Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

448 The Life of Muhammad
his appointment Makhshiy b. 'Amr al-Jlamri, who had made an agreement
with him concerning B. I)amra in the raid of ~addan, came t? h}ffi and
asked him if he had come to meet Quraysh by thIs water. He saId, Yes, 0
brother of B. l)amra; nevertheless, if you wish we will cancel the arr~ngement
between us and then fight you until God decide between us. He
answered, 'No, by God, Muhammad, we do not want anything of the
kind.' 'b d I
As he remained waiting for Abu Sufyan, Ma'bad b. AbU Ma a a-
Khuza'i passed by. He had seen where the apostle was as his she-camel
passed swiftly by and he said:
She fled from the two companies of Muhammad
And a datestone from Yathrib like a raisin stone
Hastening in the ancient religion of her fathers.
She made the water of Qudayd' my meeting-place
And the water of Jlajnan 2 will be hers tomorrow.
'Abdullah b. Rawa\1a said concerning this: (693):
We arranged to meet Abu Sufyan at Badr,
But we did not find him true to his promise.
I swear if you had kept your word and met us .
You would have returned disgraced without your nearest km.
We had left there the limbs of 'Utba and his son
And 'Amr Abu Jahl we left lying there. . .
You disobeyed God's apostle-disgusting your religIOn
And your evil state that's all astray.
If you reproach me I say
My wealth and people be the apostle's ransom!
We obey him treating none among us as hIs eq~al.
He is our guiding light in the darkness of the mght.
I:!assan b. Thabit said concerning that:
You can say good-bye to Syria's running streams,
For in between are swords like mouths of pregnant camels that feed
on arak trees
In the hands of men who migrated to their Lord,
In the hands of His true helpers and the angels too.
If they go to the lowland of the sandy valley
Say to them: 'This is not the road."
We stayed by the shallow well eight nights
With a large well-equipped force with many camels,'
With every dark bay its middle half its size
I
Qudayd was near Mecca.
2 Qajmin is a mountain in the Tihama about one post from Mecca.
J These lines have already been cited on p. 547 .
• Lit. 'wide kneeling places'.
The Life of Muhammad
Slender, long, of lofty withers.
You could see the swift camel's feet
Uprooting the annual herbs.
If on our journeyings we meet Furat b. I:!ayyan
He will become death's hostage.
If we meet Qays b. Imru'u'l-Qays hereafter
His black face will become blacker still!
Take Abu Sufyan a message from me
For you are the best of a bad lot.
Abu Sufyan b. al-I:!arith b. 'Abdu'l-Mugalib answered him:
a I::Iassiin, son of a mouldy date-eating woman,
I swear that we so traversed wide deserts
That young gazelles could not escape between us
Had they fled from us swiftly one aftec the other.'
When we left our halting-place you would have thought it
Dunged by the crowds at a fair.
You stayed by the shallow well wanting us
And you left us in the palm-groves hard by.
Our horses and camels walked on the crops
And what they trod on they drove into the soft sand.
We stopped three days between Sal' and Bri"
With splendid steeds and swift camels.
You would have thought fighting people beside their tents
Was as easy as buying lead for money.
Don't describe your fine horses, but speak of them
As one who holds them firmly back.
You rejoice in them, but that is the right of others,
The horsemen of the sons of Fihr b. Malik.
You have no part in the migratioI). though you mention it
And do not observe the prohibitions of its religion (694).
THE RAID ON DUMATU'L-JANDAL, A.H.5
'rhe apostle returned to Medina and stayed there some months until
Dhu'l-I:!ijja had passed. This was the fourth yeac of his sojourn in Medina
and the polytheists were in charge of the pilgrimage. Then he raided
Dumatu'l-Jandal (695).
Then he returned, not having reached the place, without fighting, and
stayed in Medina for the rest of the year. .
T According to the commentator the meaning is that their force was so large that the
gazelles could not escape them.
2 Two mountains.
B 4080
cg
449
668