst better ask God thyself for thou art highly esteemed by Him." The Prophet after this always looked up to heaven, waiting for tidings to change the Qibla.'

The Ramadan fast, ¹²⁷ also was now substituted for the one hitherto kept simultaneously with the Jewish fast.

As for the month Ramadan, in which the Qur'an was sent down to be man's guidance and an explanation of that guidance, and of that illumination, as soon as any one of you observeth the moon let him set about the fast. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 181. [185]

A stern warning is given to the Jews in:—

Those who conceal aught that we have sent down, either of clear proof or guidance, after what we have so clearly shown to men in the Book, God shall curse them, and they who curse shall curse them. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 154 [159]. ¹²⁸

Either in connexion with these charges or on more general grounds, some of the converts from Judaism desired still to observe portions of the Jewish Law. Husain says that Ibn Salam and his friends were converts to Islam who still wished to keep the laws of the Pentateuch. They are thus rebuked and warned:—

O believers, enter completely into the true religion and follow not the steps of Satan, for he is your declared enemy; ¹²⁹

But if ye lapse after that our clear signs have come to you, know that God is mighty, wise.

Ask the children of Israel how many clear signs we have given them; but if any man alter the gift of God, ¹³⁰ after it shall have reached him, certainly God will be vehement in punishing him. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 204-5, 207. [208-209, 211]

This antagonism between Muhammad and the Jews was perfectly natural. Not only were they unable to admit his claims, but on one great principle of action they were fundamentally opposed. He, as we shall see, desired to conserve the old Arab customs and even allowed much of the old pagan ceremonial to remain in Islam; they were conservative upholders of the ceremonies of their revealed Law and of the customs based on the interpretations of it. The time had now come when the breach with Judaism must be complete, and Muhammad made changes with, as is alleged by Arabian writers, the express object of abolishing from Islam resemblances to Judaism. ¹³¹

Coincident with this rejection of the Jews is the attempt to conciliate the Meccans by sanctioning the pilgrimage to the Ka'ba:—

Accomplish the pilgrimage and the visitation of the holy places in honour of God. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 192. [196]

Divine approval is also obtained for the retention of the pagan ceremonies of going round the hills Safa and Marwa:—

Verily, Safa and Marwa are among the monuments of God: whoever then maketh a pilgrimage to the temple, or visiteth it, shall not be to blame if he go round them both. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 153. [158]

It is, however, probable that these verses are interpolations here and that they were really revealed later on when the first pilgrimage was made.

This second Sura, Sura Al-Baqarah, then, throws a clear light on the changing policy of Muhammad at this early period of his Madina career and is itself illustrated by the history of the period. It is also an excellent example of the way in which the revelations were timed to meet the exigencies of the varying social and political situations of the Prophet and his cause. It also shows that he had already, at this early stage of his residence in Madina, realized that open war with his countrymen was unavoidable and must soon come. At all events, it was time to prepare the minds of his followers for cares and troubles of this kind and to stimulate their zeal and courage by examples from Jewish history:—

Think ye to enter Paradise, when no such things have come upon you, as on those who flourished before you? Ills and troubles tried them. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 210. [214]

Hast thou not thought on those who quitted their dwellings—and they were thousands—for fear of death? God said to them, 'Die'; then He restored them to life, for full of bounty towards man is God. But most men are thankless.

Fight for the cause of God. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 244-5. [243-244]

This exhortation is followed by a description of the wars of Moses and of Saul. Muhammad shows his ignorance of Old Testament history by confusing Saul and Gideon together. Still these examples of men of old served now to inflame the zeal of his followers.

The antipathy thus excited against the Jews increased after the battle of Badr, when, flushed with victory, Muhammad called upon the Jews of the Bani Qainuqa' tribe to believe in Islam, lest God should visit them as he had done the Quraish in the recent battle. ¹³² They had boasted that in their case defeat would not have been so easy and that they could successfully have resisted the Muslims. So the revelation came:—

If thou fear treachery from any people throw back their treaty to them as thou fairly mayest for God loveth not the treacherous.

And think not that the infidels shall escape us. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 60-1. [58-59]

They refused, and were all expelled from the country and their goods and property were confiscated. The Bani Nadir were a wealthy people, one of whose chief Rabbis, Ka'b ibn Ashraf, had been friendly with Muhammad until the change of the Qibla was made, when he became his opponent. He was assassinated in July A.D. 624 with the connivance of Muhammad. A few months after the battle of Uhud, the whole tribe, in June 625, was thus addressed: 'Thus saith the Prophet of the Lord, ye shall go out of my country within the space of seven days; whosoever shall remain behind after that shall be put to death.' They declined, and said, 'We will not go.' The Jews unfortunately did not maintain this courageous spirit. They made no attempt at mutual resistance, and so were subjugated in detail. This is referred to in the verse:—

They (the Jews) will not fight against you in a body, except in fenced towns, or behind walls. Mighty is their valour amongst themselves, but their hearts are divided. Sura Al-Hashr (lix) 14.

The Muslims justly showed contempt for their boasting and as they themselves were now powerful these Jews were exiled and their fertile fields and property were divided amongst the Muhajirun. The divine sanction for this proceeding is found in Sura Al-Hashr (lix) thus:—

He it is who caused the unbelievers among the people of the Book to quit their homes and join those who had emigrated previously. ¹³³

And were it not that God had decreed their exile, surely in this world would He have chastised them; but in the next the chastisement of fire awaiteth them.

Your cutting down some of the palm trees and sparing others was by God's permission and to put the wicked to shame. Sura Al-Hashr 2, 3, 5.

It was quite contrary to Arab usages of war to destroy the palm-trees and it was prohibited by the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy xx. 19). So Muhammad had by this revelation to justify his conduct after the deed was done. A special revelation also warranted him in giving great part of the booty to the Muhajirun: ¹³⁴ —

To the poor refugees also doth a part belong, who have been driven from their homes and their substance, and who seek favour from God and His goodwill and aid God and His Apostle. These are the men of genuine virtue. Sura Al-Hashr (lix) 8.

As for those who have believed and fled their country, and fought on the path of God, and given the Prophet an asylum, and been helpful to him, these are the faithful: mercy is their due and a noble provision.

And they who have believed and fled the country since and have fought at your side, these also are of you. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 75-6. [74-75]

The Jews are also thus denounced and warned in these bitter cruel words:—

Verily, those who disbelieve in our signs, we will surely broil them in hell fire; as often as their skins shall be well burned, we will give them other skins in exchange, that they may taste the torment— Sura An-Nisa'. (iv) 59. [56]

The commentator Husain (vol. ii, p. 396) says that certain of the Hypocrites (Munafiqun) Ibn Ali, Ibn Bautal and others had promised to help the Bani Nadir, but failed to keep their promise. They are likened to Satan, who persuaded man to be an Infidel and said, 'I share not thy guilt' [Sura Al-Hashr (lix.) 16]; and so Muhammad justified his exclusion of these men from a share in the booty thus:—

Hast thou not observed the disaffected (Munafiqun) saying to their unbelieving brethren among the people of the book, 'If ye be driven forth, we will go forth with you; and in what concerneth you, never will we obey any one; and if ye be attacked, we will certainly come to your help.' But God is witness that these are liars. Sura Al-Hashr (lix) 11.

In the fifth year of the Hijra the Bani Quraiza, a large Jewish tribe, was exterminated. At the time of the siege of Madina by the Meccans they had great inducements held out to them to join with the opponents of Muhammad and doubtless, like all Jews at this time, they were sullen and discontented. As a matter of fact they did not aid the besiegers, but remained quiet. They had also refused to aid the Bani Nadir, but it was not remembered in their favour. Had they been braver and have stood by their brethren when attacked, these Jews could probably have made much better terms with Muhammad.

Their presence in Madina may have been a source of political danger; but still nothing can justify the savage treatment they received. They offered to emigrate; they pleaded for their lives, but they pleaded in vain. They appealed to their Arab friends and allies, the Bani Aws, to intercede for them. They did this most earnestly. Muhammad, to conciliate this powerful Arab tribe, suggested that a member of it should decide the case, thus adroitly shifting the responsibility from himself: but he, took good care that the choice of the referee should not rest with the Jews. Muhammad chose Sa'd bin Mu'adh ¹³⁵ who had been formerly a friend of the Jews, but having just before been wounded in a skirmish, he was vexed with them for remaining quiet instead of helping to repel the Meccans, and so had already reported unfavourably of them to Muhammad. The decision now was a foregone conclusion. Sa'd decided that the men should be slain and that the women and children should be sold as slaves. Muhammad declared the sentence to be 'the judgement of God.' The men were then taken to Madina and all slaughtered in cold blood in batches of five or six at a time in the presence of Muhammad himself. The market-place at last was drenched with the blood of nearly eight hundred men. Under the personal direction of the Prophet trenches were dug in the market-place, to the brink of which the captives were led, then forced to kneel down and so were beheaded. Their bodies were then cast into the trenches and covered over. Some of the females were divided amongst the Muslims and the rest were sold as slaves. The fifth portion which fell to the Prophet's lot came to about two hundred women and children, who were sold to the Bedouins for horses and arms. A beautiful widow, whose husband had just been slaughtered, was reserved by Muhammad for his own harem. Thus, when two tribes had been exiled and one exterminated, the power of the Jews was broken for ever in Madina, and Muhammad was free to look farther afield for fresh conquests. There was a time when Muhammad had desired the friendship of the Jews, but each victory won, and each lot of booty captured made him less dependent on them for recognition and for funds. 'The change from a basis of reason to a basis of force had taken place gradually, but now was finally achieved.' ¹³⁶

Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii), in verses nine to twentyseven, deals with the defeat of the besiegers of Madina in what is known at the 'battle of the ditch.' The two concluding verses of the passage make God responsible for the massacre of the Jews:—

He caused the people of the Book (the Jews) who had aided the confederates (i.e., Meccans) to come down out of their fortresses and cast dismay into their hearts; some ye slew, others ye took prisoners. ¹³⁷

And He gave you their land and their dwellings and their wealth for an heritage. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 27-8. [26-27]

Raihana, the beautiful Jewess, whom Muhammad reserved to himself, refused to marry him, saying, 'Nay, O Prophet, but let me remain as thy slave: this will be easier for me and for thee.' She also refused to abandon her faith. It is reasonable to suppose that she had some aversion to becoming the wife of a man, who had not only sanctioned but had been present at the cruel massacre of her husband and her relatives. She had no power to refuse the position of a slave; so Muhammad took her as his concubine and justified his action by the verse:—

O Prophet! We allow thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the slaves whom thy right hand possesseth out of the booty which God hath granted thee. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 49 [50]. ¹³⁸

Suras al-Hadid (lvii), al-Hashr (lix), as-Saff (lxi), al-Jamu'ah (lxii), and at-Taghabun (lxiv) commence as songs of praise and were all delivered about this time to celebrate the subjection of the Jews and the infidels.

We must now go back a little and refer to the most important of the military efforts made by the Prophet. The battle of Badr, though it was not the first of his warlike expeditions, was the greatest of all that had yet been undertaken. ¹³⁹ Previous to the engagement at Badr the Prophet himself headed four free-booting expeditions and three more were conducted by his lieutenants, ¹⁴⁰ but they failed of their object, for the Quraish received little harm and the Muslims gained little or no booty. The only relatively successful expedition was one conducted in the month Rajabu'l-Arab—a month sacred from time immemorial to peace and immunity from tribal attacks. In it a Quraish caravan at Nakhla was attacked and plundered and some prisoners were taken. The victory, however, did not compensate for the fear created in the minds of the Muslims by so daring a violation of Arab custom. At first Muhammad denied that he had given any command for the attack to be made in that month, but, as the dismay still prevailed in the hearts of the people, a revelation came condoning the offence. Thus:—

They will ask thee concerning war in the sacred month; say, ' to war therein is bad, but to turn aside from the cause of God, and to have no faith in Him, and in the sacred temple, and to drive out its people is worse in the sight of God; and civil strife is worse than bloodshed.' Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 214. [217]

Ibn Ishaq says this means, 'If you make war in the holy month, they keep you from the way of God, they are unbelievers and debar you from the holy temple. This is more serious before God than the death of some men whom ye have killed.' The Quraish were very angry and said, 'Muhammad and his companions have desecrated the holy month by shedding blood, seizing goods and making captives in it;' but this violation of the sacred months lost him no followers, for the actors in it retained four-fifths of the plunder for themselves.

These small warlike expeditions provided the booty which was so necessary, for the Muslims were then very poor. ¹⁴¹ They also prepared the way for greater efforts, and in the revelations of this period a distinct advance is made in inculcating the spirit of retaliation and in stirring up a feeling of military ardour. Sura Ar-Ra'd (xiii) is the latest Meccan one, but the forty-first verse belongs to the Madina period and must have been inserted in this Sura afterwards either by Muhammad himself, or by compilers of the Qur'an. It refers to the encroachments of the Muslims over the territories of the pagan Arabs:—

See they not that we come into their land and cut short its borders? God pronounceth a doom, and there is none to reverse this doom. Sura Ar Ra'd (xiii) 41.

Sura Al-Hajj (xxii) is most probably a Meccan one, but some verses are clearly of a later date and belong to Madina, such as:—

A sanction is given to those who because they have suffered outrages have taken up arms, and verily God is well able to succour them.

Those who have been driven from their homes wrongfully only because they say, 'Our Lord is the God.' 40-1. [39-40]

In the second year at Madina Muhammad saw clearly that open war with his countrymen was now unavoidable. So in Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) the earliest Madina one, we read:—

War is prescribed for you, but it is hateful to you; yet haply ye hate a thing which is better for you. 212-3. [216]

Fight for the cause of God. 245. [244]

There are in the same Sura verses of a similar character, but they probably belong to a somewhat later period, the time of the first pilgrimage to Mecca in the year, A.H. 7, and if so, they refer to the people of Mecca only, and in their case only if they should prove faithless to the treaty of Hudaibiyah. ¹⁴² The verses are:—

Fight for the cause of God against those who fight against you; but commit not the injustice of attacking them first. ¹⁴³ God loveth not such injustice.

And kill them wherever ye shall find them, and eject them from whatever place they have ejected you, for civil discord is worse than carnage. 187-8. [190-191]

Fight, therefore, against them until there be no more civil discord, ¹⁴⁴ and the only worship be that of God,  but if they desist ¹⁴⁵ then let there be no hostility, save against the wicked. 189. [193]

The warlike spirit is also stirred up by a reference to the wars of the children of Israel and of Saul who in one case is confounded with Gideon, showing that Muhammad's knowledge of Old Testament history was very confused. The Israelites are represented as saying:—

Why should we not fight for the religion of God, seeing We are dispossessed of our habitations, and our children are driven forth.

How oft, by God's will, hath a small host vanquished a large host, and God is with the patiently persevering.

Such are the signs of God. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 247, 250, 253. [246, 249, 252]

Thus, just as the small host under Gideon overcame the Midianites, so would the small host of Muslims overcome the Meccans, and such victories were God's signs or witnesses to the truths which His prophets inculcated. In this way and by such teaching Muhammad encouraged his followers.

Thus he justified the command:—

A sanction is given those who, because they have suffered outrages, have taken up arms and verily God is well able to succour them. Sura Al-Hajj (xxii) 40. [39]

An argument is based on the fact that as in other religions men had defended their places of worship, so Muslims should do the same:—

Those who have been driven out from their homes wrongfully, only because they say 'Our Lord is the God.' If God had not repelled some men by others, cloisters and churches and oratories and mosques, wherein the name of God is ever commemorated, would surely have been destroyed. And him who helpeth God will God surely help. Sura Al-Hajj (xxii) 41 [40]. ¹⁴⁶

The Quraish had practically expelled the Muslims from Mecca and this may be said to justify the hostilities, but now the injunction passed beyond that, and war was to be carried on until 'the only worship be that of God,' that is, until the Meccans embraced Islam. The true faith was to be established by the sword. No other forms of religion were to be tolerated at all. Still the people were timid and the 'Hypocrites' were opposed to this war policy. Then a little later on Sura Muhammad (xlvii) was revealed which urges the faithful to fight and threatens the cowards and 'Hypocrites' with the terrors of hell. Thus:—

When ye encounter the infidels, strike off their heads, till ye have made a great slaughter amongst them, and of the rest make fast the fetters.

And afterwards let there be either free dismissals, or ransomings till the war hath laid down its arms. ¹⁴⁷ . . . Whoso fight ¹⁴⁸ for the cause of God, their work He will not suffer to miscarry. 4-5. [4]

Fight then against them till all strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's—Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 40 [39]. ¹⁴⁹

The timid are referred to in the verse:—

The believers say, 'Oh, would that a Sura were sent down; but when a peremptory Sura is revealed, whose burden is war, thou mayest see the diseased of heart look toward thee, with a look of one on whom the shadows of death have fallen.

Be not faint-hearted then: and invite not the infidels to peace when ye have the upper hand. Sura Muhammad (xlvii) 22, 37. [20, 35]

Thus was the ground prepared and the inhabitants of Madina stirred up to take their part for the first time in an aggressive war. The distress in Madina was very great at this time, and supplies had to be obtained from some source. ¹⁵⁰ The immediate cause of the battle of Badr (A.D. 624) was the desire of Muhammad to capture a rich caravan known to be on its way from Syria to Mecca. ¹⁵¹ It was escorted by about forty armed men. Addressing his followers Muhammad said: 'Let us take it by surprise, perhaps Heaven has given us this booty.' A body of three hundred and forty-seven men went forth on this looting expedition. The Ansar were under no liability to go forth to fight, for in the first pledge of 'Aqaba, made when Muhammad was first invited to Madina, no condition as regards fighting was laid down. But now attachment to his cause, devotion to his person, the love of adventure and the desire for plunder led many Ansar to volunteer their services. On hearing of the danger the caravan was in, a large body of men set out from Mecca for its protection and it was with this relieving force that the battle of Badr was fought. This uncalled for aggression on the part of Muhammad has been apologized for on the ground that the Meccans made a raid against Madina. This is not the case. They came out solely to protect their property. The night before the battle it rained a little and Muhammad dreamed that enemies were few in number. Both incidents are referred to in the Qur'an:—

When sleep, a sign of security from Him, fell upon you and He sent down upon you water from heaven that He might cleanse you, and cause the pollution of Satan to pass from you.

Remember, when God showed them to thee in thy dream as few; had He shown them numerous, ye would certainly have become faint-hearted, and would certainly have disputed about the matter; but from this God kept you. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 11, 45. [11, 43]

The Quraish were utterly beaten and many prisoners were cruelly murdered by the Muslims. The booty was very large and the division of it led to much dispute. A beautiful red vestment disappeared and some of the Munafiqun said that Muhammad had taken it, but this charge, according to Tirmidhi, ¹⁵² was rebutted by a special revelation:—

It is not for the Prophet to cheat. ¹⁵³   Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 155. [161]

The Traditionist Rawi says ¹⁵⁴ that to clear the Prophet of the imputation cast upon him this verse came:—

Shall he who hath followed the good pleasure of God be as he who hath brought upon himself wrath from God. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 156. [162]

In order to put an end to the murmuring about the division of the spoil, the will of God was indicated in the following verses which were now revealed:—

They will question thee about the spoils; say, the spoils are God's and the Apostle's. Therefore, fear God and settle this among yourselves, and obey God and His Apostle, if ye are believers. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 1.

Having thus laid down his absolute right to the booty, the Prophet somewhat modifies the claim and says:—

When ye have taken any booty, a fifth part belongeth to God and to the Apostle, and to the near of kin, and to the orphans, and to the poor and to the wayfarer, if ye believe in God and in that which we have sent down to our servant on the day of victory, ¹⁵⁵ the day of the meeting of the hosts. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 42. [41]

This is the law of Islam on the subject to the present day.

The victory of Badr was needed to strengthen Muhammad's position in Madina, which had now become much weakened by the small success of his previous warlike expeditions and no efforts were now spared to attribute this great success to miraculous intervention on the part of God. Thus:—

When ye sought succour of your Lord, He answered you, 'I will verily aid you with a thousand angels, rank on rank.' ¹⁵⁶ And God made this promise as pure good tidings, and to assure your hearts by it; for succour cometh from God alone. ¹⁵⁷ Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 9-10.

Later on, this aid is referred to as a support to the Prophet's claim and as an encouragement and a warning to his followers.

Ye have already had a sign, ¹⁵⁸ in the meeting of the two hosts. The one host fought in the cause of God and the other was infidel. To their own eyesight the infidels saw you twice as many as themselves, ¹⁵⁹ and God aids with His succour whom He wishes. And in this there is indeed a warning to those who have perception. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 11. [13]

It was not ye who slew them, but God slew them, and the shafts were God's, not thine. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 17.

Those who gave up their lives are spoken of as martyrs for God's cause.

Say not of those who are slain on God's path that they are dead: nay, they are living. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 149 [154]. ¹⁶⁰

Some of the Muhajirun, who had lost old Meccan relatives and friends in the conflict, saw that their kinsmen among the captives were sad. This feeling was strong amongst the women. Then this rebuke, came:—

O ye who believe, verily, in your wives and your children ye have an enemy; ¹⁶¹ wherefore, beware of them. Sura At-Taghabun (lxiv) 14.

In the week following the battle of Badr, two of the most prominent offenders, Abu 'Afak and Ibn 'Auf were assassinated. Men then criticized in private, but that was very soon forbidden:—

Hast thou not marked those who have been forbidden secret talk, and return to what they have been forbidden, and talk privately with wickedness and hate and disobedience toward the Apostle. Sura Al-Mujadilah (lviii) 9. [8]

The victory was gained by an inferior over a superior force, and the Quraish lost men who had been the Prophet's determined foes, and so the idea of divine interposition seemed quite a natural explanation It placed the Prophet in a position of security for the time, and enabled him, as we have seen, to carry out his policy, more fully developed after the battle of Badr, of entirely subduing the Jewish tribes for whose aid he had now no further need. The value of the spoils and of the ransoms of the prisoners proved most acceptable to the Muhajirun who thus became independent of the Ansar. Prisoners who were too poor to pay a ransom in money did it by giving writing lessons, an art now fully appreciated by Muhammad. [Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 282-3] The victory also made a great impression on the Bedouin tribes and caused them to become more inclined to come to terms with one who stood before them as a leader of a victorious military force. For the Prophet they cared little, but a successful warrior claimed their attention and respect. The claim to divine support when a victory was gained also increased the prestige and power of the Prophet; but it was a dangerous assertion to make, or policy to follow, for when defeat came, the conclusion naturally drawn was that God had forsaken him. This is what actually occurred later on.

About a year after the battle of Badr, the Quraish smarting under the defeat determined to make another great effort to overcome their opponents.. They collected a comparatively large army and in the spring of A.D. 625 drew near to Madina. The immediate reason for this was that Muhammad continued his plundering expeditions. The merchants of Mecca found that their trade was in great danger. The ordinary western route to Syria was unsafe and so they sent a rich caravan by the eastern one. The news of the change of route reached, Muhammad and he at once sent a band of a hundred horsemen in pursuit of it. The raid was successful and the merchandise and all who were in charge of it were brought to Madina. It was now clear either that the Muslims did not wish for peace, or that the Arab love of looting could not be controlled. The Meccans had to fight for their very existence as a commercial community and for freedom to carry on their daily business. The Meccans were fully justified now in taking vigorous action. The immediate cause of the battle of Badr was Muhammad's attempt to capture a caravan; that of Uhud his successful seizure of one. Muhammad wisely wished to act on the defensive, but was overborne by the younger and more ardent of his followers, who represented to him that the Bedouin tribes, now beginning to be impressed with a sense of. his power, would set down a defensive attitude to cowardice, and that doubt would also be cast on his previous claims to supernatural aid in times of danger. This had been so strongly urged as a proof of the divine nature of his mission that any action now, implying distrust in its recurrence, would be fatal to his prestige. So he gave way and agreed to give battle to the Quraish, saying, 'If ye be steadfast, the Lord will grant you the victory.'

Many single combats 'were fought, but when both sides became generally engaged the result was a very severe defeat for the Muslim forces. The Prophet himself also was badly wounded. This made him angry and he said: 'How shall the people prosper that have treated thus their Prophet, who calleth them unto their Lord. Let the wrath of God burn against the men that have sprinkled the face of His Apostle with blood.' ¹⁶² The Quraish satisfied with the victory at Uhud did not follow up their success, but retired to Mecca. ¹⁶³ Thus ended the battle of Uhud.

Tradition has raised the rank of the Muslims who fell at this battle to the position of martyrs; but the immediate effect of the defeat was most disastrous. ¹⁶⁴ The victory at Badr had been made the occasion of so great a claim to divine assistance that this defeat at Uhud naturally led to the idea that God had now forsaken the cause. The Jews indeed adroitly used this argument and said: 'How can Muhammad pretend to be anything more than an aspirant to the kingly office? No true claimant of the prophetic dignity hath ever been beaten on the field, or suffered loss in his own person and that of his followers, as he hath.' ¹⁶⁵ It required all the skill and address of the Prophet to meet the objections of the Jews and to remove the latent doubt in the minds of some of his followers. This he did by a very skillful production of revelations to explain that the defeat at Uhud was due partly to their own dissensions, partly to disobedience to orders and their desire for personal safety. Thus he says:—

Already had God made good to you His promise, when by His permission ye destroyed your foes, until your courage failed you and ye disputed about the order ¹⁶⁶ and disobeyed, after that the Prophet had brought you within view of that for which ye longed.

Some of you were for this world and some for the next. ¹⁶⁷ Then, in order to make trial of you, He turned you to flight from them. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 145-6. [152]

The defeat was said to have been sent as a test of their sincerity and of the soundness of their belief. Thus:—

If a wound hath befallen you, a wound like it hath already befallen others. ¹⁶⁸ We alternate these days of success and reverses amongst men that God may know those who have believed, and that He may take martyrs from among you; but God loveth not them that do injury. ¹⁶⁹

And that God may test those who believe and destroy the infidels. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 134-5. [140-141]

That which befell you on the day when the armies met was certainly by the will of God, and that He might know the faithful and that He might know the hypocrites. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 160 [166-167]. ¹⁷⁰

With regard to the taunt of the Jews, a revelation came to show that other prophets had suffered reverses and that Muhammad was no exception to this rule:—

Muhammad is no more than an apostle: other apostles have already passed away before him; if he die, therefore, or be slain, will ye turn upon your heels? But he who turneth on his heels shall not injure God at all; and God will certainly reward the thankful.

No one can die except by God's permission, written down for an appointed time. ¹⁷¹ Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 138-9 [144-145].

How many a prophet have myriads, ¹⁷² fought with, yet they fainted not at what befell them on the path of God, nor were they weakened, nor did they make themselves abject, and God loveth the persevering. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 140 [146].

The doctrine of predestination and the power of Satanic influence are also urged as an explanation:—

If God help you none can overcome you, but if He abandon you, who is he that shall help you thereafter? In God then let the faithful trust. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 154 [160].

The meaning of this is, according to Baidawi, if God helps you as He did at Badr you can conquer; if He leaves you as He did at Uhud you will be beaten.

No one can die except by God's permission, written down for an appointed time. ¹⁷³
Of a truth it was Satan who caused those of you to fail in duty who turned back when the hosts met. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 139, 149 [145, 155]. ¹⁷⁴

No accident befalls on the earth, or on yourselves, but it was in the Book (of eternal decrees) before we created them. Sura Al-Hadid (lvii) 22. ¹⁷⁵

But after all, those who had been killed had gained a great reward; they were now martyrs, blessed in the realms above:—

Repute not those slain on God's path to be dead. Nay, alive with their Lord are they richly sustained. ¹⁷⁶

Rejoicing in what God of His bounty hath vouchsafed them, filled with joy for those who follow after them, but have not as yet overtaken them; because no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they be grieved. .....

Filled with joy at the favours of God and at His bounty, and that God suffereth not the reward of the righteous to perish. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 163-5. [169-171]

There is rather an obscure verse at the end of the third Sura , which may be intended to show that, though the Meccans had freedom sufficient to be able to carry on trade and were generally independent after the battle of Uhud, the Prophet should not be disheartened nor led astray by it:—

Let not the coming and going of the infidels in cities deceive thee. It is but a little benefit. Afterwards Hell is their abode and bad the bed. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 196 [196-197]. ¹⁷⁷

It seems clear that the defeat of the Muslims at Uhud had been so complete that the pagan Arabs were able to live at ease and to pursue their ordinary avocations without fear. This was disheartening to Muhammad and his followers and so this revelation came to cheer them.

Sura Al-'Imran ¹⁷⁸ is full of the subject and shows how important a crisis the Prophet felt it to be, and how great were the pains he took to avert in Madina itself the danger to which the defeat might have led. It is also a remarkable instance of the way in which opportune revelations came to support and sustain the people, when disheartened at the adverse turn their circumstances had taken. It is clear that the Prophet himself soon became hopeful again, for soon after he rebuked those who turned their backs to the enemy at Uhud, ¹⁷⁹ and speaks with certainty of the final and complete victory of Islam which is to be the one and only universal religion:—

He it is who hath sent His Apostle with guidance and the religion of truth that, though they hate it who join other gods with God, He may make it victorious over every other religion. ¹⁸⁰ Sura As-Saff (lxi) 9.

The final conclusion to the whole matter is a verse which the commentator Husain interprets as having a reference to war and conflict:— ¹⁸¹

O ye who believe! be patient and vie in patience, and be firm and fear God that it may be well with you. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 200.

The result of all the Prophet's explanations was that he did not by this defeat lose a single convert nor damage his reputation.

After the battle of Uhud ¹⁸² the two armies parted with the mutual threat, ‘Next year we shall meet again at Badr.' The Quraish started out, when the time came round, with a considerable force to fulfil their portion of the compact; but a severe drought drove them back to Mecca, so when Muhammad with his men arrived they found no enemy. They stayed at Badr eight days and sold their goods at a large profit. This happy ending to what might have been a serious and bloody conflict called for a special revelation:—

As to those who, after the reverse ¹⁸³ which befell them, respond to God and His Apostle—such of them as do good works and fear God shall have a great reward;

Who, when men say to them, 'Now are the Meccans mustering against you; therefore fear them,' it only increased their faith, and they said, 'Our sufficiency is God, and He is an excellent Protector.'

They returned, ¹⁸⁴ therefore, with the favour of God, enriched by Him ¹⁸⁵ and untouched by harm; and they followed what was well pleasing to God, and He is of mighty munificence. ¹⁸⁶

Verily that devils ¹⁸⁷ would cause you to fear his friends fear them not, but fear me if ye are believers. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 166-9. [172-175]

Other expeditions against certain tribes followed, none of which are of any special interest, except that in one, the 'Salatu'1-Khauf,' or the regulation for prayers in times of danger, was instituted. One division of the army watched while the other prayed. ¹⁸⁸ The Qur'an had now become the medium through which the warlike news and military orders—all direct communications from God—are announced.

Sometimes certain revelations also came to justify the actions of the Prophet in his domestic life. Those in connexion with events which happened about this time at Madina will serve as an illustration, and may be conveniently mentioned here, though they actually occurred later on, in the year A.D. 626, and after the battle of Uhud. The story goes that, on visiting the house of Zaid, his adopted son, Muhammad was struck with the beauty of his wife, Zainab. Zaid offered to divorce her, but Muhammad said to him, 'keep thy wife to thyself and fear God.' Zaid now proceeded with the divorce, though from the implied rebuke in the thirty-sixth verse of Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) he seems to doubt the propriety of his action. In ordinary cases this would have removed any difficulty as regards the marriage of Zainab and Muhammad, and little or no scandal would have followed; but the marriage of a man with the wife of his adopted son, even though divorced, was looked upon by the Arabs as a very wrong thing indeed. However, Muhammad did this, and had to justify his action by alleging that he had for it the direct sanction of God. It was first necessary to show that God did not approve of the general objection to marriage with wives of adopted sons, and so the revelation came thus:—

Nor hath He made your adopted sons to be as your sons. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 4.

According to Arab custom and usage Zaid was to Muhammad 'as his son,' but in Islam such a view was by divine command to be set aside. Having thus settled the general principle, the way was clear for Muhammad to act in this particular case, and to claim divine sanction for setting at nought the sentiment of the Arab people. So the revelation goes on to say:—

And remember when thou (i.e., Muhammad) said to him (i.e., Zaid) unto whom God had shown favour ¹⁸⁹ and to whom thou also hadst shown favour, ¹⁹⁰ 'Keep thy wife to thyself and fear God;' and thou didst hide in thy mind what God would bring to light and thou didst fear man; ¹⁹¹ but more right had it been to fear God. ¹⁹² And when Zaid had settled to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it might not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted sons when they have settled the affairs concerning them. And the order of God is to be performed.

No blame attaches to the Prophet where God hath given him a permission. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 37-8.

This relaxation of the moral law for Muhammad's benefit, because he was a prophet, shows how very easy the divorce between religion and morality becomes in Islam.

Another difficulty was that Zainab was the daughter of Jahsh, the daughter of his aunt Amina, who was the daughter of 'Abdu'l-Muttalib. ¹⁹³ A fresh revelation, however, by bestowing upon the Prophet a special and peculiar privilege, not accorded to his followers, removed the difficulty:—

O Prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered and the slaves whom thy right hand possesseth out of the booty. ¹⁹⁴ God hath granted thee, and the daughters ¹⁹⁵ of thy uncle and of thy paternal and maternal aunts who fled with thee (from Mecca), and any believing woman ¹⁹⁶ who hath given herself up to the Prophet, if the Prophet desireth to take her—a privilege for thee above the rest of the faithful. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 49. [50]

Zainab and her husband did not encourage the suit of the Prophet, and are, thus reprimanded by the alleged command of God in the revelation:—

And it is not for a believer, man or woman, to have any choice in their affairs when God and His Apostle have decreed a matter; and whoever disobeyeth God and His Apostle erreth with palpable error.. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 36. ¹⁹⁷

This settled the matter, and the marriage with Zainab was thus declared to be legal and right. Zaid was no longer spoken of as the son of Muhammad, but as Zaid ibn Haritha—son of Haritha.

This same Sura contains a verse (52) which prohibits Muhammad's adding to the nine wives he already possessed, but permits him to have as many concubines as he pleased—'slaves whom thy right hand shall possess,' ¹⁹⁸ but into this matter we need not go. The limitation to four wives, excluding concubines, in the case of ordinary Muslims is to be found in the third verse of Sura An-Nisa' (iv), revealed about the fourth or fifth year of the Hijra, and earlier than the passage in which Muhammad is limited to nine wives.

About this time Muhammad made a small expedition against an Arab tribe, the Bani Mustaliq, which is of interest on account of a scandal regarding 'Ayisha, who accompanied her husband and which led to a special revelation. On the march she loitered behind and finally came into camp escorted by a youth, named Safwan bin Mu'attal. Her excuse was that she stayed behind to find a lost necklace. There were scandal-mongers present who made improper remarks about this. Then came the verse:—

Of a truth, they who advanced that lie were a large number of you. Sura An-Nur (xxiv) 11.

The commentators Husain, Ibn Abba's and also Baidawi say that the verse refers to 'Ayisha. The occasion gave rise to this Sura, delivered after the return to Madina, and with verse nineteen of Sura An-Nisa' (iv) forms the Prophet's denunciation of fornication and gives the law regarding it. There is a Tradition to the effect that the Khalifa 'Umar said that the punishment originally was that of stoning, now held to be abrogated by Sura An-Nur (xxiv) 1-4. In any case the 'verse of stoning' was not inserted in Zaid's recension of the Qur'an.

Somewhat later on, about the eighth or ninth year of the Hijra, we have another revelation connected with a domestic affair. Some time before this the Roman Governor of Egypt had presented Muhammad with a Coptic slave girl of great beauty, who in due course bore a son named Ibrahim. This led to great jealousy amongst the wives of the Prophet. Muhammad was annoyed because his wife Hafasa revealed to one of his other wives, named 'Ayisha, some scandal which he had solemnly charged her to keep secret. The family disturbance increased and, at last, Muhammad had to get a divine sanction for his conduct with Mary the Copt. ¹⁹⁹ This he did in the following passage which approves of his action, and releases him from an oath he had taken to please and pacify his wives:—

O Prophet! wherefore dost thou prohibit what God hath made lawful to thee, craving to please thy wives, but God is forgiving, compassionate.

God hath allowed you release from your oaths and God is your master. Sura At-Tahrim (lxvi) 1-2.

In the fifth year of the Hijra the Quraish made another great effort and laid siege to Madina. It was called the war of the Confederates, on account of the various tribes of Arabs and of the number of Jews who assisted the Meccans. The Jews had already begun to feel the heavy hand of Muhammad upon them, and saw that their only chance of a peaceful life lay in friendship with the Quraish rather than with Muhammad. This annoyed the Prophet and he thus reproached them:—

Hast thou not observed those to whom a part of the Scriptures have been given, they believe in al-Jibt and at-Taghut and say of the infidels, 'these are guided in a better path than those who hold the faith.' Sura An-Nisa' (iv) 54. [51]

As the siege progressed some of the Muslims became disheartened. The account of it is given in Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) and its terrors are thus depicted:—

When they assailed you from above you and from below you, and when your eyes became distracted, and your hearts came up into your throat, and ye thought divers thoughts of God,

Then were the faithful tried, and with strong quaking did they quake. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 10-11.

Muhammad now seemed weak and helpless, and the people, doubting his promise of divine aid, wished to retire from the outer defensive works into the city. They were rebuked in a revelation recorded in the same Sura thus:—

When the disaffected and the diseased of heart said, 'God and His Apostle have made us but a cheating promise'.

And when a party of them said, 'O men of Yathrib (Madina)! This is no place of safety for you here; therefore return into the city.' And another party of you asked the Prophet's leave to return, saying, Our houses are left defenceless.' No! they were not left defenceless but their sole thought was to flee away:

Say, flight shall not profit you. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 12-14, 17. [12-13, 17]

The Quraish suddenly raised the siege and then retired. 'This was the best and also the last chance given to the Meccans and Jews of breaking Muhammad's power. It was utterly wasted, partly for want of physical courage, but chiefly because there was no man with brains in command.' ²⁰⁰ The Prophet in order to encourage his followers then said, as if from God:—

And God drove back the infidels in their wrath! they won no advantage. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 25.

The position of Muhammad as a chieftain was now strong, and he assumed a position of superiority, calling for special and reverential intercourse:—

Address not the Apostle as ye address one another. ²⁰¹ Sura An-Nur (xxiv) 63.

The Quraish had been beaten in one battle and had failed in a siege. The victory of Uhud they had not followed up. A large number of Arab tribes had been by persuasion or force drawn to the acceptance of Islam. The Jews by banishment and slaughter had been reduced to impotence. Mecca, however, still remained proudly aloof from the one man in Arabia who was a conqueror and a ruler of men. All these long years Muhammad had suffered persecution and reproach at the hands of the Quraish: the day of retribution was drawing near. The mind of the Prophet turned towards the sacred city, for, until his influence was supreme there, he could not expect to be the sole ruler in Arabia. ²⁰² Six years had now passed away since he and his followers had left Mecca, and no doubt many of them wished to revisit the old familiar places. Again, Muhammad had some time before changed the Qibla (or direction in which prayer should be said) from Jerusalem to Mecca. The sacred temple there was still a holy place to the Muslims in Madina. Every day of their lives they turned towards it in acts of divine worship, though for six years they had not seen it. The longing to enter its courts and to go round its walls was now very great. The way had to be carefully prepared and Sura Al-Hajj (xxii), or such portions of it as are not late Meccan, was revealed for this purpose. ²⁰³ The Meccans are reminded that the Ka'ba is for all men. ‘As a man of the Quraish, Muhammad had himself grown up in pious reverence for the Ka'ba and the black stone. Properly speaking, this reverence was at variance with the principles of his religion; but he managed to adjust matters by his theory that these holy things had been established by Abraham, and only abused by the heathen.’ ²⁰⁴ The ceremonies of the old pagan ritual are declared to be 'rites of God,' the performance of which shows 'piety of heart.' The continued sacrifice of camels is enjoined. Thus did Muhammad claim the Ka'ba and all its ceremonies for Islam. It was a master-stroke for gaining influence at the time.

At this juncture Muhammad had a dream in which he saw himself and his followers performing all the duties of the Pilgrimage. This settled the matter, and, as the sacred month in which the 'Umbra, or Lesser Pilgrimage, is made was now at hand, a considerable body started out towards Mecca in the month of March, A.D. 628. The Quraish opposed their entrance into the city and messengers went to and fro between the two parties. ²⁰⁵ The position of the Muslims at Hudaibiya was one of some danger and Muhammad, gathering his followers around himself under the shade of a tree, required a pledge of loyalty even to death from each one. This oath was cheerfully given, and the 'Pledge of the tree' is an event ever after referred to with great respect and regard. It is a most striking instance of the personal devotion of his followers to the Prophet and of the intense sympathy which existed between them. God is said to have been glad about it:—

Well pleased now hath God been with the believers when they plighted fealty to thee under the tree. Sura Al-Fath (xlviii) 18. ²⁰⁶

The end of the consultations was that the Quraish absolutely refused admission to the Ka'ba, but agreed to the following terms:—

‘War shall be suspended for ten years. Neither side shall attack the other. Perfect amity shall prevail betwixt us. Whosoever wisheth to join Muhammad and enter into treaty with him shall have liberty to do so; and whosoever wisheth to join the Quraish and enter into treaty with them shall have liberty so to do. If any one goeth over to Muhammad, without the permission of his guardian, he shall be sent back to his guardian. ²⁰⁷ But, if any one from amongst the followers of Muhammad return to the Quraish, the same shall be sent back; provided—on the part of the Quraish—that Muhammad and his followers retire from us this year without entering the city. In the coming year he may visit Mecca, he and his followers, for three days when we shall retire. But they may not enter it with any weapons, save those of the traveller, namely, to each a sheathed sword.' ²⁰⁸

At first the Muslims were disappointed and felt that their object in coming had not been gained, ²⁰⁹ but Muhammad soon produced a revelation to show how wrong that view of it was, and what benefits would be derived from this treaty of Hudaibiya. Standing on his camel, he gave what he declared to be God's message, beginning with the words:—

Verily, we have won for thee an undoubted victory. Sura Al-Fath (xlviii) 1. ²¹⁰

And such it was, for the Quraish in treating him as an equal acknowledged his political status. Ibn Ishaq well remarks that 'when war had ceased and people met in security, then they entered into conversation and every intelligent person with whom the merits of Islam were discussed embraced it.' The increase was certainly rapid now. Referring to the women who came Margoliouth says, 'These welcome visitors easily found new ties at Madina, though some sort of examination had to be undergone to test the genuineness of their faith.' ²¹¹ The people who would not come are, in this same Sura, bitterly reproved and reminded that the ' flame of hell is prepared for the Infidels,' ²¹² whilst those who had taken the oath of fealty under the tree are promised 'a spirit of secure repose, a speedy victory and a rich booty.' ²¹³ To meet the disappointment caused by the absence of booty the Muslims are told that there is

Other booty, over which ye have not yet had power, but now hath God compassed them for you. Sura Al-Fath (xlviii) 21.

Baidawi says this may refer to the spoils after the defeat of the Huwazin Arabs in the battle of Hunain. ²¹⁴ The Muslims had referred to Muhammad's dream and wondered why it had not come to pass. He pointed out that the particular year of its fulfilment was not shown in it, and to pacify them brought another revelation to assure them of its certain fulfilment:—

Now hath God in truth made good to His Apostle the dream in which he said, 'Ye shall surely enter the sacred mosque, if God will, in full security having your head shaved and your haircut; ye shall not fear, for He knoweth what ye know not, and He hath ordained you, besides this, a speedy victory. ²¹⁵

It is He who hath sent His Apostle with the guidance, and the religion of truth, that He may exalt it above every religion. And enough for thee is this testimony on the part of God. Sura Al-Fath (xlviii) 27-8. ²¹⁶

Thus, though the pilgrimage was postponed, the victory was theirs: other booty would be realized and they could rest now in patience for to Muhammad was the 'guidance' committed. Great would be the glory of Islam. No longer were Christianity and Judaism co-ordinate with it. In Islam alone was salvation to be found; ²¹⁷ for now it was to exceed and excel all other religions, and so they could well afford to wait for a year to fulfil their desire. Enough for them to know that this was the will of God. The whole of this forty-eighth Sura is very remarkable and well suited to the occasion.

This special claim for Islam as the one religion had already been made in an earlier Madina Sura:—

The true religion with God is Islam, and those to whom the Scriptures were given did not differ, till after that knowledge had come to them, and out of jealousy of each other. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 17 [19].

The meaning of this is given in the commentaries to be, that Islam, not Judaism and Christianity, is the true religion, and that Jews and Christians did not reject it till the Qur'an came, when they did so simply out of envy or from the desire to maintain their own superiority. ²¹⁸

After his return to Madina, with a strong sense of his growing power in Arabia, the vision of the Prophet took a wider range, which is shown in the spirit of a passage in a late Madina Sura:—

Say to them, O men, 'Verily I am God's Apostle to you all.' Sura Al-A'raf (vii) 157 [158].

This led him to send embassies, about the years A. D. 627-8, to various Christian rulers, including Heraclius, the Emperor of Byzantium, to the King of Persia and others. ²¹⁹ Nöldeke says that in these letters, calling upon the Christian sovereigns to embrace Islam and to acknowledge his suzerainty the following passage was included: ²²⁰ —

Say: 'O people of the Book! come ye to a just judgement between us and you—that ye worship not aught but God and that we join no other gods with Him, and that the one of us take not the other for lords, beside God.' Then, if they turn their backs, say, 'Bear ye witness that we are Muslims.'

O people of the Book, why dispute about Abraham, ²²¹ when the Law and the Gospel were not sent down till after him. Do ye not then understand?

Lo! ye are they who dispute about that of which ye have no knowledge .... God hath knowledge but ye know nothing.

Abraham was neither Jew nor Christian, but he was sound in the faith, (Hanif) a Muslim, and not of those who add gods to God. Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 57-60 [64-67].

‘Each time the Prophet had failed, or secured an incomplete success, he compensated for it by an attack on the Jews. This policy had served too well to be abandoned after the unsatisfactory affair of Hudaibiya and, therefore, a raid on the Jews of Khaibar was speedily planned. ²²² It took place in the autumn of 628 and brought much wealth to the camp of the Muslims. At first, Muhammad had sought the aid of the Jews, but failing to get it, he attacked them, tribe by tribe, massacred them, banished them from their homes or reduced them to a state of helpless subjection. In this victory Muhammad put an end to the independence of the Jews in Arabia. Safiyya, a daughter of one of the Prophet's most active adversaries, who had been assassinated by his order, was taken captive at Khaibar. She was invited to embrace Islam which she did and then became the wife of the conqueror. The people of Khaibar lived too far away from Madina to be a menace, but there was booty to be acquired and the total subjugation of Arabia seems now to have been decided upon.

Muhammad, being now secure from any attack on the part of the Quraish, made raids on different Bedouin tribes and so passed the time until the month for the 'Umra, or Lesser Pilgrimage, came round again. At this time some sick Bedouins of the 'Urain and Ukka families accepted Islam and received permission to stay on the pasture ground of the Prophet and to drink the milk of the she camels. They were ungrateful, and, after slaying the keeper of the camels, stole fifteen of them and ran away. They were caught and the punishment inflicted was brutal. Their hands and feet were cut off; their eyes and tongues were pierced with thorns (Tafsir-i-Husaini, vol. i, p. 144); their eyes were pierced with needles and they were exposed to the heat of the sun till they died (Khalasatu-t-Tafasir, vol. ii, p. 575). Then this verse was revealed:—

As to the thief, whether man or woman, cut ye off their hands in recompense for their doings. This is a penalty by way of warning from God himself. Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 42. [38]

In the spring of A.D. 629 Muhammad availed himself of the permission granted by the Quraish, and with about two thousand followers approached Mecca. The Quraish then retired and the Muslims, leaving their weapons outside, entered Mecca which for seven years they had not seen. When Muhammad came to the Ka'ba ²²³ he said: 'May God be gracious to the man whom he shows them (the Meccans) today in his strength.' He performed the usual ceremonies of the pagan pilgrimage, such as kissing the black stone, making the seven prescribed circuits of the Ka'ba and the running between the Mounts Safa and Marwa. ²²⁴ The animals brought for the purpose were sacrificed, and the ceremonies of the Lesser Pilgrimage were brought to an end. The honour paid to the city and to the ancient temple favourably influenced the Meccans; the show of martial power led two cavalry leaders of the Quraish to join Muhammad's standard; the friendships formed, through his marriage now with Maimuna—the fourth addition to his harem during this year—advanced his cause, and when Muhammad retired again to Madina he was much more powerful in every way than he had been at any previous period.

A few more Arab tribes were then attacked and reduced to submission. The southern portion of the Roman Empire was invaded, but in the battle of Muta the Muslims were severely defeated. 'We are justified in supposing that much was effected by Muhammad's campaign against the Byzantines, which, though not for the moment successful, made him the champion of a national idea, which the Arabs had scarcely thought of till then. ²²⁵ Muhammad saw the attack was premature, and that, before entering on conquests abroad, his position must first be made stronger in Arabia. Then came a revelation in this very short Sura, the Sura An-Nasr (cx):—

When the help of God, and the victory ²²⁶ arrive,
And thou seest men entering the religion of God by troops.
Then utter the praise of the Lord and implore His pardon, for He loveth to turn in mercy.

Thus encouraged, he was able to proceed. Undoubtedly the unity of the political community, the consolidation of his followers as a religious corporation needed a centre other than Madina. The time had now come when, if Islam was to be the one politico-religious force in Arabia which Muhammad had from the first intended it to be, Mecca must become its centre.

He saw that the Meccans were now weary of strife, that many Quraish leaders were either dead or had joined him, that everywhere in the country his own power was extending, and that it would be now possible by a determined effort to capture Mecca and once for all break down the remaining opposition of the Quraish.

The thirteenth Sura is the last Meccan one, but the forty-first verse is interpolated and probably refers to this period:—

See they not that we come to the land and diminish the borders thereof? God judges and there is none to reverse His judgement, and He is swift at reckoning up. Sura Ar-Ra'd (xiii) 41.

Ibn 'Abbas ²²⁷ and other commentators refer this to the Meccans, who were so blind and obtuse that they did not realize that the Muslims were encroaching more and more on the territories of the pagan Arab tribes. Husain, ²²⁸ however, says it refers to the Jews, whose forts, lands and possessions had now come unto the possession of the Muslims.

Some, apparently, were very reluctant to join in this expedition and are thus reproved:—

What! will ye not fight against those (Meccans) who have broken their oaths and aimed to expel your Apostle, and attacked you first? Will ye dread them? God is more worthy of your fear, if ye are believers!

So make war on them: by your hands will God chastise them and will put them to shame, and will give you victory over them. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 13-4.

Those who took an active part in the attack on Mecca and shared in the victory over it are highly praised, and their conduct is favourably contrasted with those who gave alms and fought for Islam after this event had shown the power of the Prophet:—

Those amongst you who contributed before the victory and fought shall be differently treated from others amongst you: they are grander in rank than those who gave and fought afterwards. Sura Al-Hadid (lvii) 10. ²²⁹

Two years had passed since the treaty of Hudaibiya was made and, according to its terms, the peace between Madina and Mecca was to last for ten years. This difficulty was overcome. A Bedouin tribe attached to Muhammad was attacked by another tribe in alliance with the Quraish. The Prophet seized the occasion, took up the quarrel, and with a large army of some ten thousand men advanced against Mecca. Abu Sufyan, the old and implacable enemy of the Prophet, saw that the time for opposition was past. He sought for an interview with Muhammad, repeated the Muslim creed; and became henceforth a good Muslim. This led to the comparatively quiet submission of Mecca where Abu Sufyan, the hereditary leader of the Quraish, possessed great influence. As soon as Muhammad entered the city he proceeded to the Ka'ba and saluted the black stone. He then ordered all the idols to be hewn down and, in order to show that he now exercised supreme authority, he appointed 'Uthman bin Talha and 'Abba's to the two hereditary offices connected with the temple. ²³⁰

A crier then proclaimed in the streets this order: Whoever believeth in God and in the last day, let him not leave in his house any image whatever that he doth not break in pieces.' ²³¹

Many of the Meccans mocked, and then a revelation came to show that by nature all men are equal, and that in the sight of God noble birth and pride of race or rank is of little worth as compared with the fear of the Lord. The Quraish are rebuked in:—

O men! Verily we have created you of a male and a female; and we have divided you into peoples and tribes that ye might have knowledge one of another. Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of God is he who feareth Him most. Sura Al-Hujurat (xlix) 14 [13]. ²³²

In reply to a question asking the Meccans what they thought of him, Muhammad received the answer from some of them, 'we think well of thee, O noble brother and son of a noble brother. Verily thou hast obtained power over us.' Referring to the Sura Yusuf (xii) the Prophet quoted the words in the ninety-second verse, which were said by Joseph to his brethren:—

No blame be on you this day. God will forgive you for He is the most merciful of those who show mercy. ²³³ Sura Yusuf (xii) 92.

With a few exceptions, ²³⁴ mostly of those who, it must be admitted, deserved their fate, a general amnesty extended to all the inhabitants of the city. The result was that the Prophet soon won the hearts of the people. There were no Munafiqun in Mecca as there had been in Madina. It was a day of great triumph to Muhammad, for now had 'the mercy' of God come upon them. ²³⁵ Eight years before he had left Mecca as a fugitive, a despised outcast. Since then the Quraish had been unwearing in their opposition and now that was at an end. The sacred city was in his possession and his word was law. He had stood in the temple, sacred for many centuries to the worship of al-Lat and al-'Uzza and a host of inferior deities, and with a word had banished for ever idolatry from it. He by his own authority had now appointed new officers to it, and made it the centre of the new religion. No wonder that success so great caused Islam to spread most rapidly now. At last it seemed as if the Arab people would be united as they had never been before: at last the patriotic feelings of the Prophet seemed near their realization, and Arabia united and free—a political and a religious whole—would more than resist the enemies who but a few years before had been encroaching on her territories, and threatening her very existence.

Whilst, however, serious opposition was now at an end, yet a few places still held out, and within a fortnight Muhammad had to march against the Huwazin Bedouins, who with the people of Ta'if saw in the fall of Mecca a danger to their own independence. A battle was fought in the valley of Hunain. At first a panic seized some of the Muslim troops and they gave way and the whole army began to take to flight. The position was critical, and Muhammad bade his uncle 'Abba's cry out: 'O! Men of Madina! O! Men of the tree of fealty! ²³⁶ Ye of the Sura Al-Baqarah!' and so on. The flight of some was arrested, when Muhammad ascending a mound and taking some gravel in his hand cast it towards the enemy, saying, 'Ruin seize them!' The tide of battle turned and the enemy were at last utterly routed. As usual, a revelation came in connexion with this battle and the initial reverse is attributed to the vain-glory the Muslims showed in their numbers. Thus:—

Now hath God helped you on many battle-fields, and on the day of Hunain, when ye prided yourselves on your numbers; but it availed you nothing, and the earth with all its breadth became too strait for you; then turned ye your backs in flight. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 25.

In the next verse the final victory is attributed to supernatural aid:—

Then did God send down His spirit of repose ²³⁷ upon His Apostle and upon the faithful, and He sent down the hosts which ye saw not and He punished the infidels.

The Prophet next laid siege to the city of Ta'if, but was unsuccessful. After a few weeks the siege was raised; but when ten months had passed the people of Ta'if submitted to him.

He now gave from the spoils of the Huwazin large presents to the leading chiefs of Mecca and of the Bedouin tribes, who had become converts, at which his old followers and friends were somewhat annoyed and made discontented. But later on a revelation came to justify his action even in a small matter like this:—

Some of them defame thee in regard to the alms, yet if a part be given them they are content, but if no part be given them, behold, they are angry . . . .

Would that they were satisfied with what God and His Apostle had given them and would say, 'God sufficeth us, God will vouchsafe to us of His favour and so will His Apostle: verily unto God do we make our suit.'

But alms are only to be given to the poor and needy and those who collect them, and to those whose hearts are reconciled (to Islam). Sura At-Taubah (ix) 58-60. ²³⁸

The alms were, in the case of the chiefs who received rich presents, very much of the nature of a bribe, and naturally the men of Madina objected to the procedure. The words ' those whose hearts are reconciled to Islam' are said by the commentators to be now abrogated, for Abu Bakr abolished the making of these gifts to converts, because God had now prospered Islam and so such gifts were no longer needed. ²³⁹

The ninth year after the Hijra is called the 'Year of the Deputations,' for now that Mecca and the Ka'ba had passed into the possession of Muhammad, his fame became great and tribe after tribe made their submission. The historian Ibn Ishaq rightly estimated the moral value of these conversions. He says: 'As soon as Mecca was conquered and the Quraish had submitted to him, being humbled by Islam, the Arabs, understanding that they themselves had not the power to oppose Muhammad and make war against him, professed the faith of Allah.' Bands of Muslims under active leaders scoured the country, and the permission given to non-Muslims to visit the temple was now annulled and the order was:—

When the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them, and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush; but if they shall convert and observe prayer and pay the obligatory alms then let them go their way. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 5.

It has been said that this famous verse, known as the Ayatu's-Saif, or 'verse of the sword,' abrogates the restriction which did not allow the Muslims to commence a war and which is recorded in the verse:—

Fight for the cause of God against those who fight against you: but commit not the injustice of attacking them first. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 186 [190]. ²⁴⁰

It even does more, for it also abrogates ²⁴¹ the kindly words of an earlier Meccan revelation:—

Dispute not unless in kindly sort with the people of the Book. Sura Al-'Ankabut (xxix) 45. [46]

In any case the Arabs now saw that further opposition was useless. The whole framework of society was broken; it needed reconstruction and Muhammad alone had the power to do it. Thus, the movement towards Islam now assumed the character of a national one, and the very man, who had for so many years been the cause of disputes and wars, now became the acknowledged leader and head of an united Arabia. In this way were the Prophet's early desires fulfilled.

Submission to the political rule involved acceptance, on the part of him who submitted, of the religion of Islam, an essential tenet of which was that he 'should not only submit to its teaching and adopt its ritual and code of ethics, but also render an implicit obedience in all things "to the Lord and His Prophet," and that he should pay tithes annually (not indeed as a tribute, but as a religious offering which sanctified the rest of his wealth), towards the charities and expenses of Muhammad and his growing empire.' ²⁴²

A little while after this, in the autumn of the year A.D. 630, an armed force was sent towards the Syrian frontier, where the Emperor Heraclius was reported to be collecting a large body of the feudatory tribes with a view to stop the inroads of the Muslims, or to invade Arabia. The state of affairs seemed critical, and the Muslim army, now collected to withstand the Byzantines and their allies, was the most powerful one Muhammad had ever been able to raise and organize. When the expedition, after much difficulty and suffering, reached Tabuq, a place midway between Madina and Damascus, it was found that the report of the Roman preparations had been an exaggerated one, and that the Emperor had changed his mind and had gone away. Muhammad then turned his attention to the position of various Christian and Jewish tribes. John, the Christian Prince of Ailah, made a treaty with the Prophet and agreed to pay an annual tribute. The most interesting embassy to the Prophet was that of the Christians of Najran headed by their Bishop, Abu Haritha. They refused to accept Islam or to agree to Muhammad's proposal 'Come let us curse each other and lay the curse of Allah on those that lie.' Finally they agreed to pay the poll-tax which all non-Muslims had to give. ²⁴³ This event is referred to in the following verses of the Qur'an:— ²⁴⁴

Verily, Jesus is as Adam in the sight of God. He created him of dust; He then said to him, 'Be—and he was.'

The truth is from thy Lord. Be not thou, therefore, of those who doubt.
As for those who dispute with thee about Him, after the knowledge ²⁴⁵ hath come to thee, say, 'Come, let us summon our sons and your sons, our wives and your wives, and ourselves and yourselves. Then will we invoke and lay the curse of God on those who lie.' Sura Al-'Imran (iii) 52-4. [59-61]

The idea of settling the matter by imprecation was a curious one, but it shows how strong the conviction of the truth of his own position was in the mind of Muhammad. Some Jewish tribes also submitted, and promised to give regularly the tax required of them. Muhammad then returned home from this his last expedition and reached Madina at the close of the year A.D. 630.

Whilst some of the Muslims now at Madina and many of the Bedouins held back, the more earnest Muslims had been very eager to aid in the war against the Christian Syrians and the disaffected Arab tribes, but carriage and supplies could not be provided for all. Those whose services could not be utilized in the expedition to Tabuk (ante, p. 157) wept bitterly, and were ever after called al-Baka'un—'The Weepers.' They are told that no blame attaches to those:—

To whom when they came to thee thou didst say, 'I find not wherewith to mount you,' and they turned away their eyes shedding floods of tears for grief, because they found no means to contribute. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 93. [92]

But amongst those who went some were halfhearted. One said to his friends: 'This man wants to conquer the forts and districts of the country of Syria, which is not likely to happen.' Then one who was present rebuked the speaker and said that he hoped some verse would be revealed concerning such wicked conversation. Meanwhile, Muhammad had been supernaturally informed of this murmuring. On knowing this, the Hypocrites were afraid and said that they had spoken only in fun. Then came the revelation:—

The hypocrites are afraid lest a Sura should be sent down concerning them, to tell plainly what is in their hearts. Say: Scoff ye, but God will bring to light that which ye are afraid of.

And if thou question them, they will surely say, 'We were only discoursing and jesting.' Say: What! do ye scoff at God, ²⁴⁶ and His signs, and His Apostle?

Make no excuse: from faith ye have passed to infidelity. If we forgive some of you, we will punish others; for that they have been evil-doers. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 65-7. [64-66]

Persons who asked troublesome questions were now rebuked. On the authority of Muslim and other Traditionists, Nöldeke ²⁴⁷ says that when the command for the Hajj was given, a man enquired of Muhammad whether he must go every year. The Prophet being annoyed said, 'Yes, you may.' He then produced this revelation:—

O believers, ask us not of things which if they were told might only pain you. Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 101.

This verse may, however, refer to the following verse which treats of some Meccan superstitions. Some commentators say that it refers to general matters. Baidawi has a good note on it (vol. i, p. 274).

Some of the disaffected—the Hypocrites—at Madina, who had not followed the Prophet in this expedition, on his return home were severely rebuked. Special revelations, which commentators agree in referring to the war of Tabuk, ²⁴⁸   came to reprove them and the Arabs of the desert also, and to warn others:—

O Believers! what possessed you, that when it was said to you, 'March forth on the way of God,' ye sank heavily earthwards? What! prefer ye the life of this world to the next?
Unless ye march forth, with a grievous chastisement will He chastise you, and He will place another people in your stead, and ye shall in no way harm Him: for over every thing God is potent. ²⁴⁹

March ye forth the light and heavy armed and contend with your substance and your persons on the way of God. This, if ye know it, will be better for you.

Had there been a near advantage and a short journey, they would certainly have followed thee, but the way seemed long to them, yet will they swear by God: 'Had we been able we had surely gone forth with you;' they are self-destroyers! And God knoweth that they are surely liars.

God forgive thee! Why didst thou give them leave to stay behind, ere they who made true excuses had become known to thee, and thou hadst known the liars?

They only will ask thy leave who believe not in God and in the last day, and whose hearts are full of doubts and who are tossed up and down in their doubtings.

Moreover, had they been desirous to take the field, they would have got ready for that purpose the munitions of war. But God was averse to their marching forth and made them laggards.

Had they taken the field with you, they would only have added a burden to you and have hurried about among you, stirring you up to sedition. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 38-9: 41-3: 45-7.

They who were left at home were delighted to stay behind God's Apostle, and were averse from contending with their riches and their persons for the cause of God and said, 'March not out in the heat.' Say, 'A fiercer heat will be the fire of hell.' Would that they understood this. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 82. [81]

When a Sura was sent down with 'Believe in God and go forth to war with the Apostle,' those of them who are possessed of riches demanded exemption and said, 'Allow us to be with those who sit at home'. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 87 [86]. ²⁵⁰

The faithless Bedouins are severely rebuked thus:—

Some Arabs of the desert came with excuses, praying exemption; and they who had gainsaid God and His Apostle sat at home; a grievous punishment shall light on such of them as believe not. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 91. [90]

The Arabs of the desert are most stout in unbelief and dissimulation . . . .

Of the Arabs of the desert there are some who reckon what they expend in the cause of God as tribute and wait for some change of fortune to befall you; a change for evil shall befall them! God is the Hearer, the Knower. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 98-9. [97-98]

Thus, all who held back are rebuked, and the Prophet and those who went are highly commended and told that 'all good things' await them, for God hath made for them 'gardens beneath which the rivers flow' where there is bliss for ever. ²⁵¹ Some believers afterwards confessed their fault and were forgiven, but the Prophet was told to take of their substance in order to cleanse and purify them. Some others were kept waiting before a decision was given in their favour, but at last they too were pardoned:—

Others have owned their faults, and with an action that is right they have mixed another that is wrong. God will haply be turned to them, for God is Forgiving, Merciful.

Take alms of their substance, that thou mayest cleanse and purify them thereby and pray for them; for thy prayers shall assure their minds: and God Heareth. Knoweth. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 103-4. [102-103]

The tenth [106] verse in the same Sura:—

And others await the decisions of God, whether He will punish them, or whether He will be turned unto them, for God is Knowing, Wise.

is said to have special reference to Ka'b ibn Malik, a warrior, who had received eleven wounds at Uhud. He was also a poet. He and two of his friends had no valid reason for not going to Tabuk and their defection set a bad example. Their conduct could not be passed over in silence. They were excommunicated for fifty days and prohibited from holding any intercourse with their wives or families. Then Muhammad, seeing their miserable condition, relented and this revelation came:—

He hath turned Him unto the three who were left behind, so that the earth, spacious as it is, became too strait for them, and their souls became so straitened within them, that they bethought them that there was no refuge from God but unto Himself. Then was He turned to them, that they might be turned to Him, for God is He that turneth, the Merciful. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 119. [118]

This ninth Sura is the last one, or the last but one, revealed. ²⁵² It is fierce and intolerant, and shows how advancing years, instead of mellowing and softening the temper of the Prophet, only developed his warlike spirit which loved to receive the supposed divine injunction:—

O Prophet! contend against the infidels and the hypocrites and be rigorous with them: Hell shall be their dwelling place! Wretched the journey thither! Sura At-Taubah (ix) 74 [73]. ²⁵³

Whilst the call to arms is general Muhammad exempted students and religious teachers:—

The faithful must not march forth altogether to the wars: and if a party of every band march not out, it is that they may instruct their people in their religion and may warn their people when they come back to them, that they take heed to themselves. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 123. [122]

As Muhammad was preparing to go to Tabuk he was asked to open a newly-erected Mosque at Kuba. He found on his return that it had been built with a sectarian spirit, so he ordered it to be destroyed and said:—

There are some who have built a Mosque for mischief and for infidelity and to disunite the faithful and in expectation of him, who in time past warred against God and His Apostle. They will surely swear 'our aim was only good;' but God is witness that they are liars.

Never set thy foot in it. ²⁵⁴ There is a Mosque founded from its first day in piety. More worthy is it that thou enter therein; therein are men who aspire to purity and God loveth the purified.

Which of the two is best? He who hath founded his building on the fear of God and the desire to please Him, or he who hath founded his building on the brink of an undermined bank washed away by torrents, so that it rusheth with him into the fire of Hell? But God guideth not the doers of wrong.

Their building which they have built will not cease to cause uneasiness in their hearts, until their hearts are cut in pieces. God is Knowing, Wise. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 108-110. [107-110]

The expedition to Tabuk was the last one commanded by Muhammad in person, and now it seemed 'as if all opposition' was crushed, all danger over. ²⁵⁵ There is a Tradition to the effect that the followers of the Prophet began to sell their arms and to say, 'The wars for religion are now ended.' But when this reached the ears of the Prophet, he forbade it saying, 'There shall not cease from the midst of my people a party engaged in war for the truth, even until Antichrist appear.' ²⁵⁶ Whether the Tradition is a genuine one or not, it shows at least the views which the early Muslims held as to religious wars and is quite in accord with the Tradition already referred to, ²⁵⁷ Jihad will remain till the day of judgement.'

The compulsion of the Jews and Christians, after the expedition to Tabuk, is sanctioned in some verses of Sura At-Taubah (ix), which the best authorities place soon after that date:—

Make war upon those who believe not in God, nor in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle have forbidden and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled.

The Jews say, 'Ezra ('Uzair) is a son of God,' and the Christians say, 'The Messiah is a son of God.' Such the sayings in their mouths. They resemble the saying of the infidels of old! God do battle with them! ²⁵⁸ How are they misguided!

They take their teachers and their monks and their Messiah, son of Mary, for lords besides God ²⁵⁹ though bidden to worship one God only. There is no god but He. Far from His glory be what they associate with Him.

Fain would they put out God's light with their mouths: ²⁶⁰ but God only desireth to perfect His light, albeit the infidels abhor it.

He it is who hath sent His Apostle with the guidance and a religion of the truth, that he may make it victorious over every religion, ²⁶¹ albeit they who assign partners to God be averse from it.

O Believers! of a truth, many of the teachers and monks do devour man's substance in vanity, and turn them from the way of God. But to those who treasure up gold and silver and expend it not in the way of God, announce tidings of a grievous torment;

On that day when it shall be heated in the fire of hell and their brows shall be branded therewith and their sides and their backs. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 29-35. ²⁶²

These verses connected with the Prophet’s last warlike expedition, an expedition entirely concerned with the submission of Christian and Jewish communities, may be fairly taken as his final and deliberate opinion as to the future relation of Islam to these creeds and people.

The last Sura, Sura Al-Ma'idah (v), contains a verse (56) similar in tone to those just quoted, but it is probably an interpolation in this Sura and its date is said to be just after the battle of Uhud. ²⁶³ If this is so, it simply shows that the final injunction in the ninth Sura regarding Jews and Christians was no hasty opinion, called forth by special circumstances, but the development of a principle settled some years before. The verse is:—

O ye who believe, take not the Jews and Christians as your friends, for they are but one another's friends; whoso amongst you taketh them for friends, verily he is one of them, ²⁶⁴ and verily God guideth not unjust people. Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 56 [51]. ²⁶⁵

Thus did Muhammad finally part company with those for whom, in the earlier stages of his career, he had professed respect, whose sacred books he had referred to with reverence, and from whose teaching he had borrowed all that was good in his own. Having now arrived at supreme power he could afford to cast aside all that had helped him on his way, and all this he now brought into subjection to himself. ²⁶⁶

It cannot be maintained, though it has been said, that Islam was or is propagated by peaceful methods alone. ²⁶⁷ It is admitted that such has sometimes been the case, and also that some forms of Christianity have been propagated by force; but the real point is, that the employment of force is neither according to the spirit nor to the injunctions of the founder of Christianity: it is, however, in accordance with the mind and in conformity with the actions of Muhammad whose last words to his people on the point are plain. So long as Islam lives will these words ring in the ears of every orthodox Muslim, 'God do battle with them!' The legacy of the Prophet is no word of peace, but an inspiring war cry which as years roll on ever keeps alive a fanatical spirit. It is a sad ending to the life work of so great a man. ²⁶⁸ At the same time it may also be admitted that where Islam is modified by contact with higher civilizations, as in India, the spirit of intolerance which the Sura At-Taubah (ix) inculcates is much lessened. Amongst Muslims of the new school a friendly spirit towards men of other creeds is becoming more and more common: but this is a welcome departure from its earliest principles.

Prayer for unbelievers, though relatives, is now forbidden, yet Abraham prayed for his father thus: 'Forgive my father, for he was one of the erring.' Sura Ash-Shu'ara' (xxvi) 86. The tolerant attitude of earlier days was now set aside, still the alteration had to be explained and the next verse attempts to justify this new position of intolerance.

This idea of the sacred war incumbent upon all the faithful was only gradually arrived at. This conception that all 'the religion should be of God,' that Islam should be supreme, was a grand one, and as political power increased it took clearer shape in the Prophet's mind. He had now left far behind such sentiments as were expressed at the latter part of the Meccan period:—

Dispute ye not, unless in kindliest sort, with the people of the Book. Sura Al-'Ankabut (xxix) 45 [46]. ²⁶⁹

He had forgotten the excellent advice he once gave to his followers, some seven or eight years previously, when they first came to Madina and were feeling their way with Jews, Christians and pagans. He then said:—

Let there be no compulsion in religion. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 257 [256]. ²⁷⁰

It was all different now; there was to be the most absolute compulsion; but a victorious leader could assume a position and dictate in a way a fugitive preacher with a position yet to make could not. 'The intoxication of success had long since stilled the voice of his better self. The aged Prophet, standing on the brink of the grave, and leaving as his last legacy a mandate of universal war, irresistibly recalls, by force of contrast, the parting words to his disciples by another religious teacher, that they should go forth and preach a Gospel of peace to all nations. Nor less striking in their contrast is the response to either mandate—the Arab, with the Qur'an in one hand and the sword in the other, spreading his creed amid the glare of burning cities and the shrieks of violated homes—and the apostles of Christ working in the moral darkness of the Roman world with the gentle but irresistible power of light, laying anew the foundations of society and cleansing at their source the polluted springs of national and domestic life.' ²⁷¹

In the one hundred and third verse of the second Sura the Jews are represented as wishing to lead the Muslims astray, and the latter are told to be patient and forgiving:—

Many of the people of the Book desire to bring you back to unbelief after ye have believed, out of selfish envy, even after the truth hath been clearly shown to them. But forgive them and shun them till God shall come in with His working. Truly God hath power over all things. Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 103. [109]

According to the commentators Mu'alim and Mazhar the Jews were those who, after the defeat of the Muslims in the battle of Uhud, reproached them and said that it proved their religion to be false. They were to be patient with them till the order for killing came. Other commentators say it is abrogated by the verse of Jihad. ²⁷²

Husain interprets the words 'till God shall come in with His working,' ²⁷³ as meaning 'till the time when God brings the order for killing or for the imposition of the jizya, or poll-tax.'

Thus it is clear that, however desirous Muhammad may have been, when his position was weakened after his defeat at Uhud, to conciliate the Jews, who were then a source of danger, it was only a temporary expedient and Muslim authorities do not consider it binding on them now that the 'verse of killing' has been revealed.

Muhammad did not go to Mecca at the usual time of the annual pilgrimage, for heathen people were still present; ²⁷⁴ so in the ninth year of the Hijra he sent Abu Bakr with a small body of pilgrims. Still this condition of things could not be allowed to go on, and so a revelation came releasing the Prophet from any obligation to respect the heathen Arabs. This revelation was given by Muhammad to 'Ali, who, starting after Abu Bakr and the pilgrims had left, joined him and his party at Mecca. Towards the close of the pilgrimage, 'Ali read out the revelation, which Muhammad had given him as God's message, to a large multitude of the Arabs assembled for the pilgrimage. ²⁷⁵ The opening words are:—

An immunity from God and His Apostle to those polytheists with whom ye have made a league among the polytheist Arabs.

Go ye, therefore, at large in the land four months; but know that God ye shall not weaken, ²⁷⁶ and that God will put to shame the infidels.

And a proclamation on the part of God and His Apostle to the people on the day of the greater Pilgrimage, ²⁷⁷ that God and His Apostle are free from any engagement with the polytheists. ²⁷⁸ If therefore ye turn to God it will be better for you; but if ye turn back, then know that ye shall not weaken God, and to those who believe not announce a grievous punishment.

But this concerneth not those polytheists with whom ye are in league, and who shall afterwards have in no way failed you, nor aided any one against you. Observe, therefore, engagement with them through the whole time of their treaty, for God loveth those who fear Him.

And when the sacred months are past, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them, and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush; but if they repent and observe the prayers, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for God is Gracious, Merciful. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 1-5.

There is apparent contradiction between the first verse which declares Muhammad's immunity and freedom from the observance of treaties and the fourth verse which speaks of a league with friendly polytheists. The explanation probably is that, whilst as polytheists they could not be allowed to come to the pilgrimage, the treaty with them would, in other respects, be observed. The pilgrims who were still unbelievers listened to all that 'Ali had to say, including the statement:—

O Believers! only the polytheists are unclean! Let them (i.e., pagans) not, therefore, after this year come near the Sacred Temple. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 28.

This order was so clear and distinct, and was now so well supported by material force that there was nothing to do but to submit, which the Arabs then did.

All opposition had now been broken down, and, as the Ka'ba was purged of all idolatrous connexions and none but believers might enter it, Muhammad determined to make the 'Greater Pilgrimage' in this the tenth year of the Hijra. It is said that he was attended by more than one hundred thousand persons. After the circumambulation was over he turned to the Maqam-i-Ibrahim, or Place of Abraham, and said, 'consider the Place of Abraham as a place of prayer.' He then said the Fatihah, the opening Sura of the Qur'an, then Sura Al-Kafirun (cix), then the Sura Al-Ikhlas (cxii).. He then went most carefully through the whole ceremonial, including the kissing of the black stone and the drinking of water from the sacred well, and all other of the old pagan rites. ²⁷⁹ The opportunity was taken to deliver an address on inheritance, adultery, treatment of women, who on occasion were to be 'beaten with stripes, yet not severely,' on slaves, and on the equality of Muslims. The portion ²⁸⁰ of the Sura At-Taubah (ix) abolishing the triennial intercalation of a month to reduce the lunar to the solar years was recited, and the month of the Pilgrimage fixed according to the changing seasons of the lunar year. This change seriously affected the commerce of Mecca, though the institution of the Hajj, with the large number of pilgrims it brings to the city, to some extent compensated for it. 'Previously by unscientific intercalation the months had been made to correspond roughly with the seasons; Muhammad, by now making twelve lunar months, destroyed all relation between them. Of any accommodation of the Pilgrimage months to the needs of commerce there would no longer be any question . . . . The commerce of Mecca was ruined.' ²⁸¹

On one of the days he went to the top of the Mount 'Arafat and then, standing erect on his camel, said:— ²⁸²

This day I have perfected your religion unto you and fulfilled my mercy upon you, and appointed Islam to be your religion. ²⁸³ Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 5. [3]

He then proceeded to Muzdalifah, said the Salatu'l-Maghrib and the Salatu'l-'Isha—the sunset and the evening prayers—with the Adhan or call to prayer and the Iqamat, a repetition of the Adhan with the addition of the words, 'Prayer has commenced.' In the morning he visited the holy monument (now the mosque Masharu'l-Haram) and repeated the Takbir, Allahu Akbar, 'God is most great;' the Tahlil, 'There is no god but God;' the Ta'awwudh, 'I seek refuge from cursed Satan.' He then went through the ceremonies, sanctioned by ancient Arab custom, of throwing stones at certain pillars in the valley of Mina and so concluded the pilgrimage.

Thus, the incorporation of this pagan rite completed and perfected the religion, which the Arabian Prophet left to his countrymen as that which superseded and abrogated all previous ones.

The Sura Al-Hajj (xxii) contains the revelations enjoining the duty of performing the Hajj. Thus:—

Proclaim to the people a Pilgrimage.

Let them bring the neglect of their persons to a close, ²⁸⁴ and let them pay their vows and circuit the Ancient House (i.e., Ka'ba).

Ye may obtain advantages from the cattle up to the set time for slaying them: then the place for sacrificing them is at the Ancient House. Sura Al-Hajj (xxii) 28, 30, 34.[27, 29, 33]

This Sura is a composite one: part was revealed at Mecca and part at Madina. It is not easy to say when the words just quoted were revealed, but in all probability they are Madina verses, given about the time of the 'Umra, or the Lesser Pilgrimage, which was made in the sixth year of the Hijra.

Anyhow, to these commands given some years before, Muhammad now gave the sanction of his own action, and henceforth the Hajj, or Pilgrimage, became one of the necessary religious acts of every Muslim. At that time this was undoubtedly a politic thing to do, for this recognition of the national sanctuary as the local centre of Islam and the annual rendezvous of its votaries appealed to the sentiment of all the Arab people, and especially to the Quraish who lived in Mecca. It was the one thing they all had in common with the Muslims, and so the continued existence of the pilgrimage pleased them well and drew them towards Islam. It was from Muhammad's then standpoint a wise thing also to retain the ancient ceremonies of the Pilgrimage. ²⁸⁵ The Ka'ba, with all connected with it, was the object of universal reverence by the Arab people. The sentiment involved in this was the most obvious means of uniting the various Arab tribes, long disunited, into one vast confederation for one great purpose. But it has really proved a source of weakness since, for it has emphasized the fact that Islam started and was formed as a national religion, and that rules and laws adapted to the needs and requirements of the Arabs of the seventh century are binding on peoples the most diverse in the nineteenth. It helps to keep Islam stationary. 'The dead hand of the short-sighted author of the Qur'an is on the throat of every Muhammadan nation, and it is this claim which stultifies it in the view of any one who has studied other religions. It bears the marks of immaturity on every part of it. It proves itself to be a religion only for the childhood of a race by its minute prescriptions, its detailed precepts, its observances, its appeals to fear.' ²⁸⁶ The keystone of that creed is a black pebble in what was a heathen temple: a journey thither, and the performance of old pagan rites when there, are said to be the surest way to salvation. 'Chained to a black stone in a barren wilderness, the heart and reason of the Muhammadan world would seem to have taken the similitude of the objects they reverence; and the refreshing dews and general sunshine, which fertilize all else, seek in vain for anything to quicken there.' ²⁸⁷

All this is quite true of the obstacle the Pilgrimage places in the way of any enlightened reform, which can only take place when the Islamic institutions show that they are capable of modification, and this the continued obligation of the Hajj shows that they are not; ²⁸⁸ but, on the other hand, it must be admitted that the retention of the Hajj has tended to preserve Muslim orthodoxy, has renewed from time to time the faith of the believers, and has shown to countless millions of Muslims, in the centuries which have come and gone, how Islam has united into a great brotherhood races diverse in language, colour and character, and has produced in them a passionate devotion to the memory of their Prophet. ²⁸⁹ 'Mecca is to the Muslim what Jerusalem is to the Jew. It bears with it all the influence of centuries of associations. It carries the Muslim back to the cradle of his faith, the childhood of his Prophet; it reminds him of the struggle between the old faith and the new, of the overthrow of the idols, and the establishment of the One God. Most of all, it bids him remember that all his brother Muslims are worshipping toward the same sacred spot; that he is one of a great company of believers, united by one faith, filled with the same hopes, reverencing the same things, worshipping the same God. Muhammad showed his knowledge of the religious emotions in man when he preserved the sanctity of the temple of Mecca.' ²⁹⁰ Thus, in one way, the retention of the Hajj strengthens the orthodox system of Islam, but the more it does so, the less hope there is of reform and enlightened progress. From this point of view the adoption of the pagan Pilgrimage into the Islamic system was not only a weak concession to the sentiment of an idolatrous people, but it was also a grave error of judgement.

This brings us to the conclusion of the main historical events as they are referred to in the Qur'an, but there are many other topics which we have not touched upon. Political matters, such as the formation of treaties, the conduct of the disaffected, and the treatment of allies, all now find a place in the Qur'an. Civil matters, such as laws for marriage, divorce, inheritance, evidence, wills and so on are also treated of, and the Qur'an becomes the record wherein are contained the rules and regulations of a theocratic government. ²⁹¹ For the most part these occur in the Madina Suras. The second, fourth and fifth Suras, equivalent in length to about one-seventh part of the Qur'an, deal very fully with religious and civil duties and penal regulations. It is the weakness of Islam that in all these matters it claims to be a final and perfect revelation. It is not, as Judaism was, a local and temporary system, leading men on to fuller truth; for it asserts itself as the universal and final religion. Some of its laws may have been judicious, as a temporary expedient with barbarous races, but they are intolerable when 'proclaimed as the ultimate voice of conscience.'

It has been said, 'considered as delivered only to pagan Arabs, the religious, moral and civil precepts of the Qur'an are admirable. The error of their author was in delivering them to others beside pagan Arabs.' The temporary reform, being exalted to the position of a divine unchangeable system, then effectually and for ever blocks the road to greater and more permanent reform. In all this Muhammad showed his ignorance, for it can hardly be supposed that he knew anything of the government or laws of the great Roman Empire; and he certainly knew nothing of the real teaching of Jesus Christ. Had he known these things he would have seen how superior was the great legal system he sought to supersede, how much higher the Christian morality he endeavoured to set aside. A great historian remarks thus: 'A man, himself sincere and righteous, the greatest of reformers and benefactors to his own people, a preacher and legislator of truth and civilization, has eventually done more than any other mortal man to hinder the progress alike of truth and of civilization. The religious reformer has checked the advance of Christianity; the political reformer has checked the advance of freedom and indeed of organized government in any shape; the moral reformer has set his seal to the fearful evils of polygamy and slavery.' ²⁹²

It has been well said, 'He who at Mecca is the admonisher and persuader, at Madina is the legislator and warrior, who dictates obedience and uses other weapons than the pen of the poet and the scribe. When business pressed as at Madina, poetry made way for prose, and although touches of the poetical element occasionally break forth, and he has to defend himself up to a very late period against the charge of being merely a poet, ²⁹³ yet this is rarely the case in the Madina Suras: and we are startled by finding obedience to God and the Apostle, God's gifts and the Apostle's, God's pleasure and the Apostle's spoken of in the same breath, and epithets and attributes, elsewhere applied to Allah, openly applied to himself.' ²⁹⁴

The phrase 'God and His Apostle' is a very common one in the Madina Suras and is peculiar to them. ²⁹⁵ The Prophet had now passed from the position of a preacher and a warner to that of a ruler of a theocratic State, and his orders are now given, in regard to a great variety of matters, with all the force of a divine sanction. The infidels are described as those who believe not and who turn their backs on God's revelation; but to the faithful it is said:—

Believe then in God and His Apostle, and in the light which we have sent down. Sura At-Taghabun (lxiv) 8. ²⁹⁶

Opposition to God and opposition to the Prophet are placed together as deserving equal punishment:—

And whoso shall oppose God and His Apostle verily God will be severe in punishment. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 13.

The faithful are called to the opposite course of conduct:—

Obey God and His Apostle, and turn not away from him ²⁹⁷ now that ye hear the truth.
When we have taken any booty know that a fifth part belongeth to God and His Apostle. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 20, 42. [20, 41]

The believers often needed encouragement in war. They are bidden to stand firm before the enemy, but the condition of success is to:—

Obey God and His Apostle. Sura Al-Anfal (viii) 48. [46]

Whoso obeyeth the Apostle in so doing obeyeth God. Sura An-Nisa' (iv) 82. [80]

The unbelievers can do God no injury, for He will bring their deeds to nought, and so it is said:—

Believers! Obey God and His Apostle, and render not your works vain. Sura Muhammad (xlvii) 35. [33]

The remembrance of Him to whom the heavens and the earth belong, who brings about the revolution of day and night, and knows the secrets of all hearts, should lead men to:—

Believe in God and His Apostle. Sura Al-Hadid (lvii) 7.

Men of truth are they, to whom a double portion of mercy will be shown, on whose path divine light shall shine, who have believed in God and His Apostle in such wise as that they now:—

Fear God and believe in His Apostle. Sura Al-Hadid (lvii) 28.

When the faithful saw the men of Mecca besieging Madina and that they fought but little, they said:—

This is what God and His Apostle promised us, and God and His Apostle spoke truly. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 22.

A great reward will be given in the future life to those who look on God and His Apostle:—

If ye desire God and His Apostle and a home in the next life, then truly God hath prepared for those of you who are virtuous a great reward. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 29. ²⁹⁸

But cursed shall they be in this world and in the next who:—

Affront God and His Apostle. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 57. ²⁹⁹

The day will come when their faces shall be rolled in the fire, and in their bitter torment they will reflect on the past and say:—

Oh! that we had obeyed God and obeyed the Apostle. Sura Al-Ahzab (xxxiii) 66.

Those who for a while believe and then draw back cannot escape the punishment due to them, for it is said:—

And when they are summoned before God and His Apostle, that He may judge between them. Sura An-Nur (xxiv) 46. [48]

In the last Sura but one believers are exhorted never to allow the claims of wealth, family and home to draw them away from God and His Apostle, who should be dearer to them than all else beside. A final warning is given which shows how the bitterness of feeling against opposition deepened in the Prophet's mind as time went on:—

Know they not, that for him who opposeth God and His Apostle is surely the fire of Hell in which he shall remain for ever. ³⁰⁰ Sura At-Taubah (ix) 64. [63]

The recompense of those who war against God and His Apostle, and go about to commit disorders on the earth, shall be that they shall all be slain or crucified, or have their alternate hands and feet cut off, or be banished the land. Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 38. [33]

In the last verse but one of the ninth Sura Muhammad claims some of the characteristics usually ascribed to God:—

Now hath an Apostle come to you from among yourselves, your iniquities press heavily on him: he is careful over you and towards the faithful, compassionate, merciful. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 129 [128]. ³⁰¹

These are only a few of the many passages of the kind. This linking together of his authority as coordinate with that of God; this strong claim to the same obedience; this clear declaration of punishment for disobedience to his orders and those of God: all these are distinguishing marks of the Prophet's consciousness of growing power at Madina, leading him on to the bold assumption of a position he would not have ventured to take, or at all events did not take, in the earlier days when he dwelt at Mecca.

There is a very marked difference in the style of the Madina Suras. The language is prosaic and the poetic fire so prominent in the early Meccan Suras has died out, still there are occasional passages of great beauty, which no translation can do justice to, such as:—

God! There is no god but He;
The Living, the Eternal.
Slumber takes Him not, nor sleep.
His, whatsoever is in the heavens, and
Whatsoever is in the earth.
Who is it that intercedes with Him save by His permission?
He knoweth what is before and what is behind them,
Yet nought of His knowledge shall they grasp, save what He pleases.
His throne reacheth over the heavens and the earth,
And it tires Him not to guard them both,
He is the High, the Great.
Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 256 [255]. ³⁰²

He maketh alive and killeth, He hath power over all things,
He is the First and the Last;
The Seen and the Hidden He all things doth know.
Sura Al-Hadid (lvii) 2-3.

The Arabic arrangement of the contents of the Qur'an is so confused that it conveys no idea whatever of the growth of any plan in the mind of the Prophet, and it is extremely difficult for the reader to get much intelligible historical information from it; but when the chapters are placed together, with some regard to chronological order, it is possible, as we have tried to show, to trace a gradual development of the purpose Muhammad had in view in establishing the theocratic system of Islam. The Qur'an when thus read possesses an attractive interest, as we see in it the workings of the mind of one who, whatever view we may take of his claims and position, was undoubtedly a great man. It is only by reading it in this way that the gradual change of style also is noticed. Critics of the Qur'an, who look at it from the chronological standpoint, note the tediousness of the later Suras. It has been well said that 'if it were not for the exquisite flexibility of the Arabic language itself, which, however, is to be attributed more to the age in which the author lived than to his individuality, it would be scarcely bearable to read the latter portions of the Qur'an a second time.' Stanley Lane-Poole says that 'but for the rich eloquence of the old Arabic tongue, which gives some charm even to inextricable sentences and dull stories, the Qur'an at this period would be unreadable. As it is we feel we have fallen from poetry to prose, and the matter of the prose is not so superlative as to give us amends for the loss of the poetic thought of the earlier time and the musical fall of the sentences.' ³⁰³

References

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