AKHBAR IS ANWAAR - PART 3

The polytheists after failing to negotiate with Muhammad (SA) tried to harm him, an unsuccessful attempt was made by Abu Jahl to take his life by throwing a big rock. 

'Uabah bin Abi Mu'ait tried to choke the Prophet by pressing his feet firmly on the neck of Muhaamd (SA) while he was prostrating himself in prayer.

Moulana Abu Talib (SA) became very worried of this machinations of the heathen Quraish to kill the Prophet (SA) He persuaded his clan of Banu Hashim and Banu Al-Muttalib to support his nephew and protect him.

The Quraish countered by entering into a pact of injustice and aggression. They held a meeting at a place called Wadi Al-Muhassab and took an oath not to have any dealings with Banu Hashim and Banu Al_Muttalib,  to severe all social relations, visits and even verbal contacts until the Prophet (SA) was given up to them to be killed. This they wrote down, drawing up a pact and a covenant. This treaty was hung up on the wall of Ka'bah.

Moulana Abu Talib (SA) wisely and quietly took stock of the situation and decided to withdraw to a valley on the eastern outskirts of Makkah. The two tribes were thus confined within a narrow pass (Shi'b of Abu Talib) from the beginning of Muharram, or later as per some accounts, in the seventh year of the Prophethood till the tenth year viz: a period of three years.

It was a horrible and deadly siege. The supply of food was almost stopped and the people in confinement faced great hardship. Cries of little children suffering from hunger used to be heard clearly.

Nothing eatable reached them except, on few occasions, some small quantities of food was smuggled by some compassionate Makkans. During the prohibited months – when hostilities traditionally ceased, they would leave their confinement, and buy food from outside Makkah. 

  In the tenth year of the Prophethood,  a disagreement arose between a group of Makkans with regard to the severance of relations pact. Hisham bin 'Amr who used to smuggle some food to Bani Hashim secretly at night, managed to form a pressure group who set out to abolish the pact and declare all relevant clauses null and void. They decided to meet in their assembly place, and Zuhair bin abi Umaiyah along with his colleagues, after circumambulating Ka'bah seven times approached the hosts of people assembled there, and swore that they will tear the parchment. Abu Jahl said that he will never let this happen.

Meanwhile, as argument and counter arguments were being traded, Moulana Abu Talib was sitting in a corner of the Masjid. He told the assembled people that a Revelation had been sent to his nephew Muhammad (SA) to the effect that ants had eaten away all their declaration, that had points of injustice and aggression except those parts that bore the Name of Allah. 

He proposed that he would be ready to give up Muhammad (SA) up to them, if his words proved untrue, otherwise, they would have to withdraw and cancel their boycott.

The Makkans agreed to the soundness of his proposition, Al-Mut'im went to see the parchment and there he discovered that it was eaten away by ants and nothing was left except the part bearing the Name of Allah.

The declaration was thus cancelled and Muhammad (SA) and others were permitted to leave Ash-Sh'ib and return home.   

Allah's Messenger (SA) left his confinement and went on preaching his Faith. 

Quraish likewise, cancelled the boycott but went on in their atrocities and oppression of the Muslims. Moulana Abu Talib had by now reached eighty years of age,  and in spite of failing health, was shielding his beloved nephew.

A delegation of Quraish comprising of 25 notables again approached Moulana Abu Talib, paying tribute to him and confirming their high esteem of his character and position among them  They tried to negotiate with him but failed because Muhammad (SA) would not refrain from preaching the religion of Allah and calling people  to Tawheed.

In the tenth year of Prophethood, Moulana Abu Talib fell ill and passed away. According to some in the month of Rajab, six months after leaving the confinement at Ash- Sh'ib.

In that same year in the month of Ramadan Moulatena Khadijah also passed away, she was sixty five year old. She, for twenty five years, shared with him the toils and trails of life, especially in the first ten years of his Prophethood. He deeply mourned over her death.

These two painful events took place within a short period of time and added a lot to his grief and suffering. The Makkans now openly declared their campaign of torture and oppression. He set out for At' Taif seeking a supportive atmosphere.   

Muhammad (S.A.) set out from Mecca in the year 619 C.E.  to bring the Quraish polytheists into the fold of Islam. He went with his freed slave Zaid bin Harithhah to Al – Taif a prosperous town having fruit and vineyard farms, located at a distance of 60 kms from Mecca.

He first approached the family of Umair, reckoned as among the nobility of the town. All the three sons of Umair turned a deaf year and used abusive language, as regards the cause for which he had been striving.

For ten days, he stayed in al Taif, delivering the message of  Islam to all the noble people, one after another, but to no avail. Contrary to Arab tradition of  hospitality, he was hooted at and pelted with stones, and obliged to flee pursued by a merciless crowd.

So much so, that blood flowed down his legs and thus tired and exhausted, he took refuge in one of the numerous fruit farms, and rested against the wall of a vineyard belonging to 

Walid bin Ukaba . 

Seeing the plight of a stranger he sent with his slave Adras, who was a practicing Christian, a bunch of luscious grapes – 18 in all. Nabi Muhammad (S.A.) quenched his thirst and felt refreshed, and prayed for Walid, who himself died a polythist, fighting the Muslims, but  in his descendents, the flower of  Islam bloomed, so much so, that as a direct result of Nabi Muhammad (S.A.) prayer, on that eventful day at Al – Taif the Fatemi Dawat of Yemen was resplendent with 18 Doat ul Mutlaqeen, the first and foremost being Syedna Ali bin Mohammad  Walid (RA) whose story of tawajo and khusu in well known in the annals of Fatemi Dawat, and it is not mere coincidence that  Syedna Mohammad bin Walid  (RA) wrote 18 kutubs,  and lived till the ripe old age of 100 years, and till end, use to go to Masjid to offer Namaz.

At Al Taif at a time when the whole world seemed to have turned against him, Muhammad (S.A.) turned to his Lord, and started praying, those touching words are still preserved, as those through which his wronged soul expressed distress and anguish.

HE WAS TIRED AND WOUNDED BUT AT THE SAME TIME CONFIDENT OF THE HELP OF HIS LORD.

'O Allah ! To you alone I complain of my weakness, my insufficient ability and my insignificance before the people.

You are the Most Merciful of the merciful. You are the Lord of the helpless and the weak.

O Lord of mine ! Into whose hands would You abandon me: into the hands of any unsympathetic distant relative, who would angrily frown at me or to the enemy, who has been given control over my affairs ?

But if your wrath does not fall upon me, there is nothing for me to worry about !

Your pardon is ample enough for me, I seek pardon in the light of your Face, which illuminates the darkness, fixing the affairs in this world and in the Hereafter.

May it never be that I should incur Your wrath, or that  You should be wrathful to me. And there is no power nor resource, but Yours alone.'

After bracing hostility of the people of al Taif, Muhammad (S.A.) slowly proceeded towards Mecca, where he had been persecuted by the heathen Quraish led by Abu Jahl and  Abu Lahab. He recalled how the early converts, simple people and freed slaves, like Ammar bin Yasir, Bilal, Khabab bin Al- Arath, Sumaiyah and many more had braved unspeakable tortures. Muhammad (S.A.) himself  had to bear taunts and uncouth behavior. Once while he was praying in Kaba, Utaibah bin Abu Lahab threw intestines of camel, while he was in sujood. Ma Fatema (S.A.) was a helpless witness to this cowardly act, and cried a lot as she cleaned the back of her beloved father. 

After feeling refreshed by the prayer he had offered to His Lord and bracing to face the hostility of the polytheist, as Muhammad (S.A.) made his way towards Mecca, angel Jibraeel came along with the angel of the Mountains, and said:'O Muhammad (S.A.) Order what you wish. If you like, I will let Al-Akhshabain ( name of the mountain surrounding Mecca) to fall on them.'  

Muhammad (S.A.) was sent as Rehmatul –lil  –'Alam'in, and in spite of inhuman tortures and persecutions, this is what he said : " No, I hope that Allah will let them beget children, who will worship Allah alone, and will worship none besides Him"  (Sahih Muslim 2/109)

How prophetic were his words, and the general good of the people and humanity seeped, in every word and action of his.