Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth
Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth
Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth
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506 The <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Muhammad</strong> The <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Muhammad</strong><br />
to come and may complete his favour upon you and guide you on an<br />
upright path. II Then the account goes on about him and his companions<br />
until he comes to mention the oath <strong>of</strong> allegiance and He said: 'Those who<br />
swear allegiance to you really swear allegiance to God, the hand <strong>of</strong> God<br />
being above their hands; so he who breaks his oath breaks it to his own<br />
hurt; while he who is faithful to what he has covenanted with God, to him<br />
will He give a great reward.'<br />
Then He mentioned the Bedouin who held back from him. Then He<br />
said when he urged them to take the field with him and they procrastinated,<br />
'The Bedouin who were left behind will say to you: Our possessions and<br />
750 our families preoccupied us!' Then follows an account <strong>of</strong> them until the<br />
words 'Those who were left behind will say when you go out to capture<br />
spoil, Let us follow you, wishing to change what God has said. Say, You<br />
shall not follow us. Thus has God said beforehand.' Then follows an<br />
account <strong>of</strong> them and how it was explained to them that they must fight<br />
a people <strong>of</strong> great prowess.<br />
'Abdullah b. Abu Najjh from 'Ata' b. Abu Raha\> from Ibn 'Abbas said<br />
(That means) Persia. One whom I do not suspect from al-Zuhri told me<br />
that 'a people <strong>of</strong> great prowess' meant Banifa with the arch-liar.<br />
Then He said: 'God was pleased with the believers when they swore<br />
allegiance to you under the tree and He knew what was in their hearts,<br />
and He sent down the Sakjna' upon them and rewarded them with a recent<br />
victory and much spoil which they will take. God is mighty, wise. God<br />
has promised you much spoil which you will capture and has given you<br />
this in advance, and kept men's hands from you, that it may be a sign to<br />
the believers and that He may guide you on an upright path, and other<br />
(things) which you have not been able to get. God encompasses them, and<br />
God is almighty.'<br />
Then He mentioned how He had kept him away from battle after the<br />
victory over them, meaning those He had kept from him. Then He said:<br />
'He it is who has kept their hands from you and your hands from them in<br />
the vale <strong>of</strong> Mecca, after He had given you victory over them. God is a seer<br />
<strong>of</strong> what you do.' Then He said: 'They are those who disbelieved and<br />
debarred you from the sacred mosque and the <strong>of</strong>fering from reaching its<br />
goal' (752). 'And had it not been for the believing men and women whom<br />
you did not know lest you should tread them under foot and thus incur<br />
guilt for them unwittingly.' Ma'arra means 'a fine', Le. lest you should<br />
suffer loss for them unwittingly and pay its bloodwit; as for real guilt he<br />
did not fear it on their account (753).<br />
Then he said, "Vhen those who disbelieve had set in their hearts zealotry,<br />
751 the zealotry <strong>of</strong> paganism,' i.e. Suhayl b. 'Amr when he scorned to write 'In<br />
the name <strong>of</strong> Allah the Compassionate the Merciful' and that <strong>Muhammad</strong> is<br />
God's apostle. Then He said 'God sent down His sakina' upon His apostle<br />
I Sura 48.<br />
~ This is (a) a genuine Arabic word meaning' tranquillity', 'calm'; and (b) a borrowing<br />
and the believers and imposed on them the word <strong>of</strong>piety, for they were meet<br />
and worthy <strong>of</strong> it,' i.e. the declaration <strong>of</strong> God's unity, the witness that there<br />
is no God but Allah and that <strong>Muhammad</strong> is His slave and His apostle.<br />
Then He said: 'God has fulfilled the vision to His apostle in truth. You<br />
shall enter the sacred mosque if God will, safely with heads shaved and hair<br />
cut short fearing not. For He knows what you do not know,' i.e. the vision<br />
which the apostle saw that he would enter Mecca safely without fear. He<br />
says 'with your heads shaved and hair cut short' along with him without<br />
fear, for He knows what you do not know <strong>of</strong> that, and more than that He<br />
has wrought a near victory, the peace <strong>of</strong> al-Budaybiya.<br />
No previous victory in Islam was greater than this. There was nothing<br />
but battle when men met; but when there was an armistice and war was<br />
abolished and men met in safety and consulted together none talked about<br />
Islam intelligently without entering it. In those two years double as many<br />
or more than double as many entered Islam as ever before (754).<br />
THE CASE OF THOSE LEFT HELPLESS AFTER THE PEACE<br />
When the apostle arrived in Medina AbcI Basjr 'Utba b. Asid b. Jariya,<br />
one <strong>of</strong> those imprisoned in Mecca, came to him. Azhar b. 'Abdu 'Auf b.<br />
'Abd b. al-I:Iarith b. Zuhra and al-Akhnas b. Sharjq b. 'Amr b. Wahb al<br />
Thaqafi wrote to the apostle about him, and they sent a man <strong>of</strong> B. 'Amir b. 752<br />
Lu'ayy with a freed slave <strong>of</strong> theirs. When they came to the apostle with<br />
the letter he said, 'You know the undertaking we gave these people and it<br />
ill becomes us that treachery should enter our religion. God will bring<br />
relief and a way <strong>of</strong> escape to those helpless like you, so go back to your<br />
people.' He said, '\Vould you return me to the polytheists who will seduce<br />
me from my religion?' He said, 'Go, for God \....ill bring relief and a way <strong>of</strong><br />
escape for you and the helpless ones with you.' So he went with them as<br />
far as Dhli'l-I~ulayfal where he and the two men sat against a wall. l\bu<br />
Ba~ir said, 'Is your sword sharp, 0 brother <strong>of</strong> B. 'Arnir?' \Vhen he said<br />
that it was he said that he v,'Ould like to look at it. 'Look at it if you want<br />
to: he replied. Abu Baliir unsheathed it and dealt him a blow that killed<br />
him. The freedman ran <strong>of</strong>f to the apostle who was sitting in the mosque,<br />
and when the apostle saw him coming he said, 'This man has seen some~<br />
thing frightful.' When he came up the apostle said, 'What's the matter,<br />
woe to you?' He said: 'Your man has killed my man,' and almost at once<br />
Abu Ba~ir came up girt with the sword, and standing by the apostle he<br />
said, 'Your obligation is over and God has removed it from you. You duly<br />
handed me over to the men and I ha\re protected myself in my religion lest<br />
I should be seduced therein or sc<strong>of</strong>fed at.' The apostle said, '\Voe is his<br />
mother, he would have kindled a war had there been others with him.'2<br />
from the Hebrew shekinah, pos~ibly through the medium <strong>of</strong> Syriac. A summary <strong>of</strong>what has<br />
been said about it with a bibliography is given by A. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Qurt'in, 174. I About six or seven miles from Medina.<br />
~ Or, 'The firebrandl Would that others had been with himl'