MOHAMMED AN OUTLAW

[1Sidenote: [612-620 A.D.]]

2The invective and ill-treatment which Mohammed had to suffer increased the number of his followers, whilst indignation at the abuse and insults to which he was daily exposed without any fault of his own led certain brave men of chivalrous disposition to take his part. Amongst them were Mohammed’s uncle Hamza, “the lion of God,” and Jahl’s nephew Omar. Having been sent by his relatives to kill the prophet for a great reward, on the way to the latter’s dwelling Omar was suddenly and miraculously converted by hearing his sister Fatima read a passage of the _Koran_, and from being a persecutor he became an earnest believer. Omar, then twenty-six years old, was a man of gigantic stature, of fabulous strength, and great courage. His wild aspect terrified the boldest, and his staff struck more fear into the beholder than would have been inspired by another man’s sword.

3But the more devotees “Islam” _i.e._, “submission” (to the will of God) acquired, the more eagerly did its enemies seek to stifle the work in the blood of its author. New persecutions increased the number of the emigrants; only Mohammed and his most faithful worshippers were protected by Abu Talib from the rage of the sons of Shams and Naufal. He hid them in a strong castle without the city, in the depths of an impassable ravine, and when their powerful enemies laid a ban on all the followers of the prophet and the whole race of Hashim and solemnly declared in a roll which was hung up in the interior of the Kaaba that until he was given up they would treat his protectors as enemies, the faithful uncle betook himself to the rocky fortress with many of his kinsmen.

4For three years they lived in the barren desert, cut off from all communication with the city, whither they could venture only in the sacred months, and often they were in want of the most necessary means of existence. Finally the ban, which had excited the greatest discontent in Mecca, and of which even the sons of Shams were beginning to grow weary, was removed. The parchment roll disappeared from the Kaaba, according to the legend, by a miracle. Mohammed now returned to Mecca (_circa_ 620); but soon the death of his paternal friend and protector, Abu Talib, who was followed to the grave a few days later by his faithful wife Khadija, exposed him to fresh dangers.

5Abu Talib died in the religion of his fathers; he had always honoured his nephew as an upright and god-fearing man, but he had never believed in his prophetic mission. Mohammed sincerely mourned them both.

6[Sidenote: [620-622 A.D.]]

7“Never was there a better wife than Khadija,” he said once to the youthful and beautiful Aisha; “she believed in me when men despised me; she relieved my wants when I was poor and despised by the world.” Nevertheless he soon consoled himself for her loss by his marriage to Sauda and his betrothal to Aisha, the seven-year old daughter of Abu Bekr.

8While the prophet was leading a melancholy existence under scorn and ignominy, sometimes in Mecca, sometimes in the society of a few friends in Taif, a place lying in a fruitful region on the borders of the hill country, hiding himself with difficulty from the snares and persecutions of his enemies, his soul felt itself comforted and exalted by new visions. He saw in the spirit how he was borne on a winged horse to the temple at Jerusalem and thence to the seventh heaven to the presence of God, where the patriarchs, the earlier prophets, and the hosts of angels yielded him precedence, and the Lord himself proclaimed him as the crown and aim of creation. He needed this self-confidence, this firm belief in his high message, to keep him from wavering and succumbing to the storms and dangers which gathered over his head.

9But whilst the inhabitants of Mecca hardened their hearts against the doctrine of the one God, revealing himself through the new prophet, Mohammed won eager devotees from a host of pilgrims from Yathreb, afterwards called Medina, _i.e._, the city, to whom he unfolded the principles of Islam on the “mount of homage,” Akaba. They belonged to the distinguished tribe of the Khazraj who, in conjunction with the tribe of Aus had, in the fifth century, wrested the lordship of Medina from the Jews; and on their return to their native city they worked in secret for the new faith for which, in consequence of their relations with the numerous Jewish tribes in the neighbourhood, they were better prepared than the Meccans.

10In spite of the jealousy of the tribes of Aus towards the Khazraj, by the energy of the learned Masab, whom Mohammed sent to Medina as his forerunner and as reader of the _Koran_, Islam soon obtained a firm foothold in the city; so that two years later his adherents could venture to invite the prophet to visit them. With this object seventy-three believers journeyed to Mecca and in an assembly held at night on that same hill of homage they made a covenant with Mohammed. They vowed, and gave their hands on the promise, to pray only to the one God and to none other gods, to honour the prophet, to obey him in joy and sorrow, and always confess the truth without fear of man.

11Under the guidance of twelve leaders, whom Mohammed selected from amongst them, the men of Medina (who thenceforth bore the name of Ansar, _i.e._, those who give aid) returned to their own city in the company of many believers.