Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

The Life of Muhammad
Were treacherous on the day ofal.Raji f ,
•
Betraying their ward to whom kindness and ge.neroslty were due,
The apostle's messenger. Hudhayl took nO pams
To ward off the evil of loathsome cnmes.
One day they will see victory turn against them
For killing one whom there protected aga~nst evil deeds I
Swarms of hornets standing guard over hIS flesh
Which protected the flesh of one who "~tnessed great battles.
Perhaps in return for killing him Hudhayl wlll see
Dead lying prostrate or women mourmng
As we bring a violent attack upon them, .
Which riders will relate faithfully to those at the faIrs
By command of God's apostle, for he with full knowledge
Has made a forceful decision against Li1).yan, .
A contemptible tribe caring nothing for good faIth.
If they are wronged they do not resist the aggressor.
When people live in an isolated quarter
You see them in the watercourses between the well-worn channels.
Their place is the home of death.
When anything happens to them they have the minds of cattle.
I:lassan also said:
God curse Li~yan, for their blood does not repay us
For their having slain the two in treachery.
At al-Raji' they killed the son of a free woman
Faithful and pure in his friendship.
._,
Had they all been killed on the day of aI-RaJ!
In revenge for '.Asim 2 that would not have sufficed
For the dead man" whom the bees protected in their tents,
Among people of obvious infidelity and coarseness.
Lihyan killed one more honourable than they
~d sold Khubayb for a miserable price, woe to them!
Ugh! for Li~yan in every event. .,
May their memory pensh and not even be mentIOned.
A contemptible tribe of mean and treacherous descent,
Their meanness cannot be concealed. . .
If they were slain their blood would not pay for hIm .
But the killing of his killers would cure me (of mypam):
Unless I die I will terrify Hudhayl with a plundenng raId
Swift as the early morning cloud.
By the apostle's cornman?, an.d hi~ it _is;
Disaster will spend the mght m Ll~yan s court.
I harii'im refers to the oath taken by 'A!?im that he WOUld. neve: touch or,le. to~ch~dl1bYa
polytheist, and also to the ;ow of Sulafa that she would drmk wme from i?lrn s S u .
:: Lit. 'he of the hornets
The LIfe of Muhammad 433
The people in al-Raji' will be found in the morning
Like little goats who have passed the winter without warmth.'
I:lassan also said:
By God, Hudhayl do not know
Whether Zamzam's water is clean or foul;
And if they make the great or lesser pilgrimage
They have no share in the f1-ijr or the running.
But at al-Raji' they have a place,
The home of open meanness and disgrace.
They are like goats in the Hijaz bleating
In the evening beside the shelters.
They were treacherous to Rhubayb their ward.
What a miserable covenant was their false word! (673)
I:lassan also said: 648
God bless those who followed one another (to death) the day of al-
Raji'
And were honoured and rewarded.
Marthad the head and leader of the party and
Ibn al-Bukayr their imam and Khubayb.
And a son of Tariq; Ibn Dathinna was there too.
There his death as it was written befell him
And al-'A~im slain at Raji'
Attained the heights (of heaven) great gainer he.
He averted the disgrace of wounds in the back.
He met them sword in hand, the noble warrior (674).
The apostle stayed (in Medina) for the rest of Shawwal, Dhu'l-Qa'da,
Dhii'I-I:Iijja, and al-Mu~arram while the polytheists supervised the pilgrimage.
Then he sent the men of Bi'r Ma'lina forth in $afar, four months
after U~ud.
My father Is~aq b. Yasar from al-Mughjra b. Abdu'l-Ra~man b. al­
I:Iarith b. Hisham told me, as did 'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr b. Muhammad
b. "Amr b. J:Iazrn and other traditionists, as foJIows: Abu Bara' "Amir b.
Malik b. Ja'far the 'Player with the Spears' came to the apostle in Medina
(T and offered him a present. The apostle refused it, saying that he could T. '+12
not accept a present from a polytheist and telling him to become a Muslim
if he mshed him to accept his present).' The apostle explained Islam to
him and invited him to accept it. He would not do so yet he was not far
from Islam. He said: '0 Muhammad (To your affair to which you invite
B 4080
I I follow the reading of C.
2 T's version is more verbose than I.H.'s recension.
F f
43 2 THE STORY OF BI'R MAfUNA IN :;;AFAR, A.H.4