Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

262 The LIfe of lvluhammad
The youth did so. Thereupon the people began to talk and to quarrel
and to boast until two men of the t\VQ clans leapt up, Aus b. Qay~i of B.
!:Iaritha b. !:Iarith of Aus and Jabbar b. ~akhr of B. Salama of Khazraj.
They began to hold forth against each other until one of them said, 'If
you wish we \vill do the same again.' Thereupon both sides became enraged
and said, '\Ve will. Your meeting-place is outside-that being the volcanic
tract-To arms! To arms!' So out they went and when the news reached
the apostle he \vent out with such of the emigrants as were with him and
said to them: '0 Muslims, remember God. Remember God. Will you
act as pagans while I am with you after God has guided you to Islam and
honoured you thereby and made a clean break with paganism; delivered
you thereby from unbelief; made you friends thereby?' Then the people
realized that the dissension was due to Satan and the guile of their enemy.
They wept and the men of Aus and Khazraj embraced one another. Then
they went off \vith the apostle, attentive and obedient, God having
quenched the guile of the enemy of God Shas b. Qays. So God sent down
concerning him, and what he did: 'Say: 0 Scripture folk, why do you deny
God's signs while God is \vitness of \vhat you do? Say, 0 Scripture folk,
why do you keep those who believe from God's way wishing to make it
crooked whcn you are witnesses and God is not unmindful of what you
are doing?'l
God sent down conccrning Aus and Jabbar and the people who were
with them when Shas brought back for a moment the atmosphere of
pagan days, '0 you who believe, if you obey some of those to whom a
hook has been given they will make you unbelievers again after your
faith. lIow can you disbelieve \vhen God's verscs are rcad to you and His
apostle is with you? He who holds fast to God is guided to a straight path.
o ye who believe, fear God as He ought to be fcared and die not except as
Muslims' as far as the words 'Those shall have a painful punishment'.
When Abdullah b. Salam, Thalaba b. Saya, and Usayd b. Saya, and
Asad b. 'Ubayd and other Jews became Muslims and believed and were
earnest and firm in Islam, the rabbis who disbelieved said that it was only
the bad Jews who believed in Muhammad and followed him. Had they
been good men they \....ould not have forsaken the religion of their fathers
and adopted another. So God sent down concerning what they had said:
'They are not (all) alike: of the scripture folk there is an upright community
who read God's verses in the night season prostrating themselves (318).2
They believe in God and the last day and enjoin good conduct and forbid
evil and vie with one another in good works. Those are the righteous.'
Some Muslims remained friends with the Jews because of the tic of
mutual protection and alliance which had subsisted bet\veen them, so
God sent down concerning them and forbidding them to take them as
intimate friends: '0 you who believe, do not choose those outside your
community as intimate friends. They will spare no pains to corrupt you
I Sura 3. 93 :I v. 109.
The LIfe of 1\1uhanmzad 263
longing for your ruin. From their mouths hatred has already shown itself
and wh.at their ~)reasts conceal is greater. \Ve have made the signs plain
to you lf you will understand. Behold you love them but they love not
you and you believe in the book--all of it,'l i.e. you believe in their book
and in the books that were before that while they deny your book, so that
you have more right to hate them than they to hate you. 'And when they
meet l'DU they say, \Ve believe and v,·hen they go apart they bite thei-r
fingers against you j;l rage. Say, Die in your rage', &c.
Abi"i Bakr went into a Jewish school and found a good many men gathered
round a certain Ti'in~a~, one of their learned rabbis, and another rabbi
called Ashya'. Abu Bakr called on the former to fear God and become a
I\1uslim hecause he kne\'\' that I\.fuhammad was the apostle of God who
had brought the truth from Him and that they would find it written in the
Torah and the Gospel. Finl!a~ replied: '\\-'e are not poor compared to
Allah but He is poor compared to us. \Ve do not humble ourselves to
Him as 11'.: humbles Himself to us; we are independent of Him while He
needs us. 'Vere lIe independent of us He would not ask us to lend Him
our money as your master pretends, prohibiting you to take interest and
allQ\ving us to. Had lIe been independent of us He would not have given
us intercst.'z
Ab'Ci Bakr was enraged and hit Fin~a~ hard in the face, saying, '\Vere
it not for the treaty between us I would cut off your head, you enemy of
Allah!' FinJ:1a~ immediately went to the apostle and said, 'Look, l\Iuhammad,
at what your companion has done.' The apostle asked Abu Bakr
what had impelled him to do such a thing and he answered: 'The enemy
of Allah spoke blasphemy. He alleged that Allah was poor and that the~' 3:: lr )
were rich and I was so angry that I hit his face.' FinJ:1a~ contradicted thi·s
and denieu that he had said it, so Allah s';nt down refuting him and confirming
what Abu Bakr had said: 'Allah has heard the speech of those who
say: "Allah is poor and we are rich.". \Ve shall write what they say and
their killing the prophets wrongfully and we shall say, Taste the p~nishment
of burning.'3
And there came down concerning Abu Bakr and the anger that he felt:
'And you will certainly hear [rom those "who receivcd the book before vou
and from the polytheists much wrong but if you persevere and fear God
that is of the steadfastness of things.'
Then He said concerning what FinJ:1a~ and the other rabbis \vith him
said: 'And "\vhcn Gotl laid a charge upon those who had received the hook:
You are to make it clear to men and not to conceal it, they cast it behind
I Sura 3. Iq.
z ~he key tothis. seemingly blasphemous utterance is in the words 'as your master pretends.
Later lYIusIrm scholars would have called It an ilz/lm, a form of the argwnentuTlI ad
absurdum in whieh an opponcnt'g proposition is adopted and followed to its (absurd) conclu_
sion. The Jews had objected to contributing to the cost of the waf against the :\1eCcans
saying that if Cod needed thl·ir money as the apostlc said they must be better off than He!
3 t;(lra 3. 177.