Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/577

Rh MOHAMMED.] MOHAMMEDANISM 549 noteworthy that the sharp negations of monotheism ac quired prominence only by degrees. It was in his indig nation against the cold mockery with which he was met that Mohammed first assumed an attitude of hostility towards the worship of polytheism, while at the same time he gave much greater prominence to his own mission, just because it was not acknowledged. He now began to threaten the infidels with the judgment of God for their contempt of His message and His messenger ; he related to them the terrible punishments that in other cases had fallen on those who refused to hear the voice of their pro phet, applying the old legends to the circumstances of the present with such directness that it was superfluous ex- lostility pressly to add the morals. This could not fail to irritate e the Meccans, especially as after all the new religion gained cans. grou^ &quot;What Mohammed attacked as ungodly and abom inable were their holy things ; they were jealous for their gods and their fathers. Their attachment to the tradi tional worship was the greater that the prosperity of their town rested upon it ; for they had not yet learned that the Ka ba was no institution of heathenism. They found, how ever, no other way to remove the public scandal than to approach Abu Talib, the Prophet s uncle and the head of his family, asking him to impose silence on the offender, or else to withdraw from him his protection. Abu Talib was not personally convinced of Mohammed s mission, but he did not choose to impose conditions on the enjoyment of his protection. At length, however, when the Meccans adopted a threatening tone and said that he must either restrain his nephew from his injurious attacks, or openly take side for Mohammed and against them, he sent for his nephew, told him how things stood, and urged him not to involve them both in ruin. Mohammed was deeply moved ; he thought his uncle wished to get rid of him ; yet he could not and would not withdraw from the divinely- imposed necessity which impelled him to preach his con victions. &quot; Though they gave me the sun in my right hand,&quot; he said, &quot;and the moon in my left, to bring me back from my undertaking, yet will I not pause till the Lord carry my cause to victory, or till I die for it.&quot; With this he burst into tears, and turned to go away. But Abu Talib called him back and said : &quot; Go in peace, son of my brother, and say what thou wilt, for, by God, I will on no condition abandon thee.&quot; The protection of his uncle did not relieve Mohammed from all manner of petty insults which he had to endure from his enemies from day to day ; but no one ventured to do him serious harm, for the family feud which this would necessarily have produced was not to be lightly incurred. Less fortunate than the Prophet, however, were such of his followers as occupied dependent positions, and had no family support ; especially the converted bondmen and bondwomen, who found no consideration, and were often treated with actual cruelty. For some of these Abubekr purchased freedom. There seem to have been no martyrs, but the situation of many Moslems became so intolerable that they fled to Abyssinia. The Abyssinian Christians were quite looked upon as their religious kinsmen, he tem- A breach with one s people is for the Arab a breach with orary God and the world ; he feels it like a living death. Mo- &amp;gt; ( f ro ~ hammed, who remained in Mecca, naturally made every effort to heal the breach with his townsmen, and, as natur ally, the latter met him half-way. He even went so far as to take the edge from his monotheism. Once, when the heads of the Koraish were assembled at the Ka ba, Mohammed, we are told, came to them and began to recite before them sur. liii. 1 When he came to the passage, 1 The authorities for this are Ibu Sa d, the secretary of Wakidi, to whom we owe the preservation of Wakidi s materials for the Meccan period, and especially Tabari; comp. Muir, ii. 150 sqq. The common &quot; What think ye of al-Lat and al- Ozza, and of Manat the third with them?&quot; the devil put words in his mouth which he had long wished to have by revelation from God viz. &quot; These are the sublime Cranes, 2 whose intercession may be hoped for.&quot; The auditors were surprised and delighted by this recognition of their goddesses, and when Mohammed closed the sura with the words, &quot; So prostrate yourselves before Allah and do service to him,&quot; they all with one accord complied. They then professed their satisfaction with his admissions, and declared themselves ready to recognize him. But the messenger of God went home dis quieted. In the evening Gabriel came to him, and Mo hammed repeated to him the sura ; whereupon the angel said: &quot;What hast thou done? thou hast spoken in the ears of the people words that I never gave to thee.&quot; Mohammed now fell into deep distress, fearing to be cast out from the sight of God. But the Lord took him back to His grace and raised him up again. He erased the diabolical verse and revealed the true reading, so that the words now ran &quot;What think ye of al-Lat and al- Ozza, and of Man At the third with them ? The male [offspring] for you and the female for God ? That were an unjust division ! &quot; When the new version reached the ears of the Meccans they compared it with the old, and saw that the Prophet had broken the peace again. So their enmity broke out again with fresh violence. It is generally and justly suspected that this compromise did not rest on a momentary inspiration of Satan, but was the result of negotiations and protracted consideration. Nor was the breach so instantaneous as is represented ; the peace lasted more than one day. There is no doubt as to the fact itself. Every religion must make compro mises to gain the masses. But for Mohammed the moment for this had not yet arrived ; later on he used the method of compromise with great effect. The news of the peace between Mohammed and the Meccans had recalled the fugitive Moslems from Abyssinia; 3 on their return the actual state of affairs proved very different indeed from what they had been led to expect, and it was not long before a second emigration took place. By degrees as many as a hundred and one Moslems, mostly of the younger men, in little groups, had again migrated to Abyssinia, where they once more met with a friendly reception. Among them were Ja far, the brother of All, and the Prophet s daughter Kokayya, along with her hus band Othman b. Affan. 4 Mohammed s position was very considerably altered for the worse, both subjectively and in other respects, by his precipitate withdrawal from the compromise almost as soon as it had been made. He himself indeed, although long and salutarily humbled by the remembrance of his fall (sur. xvii. 75 sqq.), never abandoned faith in his vocation ; his followers also did not permit themselves to be led tradition ignores the fact itself, but knows its result, the return of the Abyssinian fugitives. 2 &quot; Al-ghar&n ik al- old,&quot; fine -sounding but perhaps meaningless words- &quot; Herrlich, etwas dunkel zwar, Doch es klingt recht wunderbar.&quot; Comp. Noldeke, op. cit., p. 80. Hobal, though the chief god of the Meccans, is not mentioned in the Koran either here or elsewhere. Perhaps as God of the Ka ba he was already identified with Allah by the Meccans, or was so identified by Mohammed. 3 The date assigned is the month Rajab of the fifth year of the Call, corresponding to the eighth year before the Flight (A.D. 614-615). The compromise must have been made in the interval. The chronology of this period is of course in the highest degree uncertain, and the order of the events hard to ascertain. Thus it can^ scarcely be deter mined whether the above-mentioned scene with Abu Talib ought to be placed before or after the compromise. 4 Othman and Rokayya, however, members of the noble house of Omayya, soon returned, along with many others. The rest remained in exile until the seventh year of the Flight.