Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

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