NOTES
1. Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, Dār al-Qalam, Beirut, Vol. 1, pp. 263-264.
2. Ibid., p. 270.
3. Ibid., pp. 313-314.
4. Ibid., pp. 309-310.
5. Ibid., pp. 311-312.
6. Ibid., pp. 288-289.
7. Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wal-Nihāyah, Maktabat al-Maʿārif, Beirut, Vol.3, pp. 36-37.
THE SITUATION IN Makkah was growing more tense every day. The Quraysh were waking up to the realization that the new faith was establishing its roots and gaining more recruits in all clans. Its followers belonged to all sectors of society. Attempts to strike a compromise with the Prophet proved to be of little value. Persecution brought no results. The hard-line approach was gaining ground. On the other hand, the Prophet went on preaching his faith and conveying God’s message. Those who responded to him were keen to make it clear to their people that their new faith had a positive influence on life as a whole. They also made it clear that they were not prepared to barter their faith for the richest of prizes. However, the Prophet realized that no amount of persuasion or negotiation would make the leaders of Makkah change their hostile attitude to Islam, or convince them that they should take an objective look at it and judge it on its merits. Indeed, the Makkans started to escalate their campaign of repression, subjecting the weaker Muslims to much torture and endless persecution. Those of the Prophet’s companions who belonged to strong tribes and were assured of tribal protection were tormented by ridicule. Nevertheless, Islam was gaining more converts every day.
Always a far-sighted and well-informed leader, the Prophet advised his companions to emigrate to Abyssinia where the Christian king, Negus, was known for his abhorrence of injustice. Although the main reason for this exodus given by most historians is that the Muslims were simply fleeing to save their lives, the move was certainly a very shrewd one, taken after a very careful consideration of the whole situation. In his choice of a possible refuge for his companions, the Prophet was keen to make sure that the Muslims would not be substituting one kind of repression for another. Since Negus had gained a wide reputation for his justice, Abyssinia was to be a second home for the Islamic call.
The first party of Muslim emigrants to Abyssinia consisted of 16 people, four of whom were women. The most notable figure among them was ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, who was to become the third Caliph, and his wife, Ruqayyah, daughter of the Prophet. Indeed, ʿUthmān was the first man ever to emigrate with his wife for no other reason than serving God’s cause since Prophet Lot had emigrated many centuries earlier. Those sixteen people managed to find a boat which carried them to their destination. Apparently, they were chased by the Quraysh, who sought to force them to return but their pursuers arrived at the coast when the boat had already set sail. Other parties of emigrants followed at frequent intervals.1
About ten of those who had emigrated to Abyssinia soon returned home, not because they found their new abode unwelcome, but because they heard that the Quraysh had accepted the message of Prophet Muhammad and embraced Islam. Shortly before arriving back in Makkah, they realized that those reports which had precipitated their return were hasty and inaccurate. Therefore, they had to arrange shelter for themselves if they wanted to get safely into Makkah. They managed to get that shelter from some fair-minded personalities in Makkah.
The truth about that report was that the Prophet recited Sūrah 53, entitled The Star, or al-Najm, when a large number of people, many of whom were non-Muslims, were in the mosque. This sūrah has a very powerful ending, which reminds people of God’s Majesty and His control of the universe, and that they will surely die and be resurrected. The sūrah reaches its climax with the last verse, which commands all mankind to prostrate themselves to God and to worship Him alone. Here is the ending of this sūrah:
With your Lord is the end [of all that exists]; and it is He alone who causes you to laugh and to weep; and it is He alone who deals death and grants life; and it is He who creates the two kinds – the male and the female – out of a mere drop of sperm as it is brought forth, and it is within His power to bring about a second life; and it is He alone who frees from want and causes to possess; and it is He who is the Lord of Sirius; and it is He who destroyed the ancient people of ʿĀd and Thamūd, leaving no trace of them, as well as the people of Noah before them, since they all had indeed been most wilful in their evildoing and most overweening, just as He thrust into perdition those cities that were overthrown, and then covered them from sight for ever.
About which, then, of your Lord’s powers can you remain in doubt? This is a warning like those warnings of old: that Last Hour which is so near, draws ever nearer, although none but God can unveil it. Do you, perchance, find this revelation strange? And do you laugh instead of weeping and divert yourselves all the while? Nay, but prostrate yourselves before God and worship Him alone! (53: 43-62)
When one considers that the Qur’ān always has a powerful rhythm which is most suitable for its subject matter, one can imagine that the powerful rhythm here makes these verses sound like very strong hammering. Those Arabs listening to this sūrah being recited by Muhammad, the Prophet, to whom it was revealed, knew deep at heart that He never told a falsehood. Hence, every single one of them, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, prostrated himself as commanded by God. Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, an old man and an unbeliever, took a handful of dust and put his forehead on it. As the news of this event travelled to Abyssinia, it reached those Muslims there in a distorted fashion suggesting to them that all trouble in Makkah was over and that the Quraysh decided to accept Islam. Hence their quick return.2
Fabricated Justification
Soon afterwards, the unbelievers realized what had happened. Others, like Abū Jahl, could not believe their ears when they heard the story. They wanted to continue to oppose the Prophet, but they had to explain their behaviour and to dismiss the whole incident as a nonevent. One of their poets came up with the devilish idea that Muhammad mentioned their deities in favourable terms. They went as far as coining a couplet of verses praising their idols and claimed that these were used by the Prophet as he recited the sūrah to them. It was easy for them to do that, since the sūrah mentions three of their most famous idols, al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā and Manāt. But what does the Qur’ān have to say about them in this particular sūrah?
Have you thought of al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, as well as Manāt, the third and last of this trio? Why do you choose for yourselves males, whereas you assign to Him females? That is indeed an unfair division. These entities are nothing but empty names which you have invented, you and your forefathers, and for which God has bestowed no warrant from on high. They [who worship them] follow nothing but surmise and wishful thinking, although right guidance has indeed come to them from their Lord. (53: 19-23)
It was in the middle of this passage that those fabricators of the Quraysh sought to impose their invented couplet, after the names of their three idols. The fabricated couplet reads: “These are exalted birds, whose intercession is desirable.” Little did they reflect that such an imposition could not be accepted by any thinking person among them. Almost every verse in the sūrah is in conflict with such description,