Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

37 0 The Life of Muhammad The Life of Muhammad
THE BATTLE OF UI;IUD
I have pieced together the following story about the battle of U!;ud, from
what I was told by Muhammad b. Muslim al-Zuhri and Muhammad b.
Ya!;ya b. I:libban and 'A.~im b. 'Umar b. Qatada and AI-I:lu~ayn b.
'Abdu'l-Rahman b. 'Amr b. Sad b. Mu'adh and other learned traditionists.
One or the ~ther, or all of them, is responsible for the following narrative.
\\Then the unbelieving Quraysh met disaster at Badr and the survivors
returned to Mecca and Abu Sufyan b. Barb had returned with his caravan,
'Abdullah b. Abii Rabl'a and 'Ikrima b. Abii Jahl and 9afwan b. Umayya
walked with the men whose fathers, sons, and brothers had been killed
at Badr, and they spoke to Abu Sufyan and those who had merchandise in
that caravan, saying, 'Men of Quraysh, Muhammad has wronged you and
killed your best men, so help us with this money to fight him, so that we
may hope to get our revenge for those we have lost,' and they did so.
556 A learned person told me that it ,vas concerning them that God sent
down: 1 'Those who disbelieve spend their money to keep others from the
way of God, and they will spend it, then they will suffer the loss of it, then
they will be overcome, and those who disbelieve will be gathered to Hell.'
So Quraysh gathered together to fight the apostle when Ab\i Sufyan did
this, and the owners of the caravan, with their black troops, and such of
the tribes of Kinana as would obey them, and the people of the low country.
Now Abii 'Azza al-Jumal}i had been spared by the apostle at Badr because
he was a poor man with a large family.2 He had been taken prisoner, and
said, 'I am a poor man with a large family and great need, as you know,
so spare me,' and the apostle let him go. ~afwan said to him, 'Now, Abu
'Azza, you are a poet so help us with your tongue and go forth with us:
He replied, 'Muhammad spared me and I do not want to go against him:
He said, 'No, but help us \vith your presence, and God is my witness that
if I return I will make you rich; and if you are killed I will treat your
daughters as my own. What befalls mine, whether good or ill, shall
befall yours.' So Abii 'Azza went through the low country calling the B.
Kinana and saying:
Listen, sons of