Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

35°
The Life of ,Huhaml/lad
l\:ly sons, transgress not the proper lirnits
Transgressing the bounds brings one to a halt.
a my sons, trust not the days.
Envare their treachery and the passage of time.
Knmv that it consumes all creation,
Both the new and the old.
Liye your lives in piety and godliness.
Abandon obscenity and hold fast to what is right. I
In the following poem he mentioned how God had honoured them with
Islam and His special favour in sending His apostle to them:
I Ie abode among Quraysh some ten years
Hoping for a friend to help him.
He displayed himself to those who came to the fairs
But found none to offer him hospitality.
But when he came to us God displayed his religion
And he became happy and contented in ::\Iedina. z
He found friends and ceased to long for home
And was plainly helped by God. 3
He told us what Noah said to his people
And what I\Ioses answered when he was called.
None ncar at hand need he fear
And those afar he reeked not of. 4
\Ve spent on him the best of our possessions,
Sparing not our lives in war at his side.
\Ve knO'v that there is nought beside God
And we knmv that God is the best guide.
We shall fight any man tbat fights Him,
Be he our dearest friend.
In every mosque when I pray to Thee
I say Blessed art Thou (Oft have I mentioned Thy name).
I say when I traverse a land I fear
'I\1ercy! Let not my enemies triumph over me.'
Go where you \vill death comes in many.guises
And you cannot live for ever.
A man does not know how to protect himself
Unless he makes God his protector.
The palm that needs waterS cares naught for its owner
If it has moisture, though he be dead (291).
I The influence of Syriac as in the words shammasa and tukhlllrl is clear, and some of the
verses are reminiscent of the Psalms.
Z Tiba, 'the Fragrant', is the ancient honorific of :\1edina. Cf. I;Iassan's opening line on
p. 1022, 'In Tiba arc the monuments of his luminous sojourn'.
3 \V.'s text 'III' was a plain help to us from God' seems inferior to the C. text.
4 The verse is just as banal in the original.
S I follow C. in reading mu'ima for \V.'s muqima, and tGwiya for thdwiya 'standing'.
The Life of iVluhammad 239
(T. 'Ali b. ~vlujahid said on the authority of l\:l11hammad b. 1s0aq from T. 12S3.
al-Zuhri and from l\luhammad b. :)alil) from al-Sha'bl that they both said:
The B. Isma'll dated from the fire of Abraham to the building of the
temple when Abraham and Isma'll built it; then they oated from the
building of the temple until they dispersed, and it happened that whenever
people left Tihama they dated from their leaving it, and those who
remained in Tihama of B. Isma'il used to date from the going out of
Sad and C'Jahd and Juhayna of B. Zayd from Tihama until Ka'b b. Lu'ayy
died. Then they dated from the death of Ka'b to the elephant. The dating
from the time of the elephant continued until 'Umar b. al-Khanab dated
from the Hijra which \vas the year 17 or 18. 1
THE NAMES OF THE JEWISH ADVERSARIES
About this time the Jewish rabbis showed hostility to the apostle in envy, 351
hatred, and malice, because God had chosen His apostle from the Arabs.
They were joined by men from al-Aus and al-Khazraj \vho had obstinately
clung to their heathen religion. They were hypocrites, clinging to the
polytheism of their fathers denying the resurrection; yet when Islam
appeared and their people flocked to it they \vere compelled to pretend
to accept it to save their lives. But in secret they were hypocrites whose
inclination was towards the Jews because they considered the apostle a liar
and strove against Islam.
It was the Jewish rabbis who used to annoy the apostle with questions
and introduce confusion> so as to confound the truth with falsin'. The
Quran used to come dovl'l1 in reference to these questions of theirs,~though
some of the questions about \vhat was allowed and forbidden came from
the Muslims themselves. These are the names of those Jews;
From B. al-:t\~a~l1r: I:Iuyayy b. Akhtab and his brothers Abll Yasir and
Judayy; Sallam b. Misbkam; Kinana b. al-Rabi' b. Abfl']-lIu'layq;
SalHim b. Abu.'I-I:Iuqayq Abll Rafi' al-.~'war whom the apostle's companions
killed in Khaybar; al-Rabl' b. al-Rabl' h. Abll'I-I.Iuqayq; 'Amr
b. Ja~J:1ash; Ka'b b. al-i\shraf who belonged to Tay', of the clan of B.
Nabhan, his mother being from B. al-Nac;lir; al-l:Iajjaj b. 'Anu, an ally of
Kab; and Kardam b. Qays, an ally of Ka'b.
From B. Thalaba b. al-Fi\yaun: 'Abdullah b. Sllriya the one-eyed \\ho
w?" the most learned man of his time in the Hijaz in Torah studies; Ibn
~alu.ba; and l\;Iukhayriq their rabbi who became a l\iluslim.
From B. Qaynuqa': Zayd b. al-Lasit (29'); Sa'd h. I:Iunayf; Mal.unfld
b. Say!)an; 'Uzayr b. Abu 'Uzayr; and Abdullah b. Sayf (292). Su\\ayd b. 35'
al-l;Iarith; Rifa'a b. Qays; Fin!)a,; Ashya'; Nu'man b. Ada; Ba1}riy b.
I This paragraph is part of a long chapter which T. de\"otes to the question of chronology
in reference to the principal events in the prophet's life. It is put herc because the last
passage he quates from I.I. is the poem of Abu Qays mentioning the length of the rrophet's
sojourn in .\1ecca after the beginning of his mission; the connexion with chronologv is
obvious. .