Men from Yathrib
They came performing the pilgrimage (Hajj) from Yathrib,
a city more than two hundred miles away, which has since become world-famous as
al-Medina, “the City” par excellence. Yathrib was fortunate in its location in
a pleasant oasis, famous even to this day for the excellence of its dates, but
unfortunate in every other way. The oasis had been the scene of almost
unceasing tribal strife. Jews fought Jews and Arabs fought Arabs; Arabs allied
themselves with Jews and fought other Arabs allied with a different Jewish
community. While Mecca prospered, Yathrib lived in wretchedness. It was in
need of a leader capable of uniting its people.
At Yathrib, there were Jewish tribes with learned rabbis
who had often spoken to the pagans of a Prophet soon to come among the Jews,
with whom, when he came, the Jews would destroy the Arabs as the tribes of ‘Aad
and Thamud had been destroyed of old for their idolatry.
The Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God
be upon him, at that stage in his call was secretly visiting different tribes
in the outskirts of Mecca to convey them the message of Islam. Once, he
overheard a group of men at Aqaba, a place outside Mecca, and he asked to sit
with them to which they gladly welcomed. When the men from the tribe of Khazraj
from Yathrib heard what Muhammad had to say, they recognized him as the Prophet
whom the Jews had described to them, and all six men accepted Islam. They also
hoped that Muhammad, through this new religion, could be the man who would
unite them with their brother tribe, the Aws, a tribe in Yathrib with whom they
shared common ancestry, but distraught with years of war and animosity. They
determined to return to Yathrib and spread the religion of Muhammad. As a result,
not a house existed in Yathrib except that it heard the message Islam, and the
next season of pilgrimage, in the year 621, a deputation came from Yathrib
purposely to meet the Prophet.
First Pact of Aqaba
This deputation was composed of twelve men, five of
those present the previous year, and two members of the Aws. They met the
Prophet again at Aqaba and pledged in their own names and in those of their
wives, to associate no other creation with God (to become Muslim), neither to
steal nor to commit adultery nor to kill their infants, even in dire poverty;
and they undertook to obey this man in all things just. This is known as the
First Pledge of Aqaba. When they returned to Yathrib, the Prophet sent with
them his first ambassador, Mus’ab ibn ‘Umair, to teach the new converts the
rudiments of the faith and further spread the religion to those who had not yet
embraced Islam.
Mus’ab preached the message of Islam until almost every family
in Yathrib had a Muslim in their midst, and before the Hajj of the following
year, 622, Mus’ab returned to the Prophet and told him the good news of his
mission, and of the goodness and strength of Yathrib and its people.
Second Pact of Aqaba
In 622, pilgrims from Yathrib, seventy-five of them Muslims,
from them two women, came to perform the Hajj. During the latter part of one
night, while all were asleep, the Muslims from amongst the Yathribite pilgrims
secretly crept into the place whether they had previously arranged to meet the
Prophet, at the rocks at Aqaba, to vow allegiance to the Prophet and invite him
to their city. At Aqaba, they met the Prophet, and with him was his uncle,
then still a pagan but one who defended his nephew due to familial bonds. He spoke
and warned the Muslims about the dangers of their task, and against proving
untrue to their commitment if they undertook it. Another person from the
pilgrims who was present the previous two years also stood and warned against
the danger of their commitment and their preparedness to uphold it. In their
staunch determination and love of the Prophet,, they swore to defend him as
they would defend their own selves, their wives and children. It was then that
the Hijrah, the emigration to Yathrib, was decided.
This is known as the Pledge of War, because it involved
protecting the person of the Prophet, by arms if necessary; and soon after the
emigration to Yathrib, the Quranic verses permitting war in defense of the
religion were revealed. These verses are crucial in the history of Islam:
“Permission is given unto those who fight because they have
been wronged, and God is indeed able to give them victory; those who have been
driven from their homes unjustly only because they said -- Our Lord is God! For
were it not that God repels some people by means of others, monasteries and
churches and synagogues and mosques in which the name of God is extolled would
surely have been destroyed…” (Quran 22:39-40)
A turning-point had come for Prophet Muhammad, for the
Muslims, and for the world. It was Prophet Muhammad’s destiny, and an aspect
of his prophetic function, that he should demonstrate the alternatives open to
the persecuted and the oppressed; on the one hand, forbearance; on the other,
what is called by Christians the ‘just war’, but for which, in the words of a
later Quranic revelation – “corruption would surely
overwhelm the earth” (Quran 2:251). For almost thirteen years, he
and his followers had suffered persecution, threats and insults without raising
a hand in self-defense. They had proved that this was humanly possible. Circumstances
were now changing and called for a very different response if the religion of
Islam was to survive in the world. Peace has its seasons, but so has war, and
the Muslim never forgets that every man born is born to struggle in one form or
another, at one level or another; if not physically, then spiritually. Those
who try to ignore this fact are, sooner or later, enslaved.
Plot to Murder the Prophet
In small groups, the Muslims slipped out of Mecca and
took the road to Yathrib. The Hijrah (‘emigration’) had begun.
For Quraish the limits of what was bearable had been
passed. Enemies within the city were bad enough, but now these enemies were
setting up a rival centre to the north. The death of Abu Talib had removed Muhammad’s
chief protector. Restrained hitherto by principles inherited from their bedouin
forefathers and by the fear of causing a troublesome blood feud, the leaders finally
decided that Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, must die.
Abu Jahl proposed a simple plan. Young men should be chosen from different
clans, each one to strike a mortal blow, so that Muhammad’s blood would be upon
all of them. Hashim could not seek retribution from all the other clans.
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