أحمد محمد لبن Ahmad.M.Lbn
مؤسس ومدير المنتدى
عدد المساهمات : 52644
العمر : 72
 | | موضوع: Days of Hardship الإثنين 12 فبراير 2018, 8:30 am | |
| Days of Hardship
Book 12
(Scene 1)
One day, with a sword in hand, and a face filled with determination, Omar Ibnul-Khattab was off to the street until he bumped into a man who enquired:
- “Where to Omar?”
- “To kill that apostate, who has induced strife among Quraysh, criticized its people’s beliefs and abused their gods”, retorted Omar.
- “By God, you are being so self-conceited Omar, you really think the tribe of Abdu-Manaf’s would let you get away with killing Muhammad? Why don’t you just go back home and straighten up your own family first?” said the man.
- “Which of them?” taken by surprise, Omar asked.
- “Your sister Fatima, and her husband, Said, your cousin. They have converted and followed Muhammad’s faith”, replied the man.
Flamed up in fury, Omar went straight to his sister’s house, where they had a Muslim guest who was reciting Surat Taha from the Holy Qur’an. Once they heard Omar’s voice, the guest hurried to hide, and Fatima hid the sheet under her thigh.
Yet, Omar had already heard the Qur’anic recital, and asked:
- “What was that humming?”
- “Have you heard anything?” asked Fatima and her husband Said.
- “By God, I have known that you have followed Muhammad’s faith”, said Omar as he started to beat Said, and when his sister tried to stop him, he hit her and she started to bleed. That was when she said, “Yes, we have become Muslims and we believe in Allah and His messenger, and that is it!”
- Omar started to regret what he did to his sister and told her, “Give me that piece of paper you were reciting, let me see what Muhammad has come up with”.
- “We fear what you may do to it”, said his sister.
- “Don’t” he replied, and swore by his gods that he would give it back to her.
- Yet, looking forward to converting him to Islam, his sister told him, “O brother, worshipping your idols soils you, whereas Allah says what can be translated as, “none shall touch it but those who are clean “ (TMQ, Surat al-Waqia’a:79)14.
Therefore, Omar performed ablution (Wudu). Only then Fatima gave him the piece of paper that had Surat Taha on it. He read it and said, “These words are awe-inspiring and sublime!” As the hiding man heard Omar’s comments, he showed up, overwhelmed with joy to say, “By Allah, I really wish that it is you who would be picked by Allah after the Prophet’s supplication (Peace be upon him). Just yesterday, I heard him invoke Allah and say: “O Allah, bring victory to Islam with the conversion of Abul-Hakam Ibn Hisham, or Omar Ibnul-Khattab. So Omar, let that be you!”. “Take me to Muhammad to declare my Islam to him”, Omar said, and that is how he accepted Islam.
(Scene 2)
Quraysh was so infuriated with the massive conversion to the new faith that its dignitaries agreed to assassinate Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Realizing this, Abu-Taleb asked his tribe to protect the Prophet (Peace be upon him) from those who wanted to harm him. Thus, all Muslims, including Khadijah, the Prophet’s wife, (RA) were embraced under Abdul-Muttalib’s protection. Yet, when Quraysh knew that the tribe of Abdul Muttalib would protect and defend Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), it allied with all unbelievers in boycotting those who had supported the Prophet (Peace be upon him) to the extent that it included avoiding talking, doing business, or even marrying any of them. They even wrote down this pledge in a document to be hanged inside al-Ka’ba.
The siege imposed against Muslims was so severe that they ran out of food, suffered cruel hunger, and their children kept crying, asking for anything to keep them alive. As a result, Muslims went through three years of brutal famine. One day, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) went to his uncle Abu-Taleb and said, “Allah has sent down termites to that document of Quraysh and that it has been totally devoured, but the name of Allah that has remained untouched”. Did your Lord tell you that?” asked Abu-Taleb. “Yes”, replied the Prophet (Peace be upon him). “Why are we still confined then?” questioned Abu-Taleb.
Abu-Taleb went out to meet Quraysh’s dignitaries and said, “Allah has sent down termites to destroy your unjust document”. They hurried to the Ka’ba, and to their surprise, the termites had destroyed the whole document and torn it into pieces, except for Allah’s name. Consequently, the siege against the Muslims was lifted.
(Scene 3)
Khadijah (RA) could not bear the persecution she suffered, together with her husband and all the Muslims for three consecutive years. Quraysh has besieged, starved, and tortured them, while Khadijah (RA) was not accustomed to such kinds of torments.
Therefore, once she got back home, she fell ill, and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was always by her side to take care of her. She believed him when others did not, gave him the support he could not find elsewhere, and comforted him when all unbelievers oppressed him. She was indeed the perfect wife and the perfect shoulder he could lean on.
All of a sudden, after three days of illness, she passed away in he Prophet’s arms. He was terribly saddened, for she was his true love. It was painful for him to lose her; and he suffered the anguish of his grave loss.
(Scene 4)
That year was the year of sorrows, as Khadijah (RA) passed away, and Abu-Taleb fell ill. When the dignitaries of Quraysh realized that Abu-Taleb was on the verge of dying, they said, “Hamza and Omar have converted, and Muhammad’s message has reached all tribes. Let us go to Abu-Taleb.”
They went to him and said, “O Abu-Taleb, you know how much revered you are to us. And we are worried about you, now that you have been through this. You know too well what happened between your nephew and us, and we just wanted you to offer him our deal and let him name whatever he wants to have. If he wants us to hold back from him, let him do the same to us. Tell him to leave us alone to practice our own faith and then it would be our turn to give him the freedom to do the same.”
Abu-Taleb then summoned Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) to tell him what Quraysh had to offer.
- “O uncle, if only you utter a phrase, by which you all would rule Arabia, and by which non-Arabs would be indebted to you”, was the reply of Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace be upon him).
- “Sounds good.” said Abu-Jahl “A single phrase or even ten.”
- “All you have to say is ‘there is no God but Allah’ and all you have to do is to renounce all the gods you have been worshiping other than Allah”, replied the Prophet (Peace be upon him).
- “By God, this man will get you nowhere. Let us leave, we would never renounce our ancestors’ faith, until God rules between him and us”, they said to each other.
And they left.
- “O nephew, you did not ask for much”, said Abu-Taleb.
- “O uncle, to you utter that phrase then!” pleaded the Prophet (Peace be upon him), hoping for his uncle to become a Muslim.
- “O nephew, I am afraid Quraysh would think that I have said it for fear of death, otherwise I would not mind saying it”, boldly replied Abu-Taleb.
However, Abu-Taleb died, and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) deeply grieved the death of the uncle who protected him from Quraysh, just as he suffered the loss of his compassionate wife, with whom he found comfort and safe haven.
(Scene 5)
With Abu-Taleb’s death, Quraysh’s offences escalated and so, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) considered moving to At-Taif, hoping that its people would support and protect him and his followers from his own people. He also hoped they would embrace Islam.
His first attempt was with three brothers who were the leaders of Thaqif, the dominant tribe of At-Taif. As he started to talk to them about Islam, one of them cynically said, “So, God hasn’t found anyone else but you to send His message with!” They kept making fun of him, until he decided to leave, for he realized that talking to them is far too futile. Yet, they did not let him go in peace; they gave orders to their slaves to call him names and to throw stones at him. They even queued in two lines and started to pelt his legs with stones with every move he made, blood started to gush out of his feet. Nevertheless, he endured the pain with a great deal of patience and kept walking till he reached a palm tree where he stopped to get some rest.
He looked up to the sky and made this dua’a (supplication):
“O Allah, to Thee I declare my weakness and lack of strength. To Thee I would show the grief I have been going through due to the contempt I have received from others. O Allah You are the Most Merciful of all. You are the Lord of the oppressed. And you are my Lord. To whom are You entrusting me, to a stranger who would maltreat me, or to a foe who would take hold of me! O Lord, if You are not angry with me, then I do not mind being hurt. What I am looking forward to is Your Providence. I seek refuge in the light of Your Blessed Face Which has lighted all darkness, and rendered worldly life and the hereafter virtuous, from Your anger or discontent. You can keep admonishing me until You are pleased with me, there is no might save in You”.
Two men witnessed what happened and felt pitiful about the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and so, they called a Christian lad called Addas and told him, “Take this bunch of grapes, put it on a plate, and give it to that man. Ask him to have some”.
Addas did as he was told, put the plate in front of the Prophet (Peace be upon him), who in turn extended his hand to eat and said,
- “Bismillah” (In the name of Allah).
- “By God, people of this area never use such words”, said Addas.
- “And where are you from Addas? What is your religion?” enquired the Prophet (Peace be upon him).
- “I’m a Nazareth from Nineveh”, replied Addas.
- “Oh! From the village of the good man, Yunus (Jonas), the son of Matta (Mathews)”, replied the Prophet (Peace be upon him).
- “How come you know about Yunus the son of Matta?” asked Addas filled with astonishment.
- “He is my brother in Prophet-hood”, replied the Prophet (Peace be upon him).
All of a sudden, Addas stooped to kiss the Prophet (Peace be upon him) on the head, hands, and feet. Then the Prophet (Peace be upon him) decided to go back to Makkah, overwhelmed with patience and resilience, to endure the pain without any sense of weary. He knew for a fact that every cloud has a silver lining, and that along with every hardship comes relief. |
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