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"The desert Arabs say,
'We believe.' Say, 'You have not believed, but say: 'We have submitted,'
for Faith has not yet entered your hearts.
But if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not belittle anything
of your deeds: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'
Only those are Believers who have believed in Allah and His Messenger,
and have never since doubted, but have striven with their belongings
and their persons in the Cause of Allah: such are the sincere ones."
[Quran 49:14-15]
Apostasy had
actually begun in the lifetime of the Prophet, and the first major
action of the apostasy was fought and satisfactorily concluded while
the Prophet still lived. But the real and most serious danger of
apostasy arose after the Prophet's death, when a wild wave of disbelief-after-belief
moved across the length and breadth of Arabia and had to be tackled
by Abu Bakr. Hence the Campaign of the Apostasy is here taken up
as a whole, although chronologically the first of these events belongs
to Part I of this history.
The first major event of the apostasy occurred
in the Yemen and is known as the Incident of Aswad Al Ansi. Aswad
was a chief of the Ans-a large tribe inhabiting the western part
of the Yemen. His actual name was Abhala bin Kab, but because of
his very dark colour he was called Aswad, i.e. the Black
One. A man of many qualities, few of them enviable, he was, before
the apostasy, known mainly as a tribal chieftain and a soothsayer.
During the tenth year of the Hijra, the
people of the southern and south-eastern regions of the Arabian
peninsula had been converted to Islam. The Prophet had sent envoys,
teachers and missions to various places to accomplish this task
and the task had been duly completed. But the majority of the inhabitants
of these regions had not become true Muslims, their conversion being
more a matter of form than a sincere change of heart.
Before this conversion the Yemen was governed,
on behalf of the Persian Emperor, by a noble-born Persian named
Bazan. 1 This man became a Muslim and was
confirmed in his appointment as governor of the Yemen by the Prophet.
As he was a wise and virtuous officer, the province prospered under
his rules; but shortly before the last pilgrimage of the Prophet,
Bazan died, and the Prophet appointed Bazan's son, Shahr, as governor
at San'a. Peace continued to prevail in the Yemen, and no clouds
darkened the southern skies.
Then, at about the time of the Prophet's
last pilgrimage, Aswad decided that he would become a prophet. He
gathered his tribe, recited some of his verses, claiming that they
were verses of the Quran revealed to him, and announced that he
was a messenger of Allah.
Aswad had a donkey which he had trained
to obey certain commands, and he used this donkey to demonstrate
his powers. He would give the order, "Bow before your lord",
and the donkey would bow its head before Aswad. He would then command,
"Kneel before your lord!", 2
and the donkey would kneel. Because of this, Aswad became known
in the region as Dhul Himar-the One of the Donkey, or 'Donkey-Walah'.
Some chroniclers, however, maintain that he was known not as Dhul
Himar, but as Dhul Khumar, i.e. the Drunk. 3
This could be true because he was heavily addicted to alcohol and
often in a drunken stupor. Nevertheless, his tribe followed him,
believing him to be a genuine prophet; and in this error they were
joined by some of the lesser tribes of the Yemen.
Aswad organised a column of 700 horsemen
and rode to Najran. He captured the town with no difficulty and
drove out its Muslim administrator. Elated by this easy victory,
he left his own man to govern Najran and moved on San'a. (See Map
7) Shahr, the newly appointed Muslim governor of the Yemen, heard
of the fall of Najran, came to know of the intentions of Aswad and
decided to tackle Aswad before he could reach San'a. Organising
a small armed force (he did not have many warriors), he marched
out to meet his adversary, and the two forces met some distance
north of San'a. The short, brisk engagement that followed ended
in Aswad's favour. The Muslims suffered a defeat and Shahr was killed
in battle, leaving behind a beautiful young widow named Azad. Five
days later Aswad entered Sana' as a conqueror. He had worked fast
for his unholy mission, for it was now only 25 days since he had
first gathered his tribe and proclaimed his prophethood.
1. Called Bazam by some historians.
2. Balazuri: p. 113.
3. Ibid
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