The Life of Muhammad

by M. Husayn Haykal

  Encampment at Al Hijr

  The army arrived at al Hijr where the rock-hewn remains of Thamud stood, and the Prophet commanded the army to dismount for a watering and a brief rest. When it was time to leave, he ordered against drinking the water or using it for ablutions. “If you have used any of it to knead bread,” he said, “give your dough to the camels and do not eat it. Let no one go out into the open desert alone.” Muhammad knew that the place was desolate and often struck by blinding sandstorms. Two men disobeyed and went out of camp. One was carried away by the wind and the other buried in the sand. When morning came and the people saw that the sandstorm had filled the well with sand, they panicked. Soon rain fell upon them from a passing cloud. They drank, filled their skins, and felt reassured. Some of them thought this was a miracle. Others thought it was only a passing cloud.

  Byzantine Withdrawal, Covenants of Peace with the North

  The army then marched in the direction of Tabuk. News of its approach had already reached the Byzantines who immediately withdrew to the safety of their hinterland. When Muhammad learned of their fear and withdrawal, he saw no reason to pursue them within their territory. Instead, he roamed over the border inviting all either to fight or befriend him. His purpose was to secure the frontiers of Arabia. Yuhanna ibn Ru’bah, Governor of Aylah, received such an invitation. He came in person carrying a golden cross, presented gifts, declared his submission, and handed over the keys of his island to the Prophet. So did the people of al Jarba’ and Adhruh, and they all paid the jizyah. The Prophet gave each of them a covenant which read as the following document given to Yuhanna. “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is a covenant of security granted under God by Muhammad, the Prophet of God, to Yuhanna ibn Ru’bah and the people of Aylah. Their ships, vehicles, and routes on land and on sea are secure under God’s guaranty and Muhammad’s. So are all those who accompany them whether of the peoples of al Sham, Yaman, or beyond the seas. Whoever among them perpetrates a crime shall be liable for it in his own person, and it shall be legitimate for Muhammad to confiscate his wealth. It shall not be legitimate to prevent any one of them from using a well or a road on land or sea which they have been in the habit of using.” When the Prophet applied his seal to the document, he presented Yuhanna with a mantle woven in Yaman and showed him every courtesy, respect, and friendship. It was further agreed that Aylah would remit a yearly jizyah of three hundred Dinars.

  Ibn al Walid’s Campaign against Dumah

  With the withdrawal of the Byzantines and the binding of the frontier provinces with treaties and covenants of peace, Muhammad had no reason to march any further. The only one he feared was Ukaydir ibn ‘Abd al Malik al Kind!, the Christian prince of Dumah. This prince was suspected of preparing to launch a treacherous attack as soon as the Byzantine forces could return. Taking no chances, Muhammad sent Khalid ibn al Walid with five hundred cavalrymen to deal with this threat and commanded the army to return to Madinah. Khalid hurried to Dumah and, discovering that its king was out on a hunting trip with his brother Hassan, attacked it without finding any appreciable resistance outside the city; its gates, however, remained tightly closed. Khalid seized Ukaydir and his brother Hassan as they returned home. He killed Hassan and threatened to kill Ukaydir unless the gates of the city were opened. Ukaydir and his city yielded. After seizing two thousand camels, eight hundred goats, four hundred loads of grain, and four hundred coats of arms, Khalid carried them, together with his captive, Prince Ukaydir, to Madinah. Muhammad offered Islam to Ukaydir, and the latter converted. He was then reinstated on his throne and became the Prophet’s ally.

  The Muslims’ Return

  Leading all these thousands of troops back to Madinah across the wide wastes which separate it from al Sham required no little feat of leadership on the part of Muhammad. Not many of them understood the Prophet’s purpose or saw the value of the treaties he concluded with Aylah and other northern states. Evidently they could not appreciate the fact that Muhammad has thereby guaranteed the frontiers of Arabia and created buffer zones between it and Byzantium. All they saw was the plain fact that they had crossed long desert wastes full of hardships, lingered in the vicinity of Tabuk some twenty days, and returned without a fight, without capturing anyone, or seizing anything. Was this reason enough to justify their leaving Madinah at harvest time? Some of them began to whisper to one another derisive remarks about the whole expedition. Others, more faithful, reported the rumors to the Prophet. Muhammad dealt with the guilty, sometimes harshly and sometimes with leniency, his purpose being to maintain discipline in the body of the army. When the army was just about to enter Madinah, Khalid ibn al Walid caught up with and joined them, together with his captive Ukaydir and the booty he seized from Dumah. Ukaydir wore a golden, brocaded garment which caught the attention of everyone in Madinah.

  The Recalcitrants

  Upon the Muslims’ return, those who failed to answer the call to mobilize and remained behind came to give account of their failure. They were given such harsh judgment that all those of questionable faith, including those soldiers who derided the outcome of the campaign just concluded, trembled in fear or changed their minds. The recalcitrants presented their reasons which were anything but spurious. The Prophet listened and, for the most part, let them go free pending God’s final judgment. Three others told the truth frankly but repentantly. They were Ka’b ibn Malik, Murarah ibn al Rabi‘, and Hilal ibn Umayyah. Muhammad ordered them to be boycotted by the Muslims for fifty days, after which they were forgiven and rehabilitated within the community. In this regard the following verses of the Qur’an were revealed: “God has forgiven the Prophet, and the Muhajirun and Ansar who followed him on the ‘hardship expedition.’ Some of them had almost swerved away from faith. But they repented and God has forgiven them. He is the Merciful, the Compassionate. The three men who remained behind were accused, indicted, and castigated by their own consciences; they came forth repentant, however, as they realized that there is no escape from Him except by His judgment and mercy. God has accepted their repentance and forgiven them, that they may lead a new life. God is the Forgiver, the Merciful.” [Qur’an, 9:117-118]

  Severe Treatment of the Munafiqun

  From then on, Muhammad dealt more and more severely with the munafiqun, whose presence and influence among the Muslims became increasingly grave and demanded decisive solution. Muhammad did not doubt God’s promise to give His religion victory and His word power, or that the Muslims would soon increase in very large numbers. Previously when Islam was limited to the confines of Madinah and its vicinity, it was possible for him personally to supervise all Muslim affairs. Now that Islam had spread to the farthest reaches of Arabia and stood ready to cross its frontiers, any leniency toward the munafiqun might lead to grave consequences. Hence, there was all the more reason for the Prophet to eradicate this source of potential disruption. A group of munafiqun built a mosque at Dhu Awan, an hour’s ride from Madinah, wherein to meet to concoct and plan their divisive strategy and misinterpret and misrepresent the words of God to the people. Before he left for the campaign of Tabuk, the Prophet was even asked by them to dedicate their mosque. The time, however, was pressing and the Prophet asked to be excused. After his return, the Prophet learned more about this group and their purposes, and hence ordered their mosque assigned to the flames. The munafiqun shook with fear and went into hiding. Henceforth, there remained only their elder, ‘Abdullah ibn Ubayy, to lead and protect them.

  ‘Abdullah, however, did not live long after Tabuk. He fell ill two months later and died. To the knowledge of everyone, ‘Abdullah nursed the strongest hatred and resentment for the Prophet ever since the Hijrah. This notwithstanding, Muhammad was careful enough to let no Muslim inflict any harm upon him. Indeed, more. When he learned of ‘Abdullah’s death, Muhammad was quick to conduct a funeral service for him, to pray for him, and to see to it that he was given proper burial. With ‘Abdullah’s passing, however, the munafiqun los
t their strongest pillar, and most of them hurried thereafter to repentance and genuine faith.

  The Prophet’s Last Campaign

  With the campaign of Tabuk, the word of God became supreme throughout the whole Peninsula. Arab frontiers became secure and the peoples of Arabia began to enter Islam en masse and to merge into greater unity under Muhammad. The campaign of Tabuk was the last one the Prophet conducted. Henceforth, he remained in Madinah contented with what God had done for him. His son, Ibrahim, who was then sixteen or eighteen months old, was to him a source of constant joy. Whenever he finished with the day’s official engagements and receptions, and satisfied himself that his duties to God, family, and friends were fulfilled, he would sit with his son, fondling and playing with him. He watched his son grow, become daily more resembling his father and, like any other father, Muhammad became more and more attached to him. Throughout these months the child was in the care of his nurse Umm Sayf, to whom Muhammad gave some goats to complement her milk supply.

  Illness and Death of Ibrahim

  Muhammad’s attachment to his son had nothing to do with either his faith or with his mission. Repeatedly, he used to say: “We, the prophets, have nothing to pass on as inheritance to anyone. Any wealth we may leave behind must go for charity.” Muhammad’s case was purely one of a common human emotion, though in him, it has reached its highest and noblest expression. In the Arab, this human emotion expressed itself in causing him to see in his male progeny a form of eternity. It explains fully Muhammad’s love for his son, however strong it may have been. Indeed, Muhammad had more reason for such strong attachment since he had lost his two sons, al Qasim and al Tahir, at a tender age, and his daughters-even after they grew to maturity, married, and bore children-so that only Fatimah remained of all his progeny. Naturally, these sons and daughters who passed away one after the other and were buried by Muhammad’s own hand left their father with a severe sense of bereavement. It was natural that a father so bereaved would feel excessive joy and the strongest personal pride and hope at the birth and growing of a son.

  The promise and hope which Ibrahim represented were not to last long. Soon, the child fell seriously ill. He was moved to a date orchard near Mashrabat Umm Ibrahim, where his mother and Sirin, her sister, looked after him. When his state worsened and it became apparent that he will not live long, Muhammad was called. He was so shocked at the news that he felt his knees could no more carry him, and asked ‘Abd al Rahman ibn ‘Awf to give him his hand to lean upon. He proceeded immediately to the orchard and arrived in time to bid farewell to an infant dying in his mother’s lap. Muhammad took the child and laid him in his own lap with shaking hand. His heart was torn apart by the new tragedy, and his face mirrored his inner pain. Choking with sorrow, he said to his son, “O Ibrahim, against the judgment of God, we cannot avail you a thing,” and then fell silent. Tears flowed from his eyes. The child lapsed gradually, and his mother and aunt watched and cried loudly and incessantly, but the Prophet never ordered them to stop. As Ibrahim surrendered to death, Muhammad’s hope which had consoled him for a brief while completely crumbled. With tears in his eyes he talked once more to the dead child: “O Ibrahim, were the truth not certain that the last of us will join the first, .we would have mourned you even more than we do now.” A moment later he said: “The eyes send their tears and the heart is saddened, but we do not say anything except that which pleases our Lord. Indeed, O Ibrahim, we are bereaved by your departure from us.”

  Aware of Muhammad’s sorrow, the wise among the Muslim sought to remind the Prophet that he himself had commanded against indulgence in self-pity after a bereavement. Muhammad, however, answered: “I have not commanded against sadness, but against raising one’s voice in lamentation. What you see in me is the effect of the love and compassion in my heart for my lost one. Remember that whoever feels no compassion toward others will not receive any compassion.” These may not have been his exact words, but the meaning remains the same. Muhammad tried to sublimate his sadness and lighten his sorrow, and, looking toward Mariyah and Sirin, he said to them in appeasement that Ibrahim would have his own nurse in Paradise. Umm Burdah, or according to another version, al Fadl ibn ‘Abbas, washed the body of the child in preparation for burial. He was carried on a little bed by the Prophet, his uncle al ‘Abbas, and a number of Muslims to the cemetery of Abu Bakr where, after a funeral prayer recited by the Prophet, he was laid down to rest. As Muhammad ordered the grave closed, he filled it with sand, sprinkled some water, and placed a landmark on it. He then said “Tombstones do neither good nor ill, but they help appease the living. Anything that man does, God wishes him to do well.”

  The death of Ibrahim coincided with the eclipse of the sun, a phenomenon the Muslims saw as a miracle. They went about saying that the sun was eclipsed in sadness over the death of Ibrahim. The Prophet heard them. Would his exceeding love for Ibrahim and deep sorrow over his loss not enable him to find in such rumors a measure of consolation? Would he not at least keep his silence and thus allow the people to believe what they had taken to be a miracle? Certainly not. Such an attitude surely belongs to those who exploit the ignorance and credulity of the people; for those whom suffering and sorrow push beyond reason and common sense. It does not belong to the man of genuine wisdom, nor a fortiori, to the great Prophet. Hence, looking to those who claimed the sun was in eclipse because of the death of Ibrahim, Muhammad said, “The sun and the moon are signs of God. They are eclipsed neither for the death nor birth of any man. On beholding an eclipse, therefore, remember God and turn to Him in prayer.” What greatness! Even in his moment of greatest personal disaster this Prophet preserved his cool presence of mind. He remained fully conscious of his message and most serious in his commitment to it. And even the Orientalists could not hide their admiration and wonder when they came across this fact in the life of Muhammad. Even they could not fail to acknowledge the genuineness of the man who insisted on truth even in face of the greatest personal adversity.

  One wonders what the attitude of the wives of the Prophet was toward the loss of Ibrahim and Muhammad’s strong sense of bereavement. Muhammad himself found consolation in God, in the divine assistance he received in the fulfillment of His message, and in the successful spread of Islam that was shown by all the delegations that appeared in Madinah from every direction with the rise of each new day. So wide was the spread of the religion of God and so many peoples entered its ranks that this year, the 10th of the Hijrah, was called “the Year of Deputations.” It is also the year in which Abu Bakr made the pilgrimage to Makkah.

  Chapter 28

  The Year of Deputations and Abu Bakr’s Leadership of the Pilgrimage

  The Effects of the Campaign of Tabuk

  With the campaign of Tabuk the word of God was fulfilled throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad had firmly secured it against all attacks. In fact, as soon as he returned to Madinah from Tabuk, the associationists of Arabia began to ponder their fate. The Muslims who accompanied Muhammad on his march toward al Sham suffered many hardships, bore the heat and thirst of the desert, and returned somewhat disappointed, nay resentful, that they were not given a chance to fight and to enjoy the fruits of victory. The Byzantines had withdrawn to the interior where they stood better fortified. Nonetheless, their withdrawal before a marching Arab army left the tribes severely shaken, anxious over the fate of their pagan religion and of their society. The tribes of southern Arabia, of Yaman, Hadramawt, and ‘Uman were specially affected in this manner. The Byzantines, they thought, were those who vanquished the Persians, recaptured the cross and reinstated it in Jerusalem with imperial pomp and grandeur. This happened at a time when Persia held dominion over Yaman and the surrounding countryside, territories which Persia had ruled for many decades. Since the Muslims were now close to Yaman-indeed close to every quarter of the Peninsula why should these territories not join the greater unity under the banner of Muhammad, the aegis of Islam? Such a step would at least save them from the imperial
ism of both Byzantium and Persia. So they thought regarding their relations with the outside world. On the internal front the princes of the territories and the tribal chieftains knew very well that Muhammad would confirm any leader or sovereign in his leadership or sovereignty if he but converted to Islam. Why then, they thought, should they not join this greater unity, which would bring them clear advantage without prejudice to their particular structure of power? And so it was. The tenth year of the Hijrah was indeed the “Year of Deputations,” in which men entered into the religion of God en masse. The Campaign of Tabuk and the withdrawal of the Byzantines before the Muslims brought forth results as great as the conquest of Makkah, the Muslim victory at Hunayn, or the blockade of al Ta’if.

  Conversion of ‘Urwah ibn Mas’ud and His Murder

  Fortunately, it was al Ta‘if, the city which resisted the Prophet despite the long blockade and which the Muslims had had to bypass without conquering, that came first to declare its allegiance to Muhammad after Tabuk. ‘Urwah ibn Mas’ud, one of the chieftains of the tribe of Thaqif, was absent in Yaman during the Prophet’s blockade of his city following the Battle of Hunayn. Upon his return to al Ta’if and his realization of the Prophet’s victory in Tabuk, he hastened to Madinah to declare his conversion as well as his commitment to call his fellow tribesmen unto the religion of God. ‘Urwah was not ignorant either of Muhammad or of the power which the latter had so far achieved, for he was one of the notables of Arabia who entered the negotiations regarding the peace of Hudaybiyah on behalf of Quraysh. ‘Urwah’s conversion reassured the Prophet that the voice of Islam would reach the tribesmen of Thaqif inside al Ta’if. Aware of Thaqif’s attachment to their goddess al Lat, and of their determination to die in defense of their idol, Muhammad warned ‘Urwah that his tribesmen would fight him. ‘Urwah, however, felt too sure of his position and influence with his people. He answered: “O Prophet of God, my people love me more than they do their own eyes.” ‘Urwah proceeded to Thaqif and preached Islam to his people. They consulted among themselves and gave him no reply. In the morning, ‘Urwah ascended to the top of his high house and from there gave the Islamic call to prayer. It was then that the Prophet’s prediction came to be realized. Deeming ‘Urwah’s behavior utterly dishonorable, his people attacked him with arrows on all sides and killed him. As his relatives panicked around him, ‘Urwah told them just before he breathed his last that: “This is indeed an honor granted to me by God, the honor to die as a martyr in His cause. For my case is identical to that of all the other martyrs who gave up their lives at the gates of this city while the Prophet of God-May God’s peace and blessing be upon him-was laying siege to it.” He then asked to be buried together with those martyrs who were buried in that area.