Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

644 The Life of Muhammad
alms tax is not lawful to Muhammad or his household; it is alms to be
given to the poor Muslims and the wayfarer. Miilik has brought the news
and kept secret what is confidential, and larder you to treat him well.
I have sent to you some ofthe best of my people, religious and learned men,
and larder you to treat them well, for they must be respected.' Peace
upon you and the mercy and blessings of God.'
THE APOSTLE'S INSTRUCTIONS TO Mu'ADH WHEN HE
SENT HIM TO THE YAMAN
'Abdullah b. Abu Bakr told me that he was told that when the apostle sent
Mu'iidh he gave him instructions and orders and then said: Deal gently
and not harshly; announce good news and do not repel people. You are
going to one of the people with scripture who will ask you about the key
of heaven. Say to them it is the witness that there is no God but Allah,
Who has no partner. Mu'iidh went off to the Yaman and did as he was
ordered and a woman came to him and said, '0 companion of God's
apostle, what rights has a husband over his wife?' He said, 'Woe to you, a
woman can never fulfil her husband's rights, so do your utmost to fulfil
his claims as best you can.' She said, 'By God, if you are the companion
of God's apostle you must know what rights a husband has over his wifel'
He said, 'If you were to go back and find him with his nostrils running
with pus and blood and sucked until you got rid of them you would not
have fulfilled your obligation."
958 FARWA B. 'AMR AL-JUDHAMY BECOMES A MUSLIM
Farwa b. 'Amr b. al-Niifira al-Judhiimi of the clan of Nufiitha sent to the
apostle that he had accepted Islam, and gave him a white mule. Farwa
was governor for the Byzantines of the Arabs lying near the Byzantine
border based on Ma'iin and the surrounding land of Syria. When the
news reached the Byzantines they went after him, taught him, and imprisoned
him. In his imprisonment he said:
Sulayma came to my companions by night
When the Romans were between the door and the water troughs.
The spectre shrank away sad at what it saw,
And I thought to sleep but it had made me weep.
Paint not thine eye with kolzl, Salmii, after I am dead
And do not approach for intercourse.
You know, Abu Kubaysha, that among the great ones
My tongue is not silent.
I A difficult expression. Perhaps 'they are people of importance', or even 'they will be
watched', i.e. to see how they fare.
:I Suhayli offers no comment.
The Life of Muhammad 645
If I perish you will miss your brother
And if I live you will recognize my rank,
For I possess the noblest qualities a man Can have'
Generosity, bravery, and eloquence. .
Wh~n t~e Byzantines determined to crucify him by a pool in Palestine
called Afra he said:
Has Salmii heard that her husband
Is by the water of fAfra raised on a riding camel, I
A camel whose mother no stallion e'er mounted
Its branches shorn with sickles?
'
AI-Zuhri alleged that when they brought him to crucify him he said:
Tell the chiefs of the Muslims that I
Surrender to my Lord my body and my bones.
Then they beheaded him and hung him up by that water. May God have
mercy on hIm I
THE BANU'L-I;Li.RITH ACCEPT ISLAM
Then the apostle sent Khiilid b. al-Walid in the month of Rab" 'I. 'kh'
orJu
ma
-d-'I""I-'
a -u am t
h
e year
1u " lr
10 to the B. al-Hiirith b Ka'b l'n N ' - d
d d h' " "aJran, an 959
or ere 1m to mVlte them to Islam three days before he attacked th
If they accepted then he was to accept it from them ;' and if they decli~~d
~e was to fight them. So Khiilid set out and came to them and sent out
nders m all dlrections inviting the people to Islam saYl'ng :If
I I '11 b ' ' ,you accept
5 a~ you WI .e safe, so the men accepted Islam as they were invited
Khiihd stayed ,wah them teaching them Islam and the book of God and
the sunna ~f H,S prophet, for that was what the apostle of God had ordered
him to do If t,hey accepted Islam and did not fight.'
Th~n Khiihd wrote to the apostle: In the name of God th '
ate th 'f I T M h e compasslOn-
'_ , e merCI u ._ a u ammad the prophet the apostle of God. From
Khahd b. al-Wahd. Peace be upon you 0 apostle of God and G d'
mercy and b_Iessings. I praise God the oniy God unto you, Y~u sent m~ t~
the B. al-l:Ianth b. Ka b and ordered me when I came to them not t
fight them for three days and to invite them to Islam' and if th t dO
it to 8t . h h d ,eyaccep e
. . .ay WIt t em, an to accept it from them and teach them the
mSlltutlOns of Islam, the book of God, and the sunna of His prophet.
: The follOWing line makes the point clear.
After these words T has 'And sta with th d
SUnna of the prophet and" the institutio~s of Isla~ a~t lte~h th;mhthe book of God and the
of I.H,'s recension (unless he deliberately . d h 00 s a~ 1 t ese words had fallen out
beginning 'for that' which T omits Cle I exclse r t em. an that he wrote in the clause
h
T d
." ar y one 0 t em IS redundant and th "
. rea s more smoothly, The words 'to stay with them;' KhTd' I' e ,passage In
not by W. In a 1 setter are gIVen by C.,