|
Alarmed by the phenomenon
of the disembodied voice, the Arab exclaimed, "What shall
I read?" The voice was louder as it repeated, "Read!"
Again the Arab asked, "What shall I read?" The
voice now seemed terrible as it called sternly, "Read!"
Then the voice continued in a more gentle tone:
Read: in the name of your Lord who created,
Created man from a clot.
Read: and it is your Lord the Bountiful
Who taught by the pen;
Taught man that which he knew not. [Quran 95: 1-5]
This happened on a Monday in the month of August,
610 CE. The world would never be the same again, for Muhammad had
received his first revelation. A new faith was born.
When Muhammad (SAWS) received this revelation,
Khalid was 24 years old.
For three years the Prophet remained silent, receiving
guidance through the Angel Jibril. Then he was ordered to start
expounding the religion of Allah, and he started with his own family
and clan. Most of them, however, scorned his teaching and made fun
of the new faith.
One day the Prophet decided to collect his closer
relatives and give them a good meal at his house. This would give
him an opportunity to get them together and put them in a situation
where they would have to listen to him. The meal was duly arranged
and heartily eaten by the guests. The Prophet then addressed the
assembled guests and said, "O Bani Abdul Muttalib! By Allah,
I do not know of any man among the Arabs who has come to you with
anything better than I have brought you. I bring you the best of
this world and the next. I have been ordered by Allah to call you
to Him. Who will help me in this work and be my brother and deputy?"
The response of the entire gathering was silence.
No one replied, each watching the others to see if anyone would
get up to support this man. And then a thin, under-sized boy with
skinny legs, in his early teens, sprang up and piped in a voice
which had not yet broken, "I, O Prophet of Allah, will be
your helper!"
There was a roar of laughter from the guests at
what appeared at the time to be a ridiculous sight-rude and contemptuous
laughter-as they stood up and began to walkaway. But the boy was
impervious to such rudeness, for the next instant he had been clasped
by the Prophet in a loving embrace. The Prophet declared, "This
is my brother and deputy."1 The
boy was the Prophet's cousin-Ali, son of Abu Talib. He was the first
male to accept Islam at the hands of the Prophet .2
Gradually the truth began to spread; and a few
individuals, mostly youths or weak, helpless people, accepted the
new faith. Their number was small but their courage was high. And
the Prophet's sphere of activity widened. In spite of the rebuffs
and insults which were hurled at him by the Quraish, he continued
to accost people at street corners and in the market place and to
warn them of the Fire which awaited the evil-doer. He would deride
their idols of wood and stone and call them to the worship of the
true God. As his activities increased, the opposition of the Quraish
became harder and more vicious. This opposition was directed mainly
by four men: Abu Sufyan (whose personal name was Sakhr bin Harb,
and who was the leader of the Bani Umayyah), Al Waleed (father of
Khalid), Abu Lahab (uncle of the Prophet) and Abul Hakam. Of the
first and the last we will hear a lot more in this story.
Abu Sufyan and Al Waleed were men of dignity
and self-respect. While they directed the opposition against the
Prophet, they did not demean themselves by resorting to violence
or abuse. Al Waleed's initial reaction was one of ruffled dignity.
"Is the prophethood to be bestowed on Muhammad,"
he exploded, "while I, the greatest of the Quraish and their
elder, am to get nothing? And there is Abu Masud, the chief of the
Saqeef. Surely he and I are the greatest of the two towns."3
This grand old man lived in a world of his own where everything
depended on nobility of birth and rank. He was, of course, being
unfair to the Prophet, for the line of Muhammad joined his own six
generations back, and the family of Muhammad was no less noble than
his own. In fact, in recent history the Prophet's family had acquired
greater prominence than any other family in Makkah. The Prophet's
grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, had been the chief of all the Quraish
in Makkah.
1. Tabari: Vol. 2, p. 63; Ibn Sad: Vol.
1, p. 171.
2. Ibn Hisham: Vol. 1, p. 245; Tabari: Vol.
2, p. 56. Masudi: Muruj; Vol. 2, p. 283.
3. Ibn Hisham: Vol. 1, p. 361.Quran 95:1-5
|
