Life-of-Muhammad

Life of Muhammad sa 13them. When derision began to change into approval andindifference into attachment, the chiefs of Mecca andthe officials began to take fright. They assembled andtook counsel. They decided that derision was no methodto deal with this menace. A more serious remedy had tobe applied. The new influence had to be put down byforce. It was decided that persecution and some form ofboycott must be instituted. Practical steps were soontaken, and Mecca was pitched against Islam in a seriousconflict. The Prophet sa and his small following were nolonger considered mad, but a growing influence which, ifallowed to grow unimpeded, would prove a danger to thefaith, prestige, customs and traditions of Mecca. Islamthreatened to pull down and rebuild the old structure ofMeccan society, to create a new heaven and a new earth,the coming of which must mean the disappearance ofthe old heaven of Arabia and its old heart. Meccanscould no longer laugh at Islam. It was a question now oflife and death for them. Islam was a challenge andMecca accepted the challenge, as enemies of Prophetshad always accepted the challenge of their Prophets.They decided not to meet argument by argument but todraw the sword and put down the dangerous teachingby force; not to match the good example of the Prophet saand his followers by their own, nor to reply to kindwords in kind, but to maltreat the innocent and toabuse those who spoke kindly. Once again in the worlda conflict started between belief and disbelief; the forcesof Satan declared war on the angels. The Faithful, still ahandful, had no power to resist the onslaughts andviolence of the disbelievers. A most cruel campaignbegan. Women were butchered shamelessly. Men wereslaughtered. The slaves who had declared their faith inthe Prophet sa were dragged over burning sands andstones. Their skins became hardened like those ofanimals. A long time after, when Islam had becomeestablished far and near, one of these early convertsnamed Khabbab bin Al-Arat ra had his body exposed. Hisfriends saw his skin hardened like an animal's andasked him why it was so. Khabbab ra laughed and said itwas nothing; only a memory of those early days when