The Islamic Call

The Islamic Call
BY: Mohamed Moustafa Ata

Table of Contents
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CHAPTER I
THE ART OF PREACHING A CAUSE. 4
CHAPTER II
EARLIER BELIEFS 8
1 - Idolatry. 8
2 - Judaism. 12
3 - Christianity. 14
4 - The Call of Monotheists. 17
CHAPTER III
MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET. 20
CHAPTER IV
FAITHFUL ADHEREPENTS
1 - Lady Khadigah. 27
2 - Abu Bakr El Seddik (The Faithful). 30
3 - The Defenceless Strong. 33
4 - Omar Ibn Al Khattab. 36
5 - The Believing Youths. 39
6- Al-Ansar (The Helpers). 42
CHAPTER V
THE QUR'AN
1 - Its language - Arabic. 46
2 - Its Eloquence. 52
CHAPTER VI
THE MANNER OF THE CALL

1 - Utilisation of National Feeling. 65
2 - Faith in Revealed Books. 72
3 - Gradation in Reformation. 80
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http://www.islambasics.com
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CHAPTER VII
SLOGANS OF THE CALL

1 - Faith. 84
2 - Good Deeds. 90
CHAPTER VIII
SAFEGUARDING THE CAll

1 - Against Meccan Danger. 94
2 - Against Jewish Danger. 98
CHAPTER IX
CERTAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE CALL 103

1 - Liberation From Bondage. 103
a - Liberation From Slavery. 103
b - Liberation From Poverty. 110
c - Liberation From Rigidity. 117
2 - Spirit and Matter Reconciled. 123
3 - Struggle For The Faith. 128
4 - Establishing a Unified Muslim Nation. 136
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CHAPTER I
THE ART OF PREACHING A CAUSE
Preaching a cause or a reform is an art with its own

principles, plans and method. It cannot successfully be
undertaken by any who is only anxious to figure in history. It is
mastered only by those who are well grounded in its principles,
experienced in it, and have a natural talent for it. To miss any
of these conditions is to miss success in this very difficult art.
Failure of any one call for reform may be traced to the lack of
the gifted expert preacher.
Successful calling for any new faith or ideal presupposes
certain qualities inherent in the man who takes it upon himself
to propagate such an ideal or faith. He should be a man of
acumen and judgment so that he may choose the right
circumstances for declaring his reform and successfully
challenging the already established system. He should be a
man of foresight, guarding against all eventualities.
Consider, for example, how factious differences between

the early leaders of Islam at Madiinah threatened the Islamic
cause with disaster had the situation not been saved every
time by the prudent action of the Prophet. His tact and
resource were definitely instrumental in suppressing the
factious tribal spirit which threatened to flare up, as it would
have done between the Immigrants (Al Muhagireen) and the
Helpers (Al Ansar) after the battle of Banil-Mustaliq. Foresight
in a reformer entails a good deal of premeditated contrivance
against unforeseen eventualities or sudden changes.
Again, a caller for reform must be a man of insight,

capable of reading the human heart, seeing through men, and
willing to unfold his secrets only to those of his close adherents
whom he could trust, and who could share his convictions. A
leader must be qualified for leadership in the sense of
surpassing his fellow-country- men in sound reasoning and
comprehension. He should be endowed with a sharper intellect,
and a skill unequalled by his contemporaries. He should be the
master of sound argument, able to scrutinize all sides of an
issue; and in possession of the power of persuasion that would
facilitate the propagation of his ideals amongst his followers
and close adherents.
4
He must be able to express himself with exactitude and
rationality, so that he may be able to convince his opponents
more easily than he should his adherents. Such were the
outstanding callers for reform mentioned in history, as may be
seen from the fact that Moses who, conscious of his linguistic
deficiency, enlisted the aid of his brother Haroun to fill up the
gap and supplement him in the would-be role of a leader and
God's messenger. This he himself admits in the Quranic words
to the effect:
"And my brother Haroun is more eloquent than me in

speech. Therefor send him with me as a helper to confirm me.
Lo ! fear that they will give the lie to me". (verse 34, Surah Al
Qasas).
And we get the Divine answer:
"We will strengthen thine arm with thy brother and We

will give unto you both power so that they cannot reach you
from Our portents. Ye twain and those who follow you will be
the winners." (Verse 35, Surah Al Qasas).
An able caller for reform then should be psychologically

capable of understanding men, and of knowing how to select a
group of helpers and be able to manage them to advantage,
assigning to each the task to which he is most suited. He may
be conscious of all this, but he may be impressionable and
pliant to the extent of allowing his likes and dislikes to overrule
his judgment, thus failing to put the right man in the right
place. This mixing of matters and putting friendship before
5
duty will surely lead to the failure of the call, or would
seriously undermine the cause.
Moreover, an able caller for reform should also be

acquainted with the psychology of the peoples and the
mentality of the masses. He should know how to reach the
innermost feelings of the people and be able to control them.
To secure popular support or mass response in this connection
is a very difficult matter, especially in view of the fact that the
masses are so emotive that one mistake may result in their
renunciation of a course they had already begun to accept.
Matters may then develop into an anti-climax, and the ship may
drift from its haven into dangerous seas.
The caller for reform must also be tolerant and patient,

and should not force the issue, particularly when the new call
involves a major change in the life of the community. He should
not attempt wholesale transformations of the established order
of things, but should gradually introduce such changes as are
needed but could not be realized by the masses for fear of the
ruling powers.
This means that reform must be preceded by a long

preparatory stage. The French Revolution did not break out
until matters had degenerated to an intolerable state.
Revolutionary writers had already paved the way by their
various progressive publications despite many threats of
punishment which invariably meant imprisonment within the
dark walls of the Bastille. Outstanding reformers believed in
the Revolutionary principles, and pledged themselves to
advocate their cause secretly and openly until the masses could
demonstrate their full response. No sooner was the
Revolutionary signal given, than the uncontrolled masses took
matters in their own hands, and forcibly imposed the
Revolutionary principles which were destined to shake the very
foundations of the existing regime.
But first and foremost, the caller for reform must be a

staunch believer in his mission, a man of determination, ready
for the bitter sacrifice. Here we get the essential difference
between a genuine and a quasi reformer. Every successful call
has been sustained throughout its history by sacrifice, firm
belief, and strict conformity to principles. Such were the
inspired calls or missions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
6
Every mission is in part a continuation and refinement of a
previous one. It is not merely a displacement of the old by the
new, for the present cannot be completely dissociated from the
past, and the reforms proposed should be built on all that is
good and sound in the legacy received. Lastly, a true call is one
which utilizes and mobilizes national feeling to further its
purposes.
And now we are in a position to raise the question could

the Muhammadan mission, throughout the years of its
propagation, utilizes this art long before it was born? Did it
follow the principles hitherto known only to Providence? The
reader of this work will see the art completely and minutely
applied during the call by the bearer of the Divine Mission.
Modern science has achieved remarkable success in almost
every field particularly in psychology and the arts of preaching
for a cause, including propaganda for both good and evil
purposes. Yet not in any respect was modern civilization able
to introduce new principles or improve upon what the Divine
Messenger had done. His mission was successful because it did
not overlook one single item of value instrumental in bringing
about success.
It was consequently an ideal achievement, as may be

evidenced by those millions of Muslims who were converted to
the new faith throughout the centuries Islam was challenged
on all sides by able adversaries, powerful and resourceful, but
it successfully withstood the challenge, and will continue to do
so. It is so firmly believed in by every Muslim that it challenges
almost any persuasion, provocation or menace. The Divine
Islamic Call will endure as long as humanity itself. It is the call
of and Good. It is God's call in God's Earth.
7
CHAPTER II
EARLIER BELIEFS
1 -Idolatry
Heathenism prevailed amongst the Arabs despite the

conversion to Judaism and Christianity of neighbouring nations.
These two religions are admittedly monotheistic in nature, and
are positively opposed to Heathenism and polytheism. The
protracted adherence of the Arabs to their idolatry practices
may be explained by their attachment to the tribal system
which regarded each tribe as a separate entity with its own
traditions and beliefs. The individual was merged in the tribe
representing the ideal for which he would be ready to live and
die. This subjectivistic attitude sprang from the fact that every
tribe worshipped a certain deity peculiar to itself and
unrecognized by others, and hence the plurality of idols.
Each tribe had its own idol to which sacrifices and offerings
were made, and whose worship involved certain rituals and
ceremonials intended to win the idol's blessing and favour.
Hence the idol Manat that was worshipped by the Aus and
Khazrag; Ozza worshipped by Quraish; Lata worshipped by
Thaqif, and Hubal worshipped by Khoziman. There were in fact
as many idols as there were tribes, and it is said that the Kabah
contained 360 idols when Mecca fell to the advent of Islam.
The Arabs were not the only idolatrous people, since idol
worship pervaded other communities in their early history.
That is why Judaism condemned the erection of statues, lest
they should again be worshipped by those converted to
monotheism. It was for this reason too, that Islam condemned
similar practices particularly during the early days of its
mission.
The popular names designating different idols formerly
worshipped in Arabia, seem to suggest their foreign origin, and
this, in a sense, may have been the implication of the Quranic
text:
8
"They are but names which ye have named, ye and your
fathers, for which Allah has revealed no warrant". (Verse 23
Surah Al Najm).
Idolatry may have come to the Arabs from Yemen and the
Levant or through other channels, and was taken up by the
Arabs because it suited their emotional and mental makeup at
a time when they were a backward primitive community,
preferring the concrete to the abstract, and a tangible idol to
the unseen God. The idol was the form which their primitive
mind could conceive as God. Al Kalby (well known historian)
relates that the idol Wud represented the statue of a majestic
man dressed in two uniforms, armed with a sword, a bow on
his shoulder, and in front of him a lance standard and a bag of
arrows Such, at least, was the picture of the idol as seen by the
masses. The more enlightened, however, approached the
conceptual level, and supposed the idols to be angels of God
through whom mediation and supplication was possible. This
perhaps explains the hymn sung by those of Quraish while
practising their devotion : (( Al Lat and Al Ozza... and Manat...
these are the three super beings through whom we seek
mediation )). They claimed that these were God's daughters
through whom mediation was possible. Hence the scathing
ridicule of this monstrous assumption in the Divine verse:
"Are yours the males and His the females? That indeed were
an unfair division" (Verse 22, Surah : Al Najm).
9
In a subsequent text God says :
"Lo ! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name

the angels with the names of females. And they have no
knowledge thereof. They follow but a guess, and lo ! a guess
can never take the place of the truth." (verse 28, Al Najm).
Again:
"and should they be questioned who created heaven and

earth, their answer is God" (Verse 25, Surah Luqman).
And further :
"Should they be questioned who created them, their

answer would be God." (verse 87, Surah Al Zukhruf).
In another direct expression
10
"We worship them only in so far as they serve our
approach to God". (Verse 3, Surah : Al Zumur).
Idolatry is perhaps the phase through which must pass
every community before it comes to monotheism and the
worship of one God. This phrase may be prolonged or
shortened according to the circumstances and influences
moulding every community in its social setting. A community
like that of the Arabs, living in a tractless desert almost in
complete isolation, confined to tribal traditions and practices,
and glorifying its ancestry, must abide by idolatry for
generations, to the exclusion of higher religions. Further, it
must resist the call of monotheism for long, whether it
originates in its homeland or somewhere else.
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2 - Judaism
Idolatry, as has been stated, was the predominant religion

in Arabia. But another religion, too, co-existed with heathenism
in this area. This is Judaism which was really adaptable to the
Semetic race and Semetic mentality. It was the religion of a big
number of Jewish settlers who had been driven to Arabia in
their endeavour to escape from Roman persecution especially
under the emperor Hadrian. The contention of Noldke that
those jews were Arabs converted to Judaism seems
unwarrantable in view of the fact that their attitude to Muslims
in Yathreb, their adoption of the institution of usury, in additon
to the Jewish tradition inherent in their behaviour, support the
former claim.
Those jews or those converts to Judaism lived for

generations in different parts of Arabia such as Yathreb, Taima,
Fadakard, Khaiber, where they managed their concerns and
devoted themselves to accumulating fortunes. They mixed with
the Arabs and participated with them in commerce and
otherwise; they even intermarried with them but within narrow
limits. The reason is that the jews prided themselves on their
descent, and believed themselves the chosen people of God. It
would therefore be very difficult for them not to insist on
keeping their nationality so exclusively jewish as not to extend
it to other peoples.
This mingling with the Jews broadened the religious

views of the Arabs through familiarising them with Judaism
and its rituals, and so in a way shook the foundation of their
heathenism, and prepared them for the new monotheistic
religion.
They heard much about the Prophet Moses and his

tempestuous rage against his people when they worshipped
the golden idol, or the golden Calf, to the entire forgetfulness
of Monotheism. They learnt from the Jews much about
resurrection, paradise and hell, and about the unseen world of
which they had known so little that many of them were atheists
who believed only in time and matter. So they said ((ultimately
there exists no more than this life where we die and live and
are consumed by the Spatiotemporal)).
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Their cognitive and imaginative faculties did not lift them up
to the sphere of higher concepts and forms of belief in the
other world such as were held say, by the ancient Egyptians.
Their eyes were opened to such an outlook only after living for
generations in close contact with some such religion as
Judaism.
It may be that some Arabs used to discuss with the Jews

their Jewish beliefs, either from curiosity as to their nature and
extent, or with the idea of partaking of them, or explaining the
religious narratives and parables then being circulated by
narrators and bards. Despite the fact that such Jews lacked
sufficient knowledge of the books and theology of their creed,
and despite the reserve which they would naturally observe
towards their neighbouring majority, they must have given the
Arabs an idea about the Jewish religion, or the monotheistic
religion which denies and abhors heathenism. This must have
done much to shake the idolatrous beliefs then rife, and pave
the way for the new religion to be preached by Muhammad.
(We shall discuss in a later chapter why Judaism failed to
replace idolatry).
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3- Christianity.
Christianity was second to heathenism amongst the

religions prevailing in the Arabian Peninsula. Its ascendancy
over Judaism may have been partly due to its being the creed
adopted by two great states bordering Arabia - the Roman and
the Abyssinian States. Military power was undoubtedly one
important factor in the protection and propagation of early
religions. Take for instance the history of the Jewish Zi Nawass,
and how when he had tried to conquer Yemen, a certain
Yemenite appealed for aid to the Roman Emperor who, in turn,
referred the matter to the Christian King of Abyssinia. The
latter answered the call for help, and Yemen was subsequently
conquered and converted to Christianity.
These Northern and Southern tribes which adopted

Christianity had already reached an advanced intellectual
standard which made it almost impossible for them to adopt
heathenism, particularly since the Christian missionaries had
been hard at work propagating their faith and doing much to
shake the foundations of Magian and heathen beliefs. Moreover,
the Christian religion is not in any sense based on the factious
spirit or national prejudice traceable in the Jewish religion, but
rather did it come to be propagated on a universal scale and to
embrace all humanity.
Another group which contributed to the spread of

Christianity was the Mawali or liberated slaves who were
remarkable for their comparative cultural standard and
knowledge of Christian theology. Some of them attained a
certain dignity and prestige through ability and talent which
they demonstrated in the Arab cultural gatherings wherein
many a religious topic was often touched upon. Whatever may
be said of their efforts, they undoubtedly stimulated the
interest in theology and prepared the way for the Arabs to
accept monotheism and the worship of one true God.
Nor should we forget in this connexion the influence of Arab

poets converted to Christianity, chief among whom are Adi son
of Zaid ; Qis, son of Saeda, and Omayah son of Abi Sult, who
very often recited their religious poetry in forums and market
places, especially Okaz, where they were heard by multitudes
rejoicing in this mystic vein which deepened and refined their
religious emotion.
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There is however no stronger evidence of the influence
exerted by Christianity on the Arab mentality than the
treatment It received in the Qur'an. Mention therein was
frequently made of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, and of
Christ himself. In the context there occurs a mention of
religious sects believing in the crucifixion of Christ:
"They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto

them " (Verse 156, Surah : Al Nisa).
Prominent in this connexion, too, is the steadfast denial

both of the tenet that Jesus is the son of God, and of the
trinitarian belief held by the majority of Christians:
"He begotteth not nor was begotten". (Verse 3, Surah Al

Samad).
"They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of

three, when there is no God save One God... The Messiah, Son
of Mary, was no other than a Messenger messengers (the like
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of whom) had passed away before him. And his mother was a
saintly woman. And they both used to eat (earthly) food".
(Verse 73, and 75, Surah Al Ma'ida).
The treatment which these and similar subjects received

in the Qur'an, provided the Prophet Muhammad with proofs
with which he was able to defy the opposition of Christian
masses.
It may be that some inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula

were induced to Christian conversion through the efforts of the
numerous monasteries scattered along the Sinai route to Syria.
Those monasteries were like landmarks to caravans, and
afforded rest and shelter to travellers, weary and exhausted
after their long journey across the storm-stricken desert tracks.
The monks who lived in those monasteries - while

providing food and hospitality to weary travellers and to Arabs
wandering in search of a living - must have mingled their
material hospitality with a certain amount of persuasive
theological discussion, and stories of the expected Messiah who,
on his return into the world, would restore justice and mercy.
They may have told of his miraculous achievements, his
resurrection of the dead, his healing of the deaf the blind and
the leper, and his patience and philosophical resignation in the
face of persecution and torture by the Jews. The Arabs could
not have objected to such discourse since, to them, it was
nothing more than classical entertaining narrative with a
certain charm of its own, but in no way derogatory to their
heathenism or idolatry.
Perhaps some of their Arab hearers were not consciously

affected by the Monks' talks and discourses, but they could not
have escaped being subconsciously affected in favour of the
high morale which characterised the theological debate of
these monks.
Yet Christianity, like Judaism, did not triumph in Arabia

because Arabia was waiting for a guide of a different type, a
guide near its heart, springing from its own environment.
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4. - The Call of Monotheists.
Monotheists, according to books of tradition, air those

Arabs who in pre-Islamic days persisted in the religion of
Abraham (Ibrahim) and of his son Ismail without drifting into
heathenism in imitation of other Arabs. They were called
Hanifites or men of the orthodox creed, but sometimes are
wrongly named Sabeans.
The Call raised by Abraham had largely influenced the Arab

world and was undoubtedly monotheistic. strongly condemning
idolatry. Indeed the Call raised by Muhammad was essentially
only an extension or continuation of Abraham's call of which
we know no more than what is recorded in the Quran. It is
there clearly mentioned that the religion of Muhammad, is the
same as that of Abraham .
" Lo ! Abraham was a nation obedient to Allah, by nature

upright, and he was not of the idolaters. Thankful for his
bounties; He chose him and guided him unto a straight path,
and he gave him good in the world, and in the Hereafter he is
among the righteous. And afterwards we inspired to thee
(Muhammad, saying) : Follow the religion of Abraham, as one
by nature upright. He was not of the idolaters" . (Surah, Al Nahl,
Verses 120-123).
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"And they say Be Jews or Christians, then ye will be rightly
guided. Say (unto them, O Mohammed) Nay but (we follow) the
religion of Abraham, the upright, and he was not of the
idolaters" (Surah, Al Baqara, Verse : 134).
In further corroboration of this, it is declared that he who
deviates from the religion of Abraham will be self-stultifying
and mean:
"And who forsaketh the religion of Abraham save him who

befoolteth himself ? Verily We chose him in the world, and Lo !
in the Hereafter he is among the righteous. When His Lord said
unto him: Surrender he said : I have surrendered to the Lord of
the Worlds" . (Surah, Al Baqara :Verse 130-131).
Historical literature frequently mentions four of those

monotheists who lived in Mekka : Waraka Son of Noufal, Zeid
son of Nofile, Khalid son of Senan, and Omeyya son of Abil Sult.
Only the first two of these will here be considered.
The first Waraka, was relative of Khadiga, wife of the

Prophet, Peace be upon him. He was the first to speak to him of
the new mission, confirmed his belief therein, and gave him
valuable encouragement and support. Of the second, Zaid,
much has been written by historians especially those of the
West who maintained that he denounced the gods of Quraish,
the idols they worshipped and exhorted the people of Mekka to
be monotheists and to worship God only. In one of his
statements he says : ((what can be said of a stone round which
we go - a stone which neither hears nor sees, neither is useful,
and can do harm? O ! people, seek some religion for, by God,
you have none)). It may be that the Prophet before the mission,
when in conflict with himself according to certain writers, had
an opportunity to talk to Zaid, listen to his preaching, approve
and accept his tenet.
But Zeid was not given much rope. Quraish saw in him a real
danger to themselves and to their idols enshrined in the Kabah,
18
their holy place, which gave them enormous prestige over
other Arab tribes.
Unable to withstand the atmosphere, and not being in

possession of the political skill and spiritual force of
Muhammad the Prophet, Zeid was forced to leave Mekka. He
left to the cave of Hera, which was later to acquire such great
importance.
This cave was possibly the place of worship for the pious,
the orthodox Hanifites who found heathenism contradictory to
Reason, degrading to humanity and leading far away from true
religion, from genuine spiritual devotion.
There is even some tradition that Quraish in the days of

Ignorance in pre-Islamic days, used to spend one month yearly
at the site of the cave as an act of devotion to God and in the
interest of Divine communion. If so, such sejourn would not be
peculiar to Hanifites as some writers maintain
But finally who of Quraish was most active in driving Zaid

out ?
Tradition mentions that it was Omar Ibn Al Khattab the very

man destined to become the staunchest supporter of the
Muhammadan call and the defender of the Islamic faith; he
who gave his sister in marriage to Zeid son of the very Zeid son
of Nofile whom he drove out; and lastly, he who through Saied,
was converted to Islam to become the Prophet Muhammad's
biggest support. Just consider the sweeping tide of events.
Zeid continued his devotion in that Cave for a time, Did the
Prophet, upon whom be peace, ever see him in the cave before
his death and burial in that sanctified spot ? This tradition
neither confirms nor denies.
Whatever may be said, of that possibility, Zaid's call was not

in vain. Its echo extended far and was no ill introduction to
Muhammad's denunciation of atheism. That is why the Prophet,
upon whom be peace, was careful to point out that on the
Resurrection Day Zeid would be resurrected as an entire nation.
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CHAPTER III
MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET
A call may be there, strong and sound in principle, but

lacking the man able to propagate it and carry it through. Such
a call will inevitably fail. At the start, the requisite personality
for advocating a call is more important than a written
programme or a worked-out scheme. To succeed in his mission,
the advocate of a new call must be in possession of those rare
qualities which are essential elements of success. Now, did the
personality of Muhammad, the Prophet, possess such traits?
It may be important in this connection to point out that

many Muslim historians attributed to revelation all the
wonderful traits of the Prophet. Revelation, it is claimed,
guided him in big and little, in the trivial as well as in the
momentous, to the entire exclusion of any inborn personality in
Muhammad himself. The influence exerted by revelation can in
no way be denied, the Qur'an being the main source. But the
Messenger, upon whom be peace, could not have properly
delivered the divine message without having been endowed
with the proper personality for carrying such a tremendous
task through. He had to use his initiative in adapting the
manner of delivery to the mentality of the various peoples
addressed, so widely divergent in class and character.
Had he lacked the necessary intellect, wisdom and

foresight, he would not have been able to carry out his mission
with such conviction and success. Nor could he have been the
man chosen by God and sustained throughout by the Divine
Spirit. This point was amply expounded by all biographers who
had written about Islam and the life of the Prophet Muhammad.
Muhammad did not see his father who died while his
mother was in pregnancy. This may have influenced him only
very little on account of the care and patronage extended to
him by his fond mother and his large influential family. He grew
up in the untractable sandy desert which makes one lonely and
impressionable, inclined to self-criticism and self-
contemplation. This introvert trait would grow stronger the
more the child felt his loneliness in the absence of immediate
kin who should have sympathised with him. When the Child is
brought up among children, his linguistic expression develops,
20
and his vocabulary multiplies, for undoubtedly the child learns
more through mixing with children. Moreover, desert life
engenders in a child muscular strength, stiffness of bone, and
agility.
When back from the desert to the bosom of his mother

and the sympathy and affection of his grand father Abdul-
Mottalib, his mother took him on a visit to Yathrib (Medina),
the dwelling place of his uncles "The Naggars", and the burial
place of his father Abdullah. There he passed one month with
his mother and uncles, and on their return home were
accompanied by Um-Eiman, his nurse. That was fortunate, for
his mother fell ill on the road, and the child, only seven years
old, was destined to see a very sad and oppressive sight to see
his mother succumbing to her illness and dying in his presence.
With his impressionable nature, this would touch him very
deeply, and throughout life remain a bitter memory.
Grief seems to have deeply touched his heart and inclined

him more to mysticism and contemplation. His now complete
orphanage speeded up his experience in life, developing his
sense of responsibility, and maturing his judgment. He
returned to Mecca to his grandfather Abdul Mottalib, to tell him
of the tragedy.
It seems that this old chief, now in his eightieth year, was
deeply affected by his grand-son's calamity, since Muhammad
was, to him, the dearest of descendants - the son of Abdullah
who had been offered as a sacrifice to God, narrowly escaping
his doom in much the same way as Isaac of old in one version,
or Ismail in another, namely by a timely redemption. On his
death bed, Abdul Mottalib earnestly committed Muhammad to
the care of his uncle Abu Talib.
What sore trials the boy was destined to meet his father
dies before he is born. His mother expires before his eyes. His
grandfather, his kind and affection ate guardian, is soon
consigned to the grave.
These tragic events he meets successively without relief.

Man is affected most by his childhood's impressions. That may
be one reason why Muhammad, the Apostle, appeared sad, his
face suggesting a shade of sorrow. In this connection, it is said
by Abu Halah that "The Messenger of God was in continual
21
sorrow, continual contemplation, restless and silent, save when
the situation pressed for an answer". That also is probably why
he was aloof when young, and did not take part in youthful
entertainments, though his biographies, reporting the fact, did
not give it such a natural explanation.
The guardianship of his uncle was another factor in the
development of this aloofness on his part, this tendency to
loneliness. His uncle was of strained means, having a big family
to support. He had, in one phase to send his sons, including his
nephew, to work as shepherds. Muhammad shepherded his
flock at the outskirts of Mecca, near the vast desert. This gave
him leisure and opportunity to enjoy the company and
conversation of some shepherd slaves of diverse experience
and some knowledge of border civilizations.
These talks might have done something towards the

enlightenment of the boy-shepherd concerning certain already
existing peoples and religions, countries and cities, outside his
Arabian home. Since, as has been stated above, he was of a
contemplative bent of mind, such various bits of information,
must have speeded up his intellectual maturity far above that
of his mates. It was inevitable that such a boy would not be left
behind by his uncle when on his trading journeys to Syria, not
only because of the training and experience that would be
acquired by the boy through such a journey, but also because
of the benefit which would accrue to the uncle through his
talented nephew, since on such travels certain services are
better done by boys like Muhammad than by men.
He left with his uncle for Syria when he was only twelve
years old. He, along with his uncle and the other travellers, met
Bahira the monk at his convent where they rested. According to
tradition, Bahira discovered in Muhammad the physical marks
foreshadowing his prophethood. This is probably true, though
the writer personally thinks that the boy's talents and
intellectual maturity did not escape the monk who was so
impressed by them as to prophecy for him a brilliant future. In
Syria he could see new types of people, and come in contact
with religions he had previously heard of but not seen. Perhaps
owing to his young age and his overcautious uncle, Muhammad
was, at that stage, of limited knowledge, because he seldom
mingled with people, could see more than he could hear, and
could hear more than he could converse.
22
With his return he, like other boys of his age, got well
trained in horsemanship and marksmanship with bow and
arrow. His first experience in warfare was gained in the war
waged between the Quraish tribes and the tribes of Kais - the
second Figar war. He was barely fifteen years when he was
first able to participate in the battles which his uncles fought,
and although he was assigned the task of supplying the
fighting men with bows and arrows on the battlefield, he soon
gave vent to his fervour, and took an active part in the fighting.
Young though he was, he soon developed into a capable fighter.
Indeed, the boy of the desert grew into a courageous warrior,
and it is no wonder that Ali, son of Abu Talib, himself a famous
warrior, said of Muhammad's courage : "When the battle grew
hot and thick, we used to find protection in the Prophet, peace
be upon him, than whom no other man was nearer the enemy".
Later the Prophet remarked : "Only three kinds of sporting are
recommended : training one's how playing with one's folk, and
shooting with one's bow and arrow. These are true. To give up
shooting willingly after having learnt it is to forego a blessing" .
On attaining age, Muhammad seems to have confined

himself to Mecca, mixing with the Meccans, frequenting their
consultation "House" and performing pilgrimage. This I say
because the probability is that Muhammad in this period did
not show signs of detracting from Quraish's worship or of
denouncing their gods. He was named the "Trusty" and lived
confortably in conformity with the established traditions and
institutions sanctified by the Arabs. So he lived on until he
became a young man of twenty five. It then happened that
Khadigah, daughter of Khowailid, wanted to send a trading
caravan to Syria. His uncle Abu Talib suggested to him that he
should be the head of this caravan, Muhammad accepted,
Khadigah consented, and so he travelled to Syria for the second
time accompanied by Maisarah, one of the retainers of
Khadigah. One tradition says that he there met Nastor the
monk. If so, Muhammad is now the young man who can
appreciate what he hears, comprehend the speech of the
Christian monk, learn what the latter might say about the
essentials of his religion and discuss it with him. Nastor
probably felt more admiration for Muhammad than Bahira. It
will be understood that during his long residence in Mecca he
had the opportunity of meeting many people, especially such
monotheists as Zaid son of Nofile and Waraka son of Noufal, in
addition to some of the freed Christian slaves. If then he
23
argued with Nastor, his argument would be not without some
knowledge and experience. It is probable that he had the
opportunity of meeting with other people in Syria through
whom he acquired further experience.
His trade having prospered, he went back home safe to

render to Khadigah a full account, restoring to her capital,
profits, and property, in the best condition possible, having
protected all against marauders or fraud. She found in him the
man of youth and vigour, whose talk was that of the
experienced old, whose right opinion and deep thought was
beyond his age, of charm and power in speech and exposition.
Khadigah was impressed; and proceeded to plan something.
She secretly sent some one who praised and recommended to
him his marrying her. To this he did not object. It is possible
that he saw in the offer an opportunity to obtain leisure to
settle with the conflicting thoughts which might have been
started in him by his journeys, his knowledge, and keen
intellect, a possible inner conflict which might have been akin
to that state of enquiry and doubt which usually attacks youths
at that stage of life, leading sometimes to atheism if not met in
time.
Muhammad's marriage to Khadigah contributed largely to

the success of the Islamic call when it came. He remained
Khadigah's husband for 15 years before he received the divine
mission, and became the father of her children. During this
period he developed again the tendency to live in isolation. He
was yearning to go back to desert-life where he would be alone
with his own thoughts. Where would he then go? To the place
where was buried the martyr Zaid son of Nofile, to that place
where the Hanifite monotheists of Quraish used to meet, to the
Cave of Hira. There, tradition says, he used to stay one month
every year. This recurrent solitude might have converted his
doubt into conviction. He looked into what his people
worshipped, and found it degrading to man's reason. He might
have looked into Christianity and found it a religion that
devotes most care to the hereafter, and little concern for the
present world. He might have looked into Judaism, and found it
narrow, the religion of a class whose book bears many a
contradiction to Arab tradition and ethical usage. From this
tumult he was only relieved by the Angel Gabriel coming to him
in one of his contemplation moments to give him a new
24
message and reveal a new religion. So runs the divine text, to
the effect:
"Did He not find thee wandering and direct (thee)" The

personality of the honoured Prophet, then, combined both
moral and physical courage, both deep thinking and awful
doubt, till he was thus divinely delivered and guided to the
Right Faith.
The tragic events and trials he had undergone, the
bereavements he had suffered, and the long periods he
remained away from home, seem to have stirred in him the
deepest springs of love and mercy, as may be evidenced by the
kind treatment he used to accord to slaves, liberating whom he
could, and by his habitual relief of the poor and the wretched
Khadigah who knew him best, told him on the famous
occasion : "God will never foresake you. You never foresake
your relatives, you always carry the weary, relieve the
distressed, honour the guest, and give help in misfortune".
This undoubtedly, is the type of personality capable of

delivering the Call, discharging the big Mission, and
transferring the Beduin Arabs to a state where they could carry
the big trust, the trust of establishing the Faith. Such a
personality is capable of discharging the trust, as indeed was
done by the Prophet despite his illiteracy. But what sort of
illiteracy. The illiteracy of letters, of reading and writing, not of
mental awareness or intellectual initiative Muhammad, in the
nature of the case, could not have been illiterate in the mental
and spiritual sense, since he was to be charged with so sacred
a mission. He should have been the foremost of his nation, and
the best of his time in enlightened capacity to be equal to the
task. And such was Muhammad. He was endowed with an
eloquent tongue, a charming power of expression, and a broad
mind. This is illiterate Muhammad as the writer conceives him -
illiterate as regards the alphabet and the symbols used in
writing:
25
"And thou (O Muhammad) was not a reciter of any scripture
before it (the Qur'an) nor didst thou write it with thy right
hand" (Surah, Al Ankabout verse 48).
He was not a writer nor a reader, it is true, but he was a

preacher, indeed a genius in every sense of the word. A man
may read and write and yet not understand or learn. Another
may be good at reading and writing and yet be not cultured. A
third may have read much without being able to assimilate
what he has read, or make use of what he has learnt. Life
teems with these varieties of people. But history tells of a
different type of people, like Muhammad, of illiterate geniuses,
like Jesus. Such, through divine guidance, are the rare makers
of epochs, the moulders of history despite their ignorance of
reading and writing. Such are the extra ordinary product of
time very rarely presented to the world.
That is Muhammad the Messenger whom God sent to an

illiterate but clever nation, a nation believing in her right of
existence:
"He it is who hath sent among the illiterates a messenger

of their own, to recite unto them His revelations, and to make
them grow, and to teach them the Book and Wisdom, though
heretofore they were in error manifest" (Surah, Al Gum'a,
verse 2).
Illiteracy is not a blemish in the Prophet, but rather a

miracle, another of the miracles of his Mission.
26
CHAPTER IV.
FAITHFUL ADHERENTS
1.- Lady Khadigah
No preacher of a cause however physically and mentally

strong, can alone carry the burden without staunch adherents
to help. His close advisers and helpers must be very well
chosen or they may do the cause great harm. Muhammad the
youth was wise to the verge of inspiration when he consented
to marry Khadigah, though she had married twice before, and
was fifteen years his senior. The story of his orphanage must
have been mutual since their first meeting after his return from
Syria as the leader of her caravan, though his bashfulness and
self-respect would have made it very difficult for him to ask for
her hand in marriage. She might have refused; he could not tell.
The question, however, was settled when Khadigah suggested
the match through Nafisah, daughter of Allayed. They married,
and their matrimonial life lasted nearly twenty five years full of
happiness. She died in the tenth year of his Mission.
A quiet happy matrimonial life affords the best possible

help that a great man with a great task ahead of him, can have.
To feel that he is trusted, obeyed and believed in by his wife
will add to his vigour and courage in his struggle for the
triumph of his cause. Mutual loyalty and trust will do away with
all distinction between them in respect of riches and poverty.
He or she may expend but neither can think of humiliating the
other in return. With mutual love and trust, the rich wife will
not thinkless of her husband for his poverty, but will feel rather
happy and proud of his manhood, his protection, and his manly
guardianship of her honour.
Loyalty and love between husband and wife are then the
holiest of links-the highest blessing that God bestows on the
elected great, on the Prophets and Messengers He chooses to
send for guiding humanity to Truth and Right.
Khadigah never made Muhammad feel the stern bond of

marriage, or the obligations entailed thereby. Their marriage
gave him, before his prophethood, the time and opportunity to
27
contemplate other creeds, and, after his prophethood, to
devote himself to his Mission and the supreme good of
humanity.
When he received the first revelation in the cave of Hiraa,

and felt rather overawed by his tremendous mission, he
returned to his folk, to Khadigah who noted his new condition
and the transformation worked on him by his experience with
the Angel, and asked what the matter was. He told her what he
saw and what he feared, and her concern changed at once into
smiles of encouragement, making her famous remark, quoted
above, that God will never disappoint or foresake him. She took
him to her relative Warakah son of Noufal to whom he revealed
his secret - the vision in the cave and the words he received.
Warakah immediately congratulated him on these happy
tidings - on the Divine Mission he received, and the new
position to which he would rise. When this was heard by
Khadigah, she instantly declared. her belief in Muhammad and
his mission and henceforth lavished on him the wise counsel
and encouragement she had given before.
She began her staunch support of him and of his Call,

challenging his heretic opponents, when the time came, with
her prestige and means. They were cowed so far, by this and
other factors, as not to take against him the severe measures
they adopted against Zaid son of Nofile. They were content for
a good while with threatening and maltreating his weaker
adherents when the time came for the Prophet to publicly send
forth his Call.
Khadigah was not an ordinary wife, a mere accident in the

life of Muhammad. She had a unique role. She did the Islamic
Call the greatest service, and contributed to its success through
incessant effective effort.
She was the first woman believer, who devoted life and
property to the establishment of the newly begun Islamic Call.
No wonder, then, that tradition records the great grief of the
Prophet Muhammad on the occasion of the death of Khadigah,
his wife and helpmate. After Khadigah's death, Quraish waged
against him unremitting struggle, molesting and maltreating
him, and almost forcing his expatriation from his home town
28
No wonder also that he loved her so far as not to take to
himself any other wife throughout her life. Even after her death
he kept loving her and cherishing her memory1
If it is true, what Carlyle says, that in the life of every

great man there is some woman who encourages, guides, and
inspires him with his classic work, then the nearest to this
dictum in the life of the noble Apostle Muhammad would be
Lady Khadigah.
1
His wife Ayesha once told him, " Khadigah was no more than an old woman in place of whom God
gave a better wife". "No"! answered he angrily, (God gave me no better. She believed in me when
others disbelieved, had faith in my word when others gave me lie, helped me with her money when
others offered none, and through her God gave me children, and not through any other wife."
29
2. ABU BAKR EL SEDDIK (The Faithful)
Islamic tradition maintains that Abu Bakr was the first of

men believers in the Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace.
He supported him from the start and was molested and
persecuted more perhaps than was the Prophet himself. The
reason may be that Abu Bakr, though a member of the tribe of
Quraish, belonged to the branch of Teim who had not the
honour, prestige, and power of the branch of Beni Hashim, to
whom the Prophet, peace be upon him, belonged.
Tradition seldom mentions Muhammad without also

mentioning Abu Bakr, who followed the Prophet as his shadow,
and was nearer to his heart than the nearest of his kin.
How did this close noble friendship begin? They first

belonged more or less to one profession - Abu Bakr was a
merchant, and Muhammad did some trading. This would bring
them nearer to one another in out look. They were
approximately of the same age with a difference not more than
two years, and were brought up in the same environment -
even in the same town.
A careful study of the two personalities brings out the

striking resemblance between them as if they were offshoots of
the same branch. Friendship between the two originated
therefore before the Muhammadan mission, and it is
reasonable to suppose that they discussed the question of their
ancestral religious beliefs. More, they must have gone beyond
that in their talks. This is natural enough between friends; the
contrary is rather unnatural.
This must have cemented their friendship beyond

disruption. Muhammad the Apostle, therefore, must have had
Abu Bakr as the first man believer Muhammad the persecuted
must have had Abu Bakr as his defender; and Muhammad in
triumph must have had Abu Bakr, the Faithful, the nearest of
the near.
Not only did Abu Bakr believe in Muhammad's Divine

Mission, but he was very energetic and resourceful in calling
many into the Faith To him is due the credit of the conversion
of a group of early, now famous, disciples, such as Osman, son
30
of Affan, Zobair son of Al Awam, then still young, Saad son of
Abi Wakkas, Abd El Rahman son of Awf, and Talha son of
Obidallah. Islamic history relates of their respective great
contributions to the Islamic cause, and how they did their part
in finally establishing the Faith, sacrificing power, prestige,
property and life. They materially helped to make it dominant
not only in Arabia but also North and West, reducing the
Persian, and violently shaking the Roman Empire. Abu Bakr
himself saved Islam from collapse after the death of the
Prophet by declaring relentless war against apostate tribes till
they were reduced to acknowledge Islam again.
Those tribes, only recently converted, had not yet been

touched by the spirit of Muhammad's teachings, nor had they
grasped the cardinal principles of the Islamic creed with the
death of their Faithful Shepherd, they were led astray into arid
heathenism again. No sooner was Abu Bakr proclaimed Calif
than he took drastic measures to reclaim them back to the
Faith, to its green pastures and clear springs. Having restored
the integrity of Islamic union and knitted the Arab tribes into
one powerful whole, he sent their echelons into neighbouring
countries to carry the call of Islam far and wide.
Before his Caliphate, Abu Bakr was the exemplary man,

living up to his principles in the face of persecution. Once when
he was preaching the new religion at Mecca, he was fiercely
attacked by Otba, son of Rabi'a, so fiercely and determinedly,
one report says, that he fell speechless on the spot. He bought
and emancipated some slaves who were tortured by their
masters, among whom may be mentioned the males: Bilal Ibn
Rabah, Amer Ibn Fahira, and Abou Fakiha; and the females
mother of Gobais, the she-slave of Bani Moamel, and Hamama
mother of Bilal.
He converted his parents to the Islamic Faith. He

emigrated with the Prophet in person, thereby exposing
himself, in case of detection, to all the wrathful revenge of the
idolaters. For all these considerations and more. He was the
Prophet's first counsellor amongst the Prophet's disciples.
There is no doubt whatever that the Islamic Call gained

immensely through Abu Bakr who from all men was the Call's
main support and bulwark in peace and war alike. No historical
narrative of the Islamic Call would be complete without the
31
mention of its second man Abu Bakr. This fact had been
demonstrated by western historians as well as Muslim
biographers. The well known historian, H. G. Wells, gives his
own interpretation of this fact when he writes "The true
embodiment of the spirit of Islam was not Muhammad, but his
close friend and supporter Abu Bakr. There can be little doubt
that if Muhammad was the mind and imagination of primitive
Islam, Abu Bakr was its conscience and its will "2
It is the eternal honour of Muhammad to have carried the

burden fully, to have faithfully and ably interpreted into
practice the Islam Call, the Divine Mission, in all its
ramifications It is the eternal honour of Abu Bakr to have
helped without stint, and followed without a swerve - to have
so completely identified himself with the Great Call from its
very start.
2
"The Outline of history". P. 608
32
3. - THE DEFENCELESS STRONG
Amongst those who were first to embrace the new faith

was the class of "slaves" or bondmen, liberated or not, known
as Mawali, to whom Quraish gave the appellation "the
fenceless". They had some slight acquaintance with
monotheistic religions and were brought up in civilizations
higher than that of the Arab chiefs in whose hands they were
destined to fall.
Such persons were undoubtedly potential revolutionists

who could never acquiesce in the established order of master
versus slave, and must have welcomed any change which
promised to better their life, and give them some measure of
freedom. Any radical change in the then prevailing social order
would have been welcome, for it might have bettered their
condition but could not have made it worse.
Further, such slaves were completely disposed to

monotheism, and longed for a spiritual life that had nothing to
do with idolatry, with the disgraceful worship to which the
Arabs then adhered. This class has been accredited with having
prepared the way for the Muhammadan mission. No wonder
then that they surrounded the Prophet and were among the
first believers in Islam. Their attachment to the Prophet was so
strong that they stood firm in their faith despite their long
drawn sufferings and persecution by ploytheists and masters.
History records both their exploits and their martyrdom for the
Islamic cause. That is why I call them " the strong ".
Wanton persecution caused their emigration twice to

Abyssinia along with others. They were subjected to every sort
of brutal torment. They were whipped, branded, burned
maimed and killed to make them recant, but in vain. They
persisted in their faith in spite of all. Chief among those heroes
of the Faith is Khabab, son of Al-Arutt, whom his mistress
repeatedly branded with red hot iron on the head to make him
forego his Faith, but he stood firm. Chief also are Ammar Ibn
Yaser, Abu Fakiha, a serf of Safwan son of Omeyyah, Sohaib
the Greek, and Amer son of Fahirah.
These, when they got the opportunity, used to sit with the
33
Prophet, and when seen thus by the Quraishites the latter
would redicule them. They could ask how it could be that these,
from amongst all the people, were alone blessed by God with
guidance and, the truth, arguing that if there were any good in
the Mission of Muhammad these would not have been the first
to accept it in preference to themselves, as if the choice of God
would have fallen on such alone. The sitting and the scoffing
are both depicted in God's address to His prophet concerning
the demand of the Quraishites that the Prophet should dismiss
the bondmen that they might themselves sit with him.
The entire picture found expression in the holy text. rendered
thus:
"Repel not those who call upon their Lord at noon and
evening, seeking His countenance. Thou art not accountable for
them in aught, nor are they accountable for thee in aught, that
thou shouldst repel them and be of the wrong-doers. And even
so do We try some of them by others, that they say:Àre these
they whom Allah favoureth among us ? Is not Allah best aware
of the thanksgivers? And when those who believe in Our
revelations come unto thee, say : Peace be unto you ! Your Lord
hath prescribed for Himself mercy, that whoso of you doeth evil
and repenteth afterward thereof and doeth right, (for him) Lo !
Allah is Forgiving, Merciful". (Surah Al An'am; verses 52-54).
34
Those slaves contributed greatly to the success of the
Muhammadan mission through their extraordinary heroism,
and their martyrdom, so remarkable and striking in the annals
of persecution in history. Their persistency, their sufferance,
attracted many to Islam and made possible their assimilation
of the creed.
Most of them participated in preaching Islam to others,

aiding the Prophet considerably thereby. Many of the Prophet's
utterances have come to us through some of them, and to some
is due the credit of lending a hand in social organisation in
Medinah.
They proved to be one important factor in disseminating

the Islamic creed. They were its heroic silent preachers,
carrying its burden and serving its cause when things looked
black.
35
4- OMAR IBN AL KHATTAB
Islam was something in the breasts of its believers, to be

discussed in whispers, and practised in secret, for fear of
persecution. When Omar became a convert, it was preached
openly and unreservedly. He challenged Quraish, not only, like
Hamzah before him, by declaring his conversion fearlessly, but
also by practising it openly. No wonder, then that the Prophet
of the Faith had prayed God :- "O Allah ! strengthen Islam by
the conversion of either Omars"
Preaching a cause publicly by its adherents is the first

stage of the struggle. That was the step taken by Omar, and by
it he inscribed the first line in the history of the open fight for
the Islamic cause. It is as if he wanted, by such a step, to atone
for having been tardy in joining it. The prestige of Omar, added
to that of Hamzah, uncle of the Prophet, sufficed to make the
faithful, then about forty, to practise the Faith openly. It is to
the credit of Omar that he first proposed it. It will, then, be no
exaggeration to maintain that Omar's conversion was the
separating line between two stages in the history of the
Mission : the stage of secretly, and the stage of openly,
practising and struggling for the Faith by its followers.
To his influence, moreover, were due two things of

cardinal importance in the post Apostolic history of Islam, the
first saving it from collapse, and the second ensuring its lasting
triumph.
The first took place with the death of the Apostle himself,
Peace be upon him, which threatened to revive the factious
spirit and thus disrupt the unity of the Arabs at Madinah. Omar
saved the situation by his strong attitude at the Sakifa (or
shed) meeting. He supported Abu Bakr, and did not hesitate to
be the first to swear allegiance to him as Caliph, causing the
others to do the same, thus avoiding division at that critical
moment in Islamic history.
The second is Omar's propagation of the Islamic call itself,

and the establishment of the Islamic cause beyond any
possible threat during his long happy reign, remarkable for the
series of brilliant martial successes of the Arabs, their
territorial expansion, and the high morale and prestige they
enjoyed everywhere.
36
His personal character as a ruler, remarkable for austerity,
asceticism, moderation and justice, afforded an exemplary type
of refined leadership, and an ideal Islamic type well worth
mutation. Not only did he preach the rights of man liberty,
fraternity and equality but made them a realised fact, and
enforced them as the working principles of his rule.
Throughout the then vast Islamic Empire, he established

justice and fair play, for he maintained equality between
governor and governed, shepherd and shepherded both getting
their due, with strict control over local governors lest they
should deviate from Islamic standards, and abuse the power
vested in them, with the result that they feared his question,
and ruled with right and justice.
To this great man is due a big share of the credit for the
later propagation and success of the Muhammadan Call. Under
the Romans and Persians, the masses suffered from unjust
irresponsible governors. Islamic rule presented an entirely
different picture, characterised with justice and exceedingly
humanitarian administration, honest and pure. That is why
multitudes were converted to the Islamic faith, and were ready
to sacrifice much for its sake.
Omar was the embodiment of humility and continence,

never corrupted by riches or made vainglorious through power.
He remained throughout. the true spiritual Successor, the Calif
true to his Master, the Prophet.
His asceticism afforded a practical example for his local

governors to follow. When he travelled to Jerusalem to take
over the keys of this holy city, he was attended by no train of
retainers except his henchman. For this tedious journey he was
provided only with loaves of barley, some dried dates, a skin of
water, and a wooden plate. When the Patriarch of Jerusalem
saw him, he did not recognise him until he was pointed out.
Perhaps he had thought of Omar as or some Caesar or Khisroe
of the day, till the picture of finery and pomp gave place to that
of humility and asceticism.
Omar's life was one continual chain of unremitting activity.

He believed, I think, that governance was a holy trust, to be
preserved from frivolity and corruption, and safeguarded by
justice and counsel, if security and satisfaction are to prevail.
37
To him constant activity was a pleasure. He was, in truth, a
holy torch that Providence raised to illuminate in after years
the road of the Islamic Call for every true believer in
generations to come.
The Apostle of God, upon whom be peace, gave twenty three

years of his life to establishing the call of Islam in Arabia,
addressing it to rulers of neighbouring states and through them
to their peoples, and to the training of his train of faithful
disciples that they might maintain and safeguard the Cause
against any possible disruption or collapse. Then came the first
disciple, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, who cemented it beyond
division in Arabia, and started sending its legions abroad. But it
was Omar, the second Caliph, nominated by Abu Bakr, who
following in Abu Bakr's steps, completed the great work of
establishing the Call abroad to an extent that still stands
without compare; conquering the Roman and Persian empires
in Africa and Asia, and, through his exemplary justice and
humility and continence, enlisting in the end their vast
populations under the banners of Islam. He and Abu Bakr stand,
after the Prophet, as the deal rulers of Islam, for humanity to
look up to and follow. It was a bad day for Muslims when their
rulers lost this ideal.
38
5 - THE BELIEVING YOUTHS
By these are meant the body of young men under twenty

who were converted to the faith in the early stage of the Call,
and who were numerous enough to constitute a remarkable
feature worthy of record. They believed in the Prophet, upon
whom be peace, at his critical moments when he stood almost
one, and when the battle between belief and disbelief, between
truth and falsehood, was pending
Those young converts were never slighted or disregarded by

the Prophet. On the contrary he used to welcome them, give
them room to sit, spiritually dominating and regenerating them,
himself being their exemplary practical ideal. He educated
them and completed their bringing up as nobody else could.
Muhammad in conformity with the then established Arab
tradition, honoured and valued youth and assigned for young
men the appropriate status expressed by the Arab poet in the
words:
"A proper youth copes with adversity;
He is not born for endearment by mates".
In search for a secret place for their meetings where they

could neither be detected nor suspected, one of those young
men, Al Arkam by name, offered his house to become the first
hall for the Islamic Call. This he presented to his brothers in
the faith willingly, though he knew that the unbelievers would
pull it down stone by stone if they could detect the purpose for
which it was used. No earthly menace, however, could have
made the young man change his mind, given devotedly as he
was to the way of God. Yet Al Arkam was then only twelve
years of age.
One of those young was Ali, son of Abu Talib, the earliest
boy believer, the valiant hero destined to be the fourth Calif. He
was a steadfast warrior when valiant warriors gave way under
strain. His duel with the veteran Arab knight, the hero of the
idolaters Amr Ibn Wud, in the battle of the Moat, is famous in
Islamic history, and no better example of heroism can be cited.
He killed the famous knight, though only a youth of twenty six.
He killed Amre, the experienced, the hero of many battles, and
the victor of many duels.
39
He was the man who forced the fort of Naim in the battle
of Khaiber, after it had successively resisted the efforts of Abu
Bakr and Omar. The occasion is famous for, having lost his
shield, he wielded a door as a buckler and fought on till he
forced his way into the fortress in the face of the desperate
resistance of the Jews. His notable physical strength was aided
by a spiritual power arising from his deep faith.
Like Ali in courage was Zobair Ibn Al Awam who highly

distinguished himself in the first two battles fought by the
Prophet, upon whom be peace. He defended the Prophet very
heroically in the battle of Ohod, where he was
commissioned by the Prophet to lead the right wing against
the great commander Khalid Ibn El Waild who then led the
enemy's left. He, much to the satisfaction and encouragement
of the Muslims, killed in a duel a noted adversary who stood in
the lists challenging the whole Muslim army.
Some of these young men emigrated to Abyssinia after

having been subjected to painful persecution and torture in
property and limb.
But the young believers were not all males; some were
females remarkable for their patience, and fortitude in the
struggle for the Cause. Amongst these may be mentioned Asma
daughter of Abu Bakr, Fatimah daughter of Al Khattab, sister of
Omar that is, and Asma daughter of Omise.
The teachings of Islam could reach and dominate the hearts

of those young believers because they had not yet imbibed the
heathenish spirit, or developed into rigid followers of abhorrent
custom and wrong tradition. They were tutored by the Prophet
himself, who instilled into them of his spirit, opened to them
his great heart, widened their horizon, enlivened their right
emotions, moved them to seek godly honour, and was to them
a teacher and a guide. And what tutor for the young could be
better than the master teacher, the Apostle o whom God
Himself testifies:
"Thou art surely of great morality and noble nature". (Surah Al

Qalam, verse 4).
40
And what can we expect of such young men brought up in
such a school under such a tutor ? Nothing less than the
heroism and glory alluded to. From amongst them arose such a
rightly guided Caliph as Ali Ibn Abi Talib, such distinguished
savants as Abdullah Ibn Massoud, such eminent commanders
as Zobair Ibn Al Awam and Saa'd Ibn Abi Wakkas, and such
faithful believers as Al Arkam and Taiha Ibn Obeidillah.
Some of them were the first to die martyrs for their

convictions in the Islamic battles, and some worked hard to
instil their own true spirit in others who were thus spurred on
to great efforts under the banner of Islam. To quote in effect, a
divine verse:
"They were young men who believed in their Lord and We

increased them in guidance".
(Surah. Al Kahf, verse 13).
41
6- Al-Ansar (The Helpers)
What might have become of the Islamic Call had it not

been for the Helpers, the Muslims of Madinah, who sponsored
and gallantly defended it? Careful analysis shows that the Call
then would have been diverted into different channels of
perhaps uncertain or unfavourable results, and history would
have taken a different aspect.
During: pilgrimage days, the Prophet used to address Arab

tribes - particularly Thakif, Kindah, Kalb, Bani Hanifah and Bani
Amer, telling of his divine mission and asking each in turn to
accept and defend him. They turned their backs to him,
returning rather uncivil answers.
With the death of Khadigah and his uncle Abu Talib, the
Prophet met with more cruelty and more stubborn resistance at
Mecca, so much so that it became clear that there was no use
in his continuing to stay in that city God, however, sent His
prophet due help in the form of a small group of pilgrims from
Yathrib, of the Aus and Khazrag tribes, who responded to his
teachings, and swore allegiance to him at Al-Aqabah. Next
pilgrimage season, a larger more representative group met the
Prophet at the same place, swore allegiance, and undertook to
defend him if he would go to their city. These are the two
famous pacts of Al-Aqabah.
The researcher would have to pause and consider the

reasons why the Arabs of Yathrib, contrary to other Arab tribes,
came to believe so readily in the Prophet's mission.
One possible reason is that Muhammad was not a total

stranger to Yathrib and the Arabs there. A noted Yathrib family,
the family of Banil Naggar, comprised his uncles. His father's
grave was in Yathrib (Madinah) and his mother, as mentioned
before, used to take him as a child to visit his uncles and the
grave, in memory of the father and husband who died in his
youthful prime. His mother died while returning to Mecca from
one such visit, and was buried at Abwa', between Mecca and
Madinah. These happenings had probably something to do with
the mental and spiritual approachment which led to the
immediate response which the Prophet's call met with from
those people. In his own words
42
"Souls are organised into groups, affection developing
between the similar, disaffection between the dissimilar".
Another probable reason why they were so easily

converted to Islam was the prominent existence of Judaism at
and around Yathrib. They had for neighbours the Jews of
Khaiber, of Beni Koraizah, of Beni Kinakaa and of Banil Nadaer,
who believed in Monotheism, and decidedly and steadfastly
condemned idol worship. This undoubtedly familiarised them at
least with monotheism, and prepared mind and heart to accept
a monotheistic call for the worship of the true God, should it
arise through an Arab and not through a Jew.
There was also that relentless internecine war between

their principal tribes, the Aus and the Khazrag tribes, who were
equal in valour, almost equal in strength the recurring war
between them, therefore indecisive, threatening to bring them
both ultimately to destruction, leaving their city free to the
Jews. Would it not be natural for their representatives at Al-
Aqabah to think of the benefit of accepting such a neutral fair
authority as the Prophet himself, who could bridge the gap
between them and realize their ideal of peace?
Moreover, it is recorded that they thought Muhammad to

be the prophet expected by the Jews to come and make Israel
dominant, unifying the world under Judaism. They sought,
therefore, to forestall the Jews, and believe in him first that
they might have the precedence over the Jews.
It may also be that the incessant war between them made

them long for a life, for a spiritual life, based on Faith and
communion with God.
Whatever may have been the reason, Muhammad found in

them a way out of the narrow circle in which he was then
labouring, and they found in him the able arbiter and leader
who could rescue them from the destruction that threatened
them, in addition to the eternal life that they would secure by
43
believing in, and living up to, his divine Mission. The pact
entered into, therefore, was a triumph for all.
Furthering the cause of Muhammad and protecting him

was an act of sheer defiance to the rest of the Arabs, and they
knew it before taking their oath, as may be evidenced by the
speech of Saad Ibn Obadah at the second conference before
the oath of allegiance was sworn at Al Aqabah : ((You people of
Khazrag )) - Saad was a Khazragite -"Do you know what you
are doing when you swear allegiance to this man ? you are
swearing to defend him against all people, red and black''.3
But they knew well what they were doing, and all Aus and
Khazrag representatives including Saad himself took their oath
with confidence, to defend the Prophet, come what might.
Henceforth they were called Al Ansar, the Helpers and
defenders of Muhammad, the Apostle of God.
The Helpers were throughout loyal to the Islamic Call,

were the faithful soldiers of the Prophet, ran the risk of long
wars, and bore large sacrifices in body and property. They
fought in fact against both Arabs and Jews, but never gave way.
They took their oath and stuck to it with the undaunted spirit
and the readiness expressed by Saad Son of Maaz in a speech
made on a famous occasion before the battle of Badr "We
believed in you, and consequently in your word. We gave you
our pledges, so proceed, O Apostle of God ! to the fulfilment of
your heavenly orders. For, by Him who has sent you with Truth,
should it be your will to wade the sea, we shall be ready to
wade it with you. Nor do we shun the idea of your sending us
against the enemy tomorrow. We are patient in war, true in
battle; so proceed with God's blessing".
This splendid morale was one chief factor in securing the

victory for the Muslims in the battle of Badr decisive for the
success and dissemination of the Cause.
But it is no wonder that those Helpers should be so, their

natural valour having been stirred up, and their martial spirit,
ever watchful wary and ready, having been marshalled by the
Prophet into a formidable force with which he struck right and
left when occasion arose. With it he struck at Quraish, and with
3
Hussein Heikal, "Life of Muhammad", P. 201 (in Arabic).
44
it he met the clans of the Moat, and with it he reduced the
Jewish tribes one by one until God sent final victory, and
caused the Call to conquer all. The Helpers, then, having been
through God's mercy brought together into one whole after
their pre-Islamic wars, became God's instrument for securing
the victory for the cause of Islam, shielding it from the many
dangers that threatened it.
The Prophet, upon whom be peace, returned the strong

attachment the Helpers felt towards him, and, at the moment
of his final victory, fulfilled his part of the Aqabah pact. On that
famous occasion, Abu Al Haitham asked "O Apostle of Allah! we
shall sever connections existing between us and men (the
Jews). When this is done and Allah gives you triumph, would
you go back to your folk and leave us?".
"No!" answered the Prophet "Your blood is my blood, and
your abode is my abode. You are of me and I am of you. I fight
whom you fight, and make peace with whom you make peace".
And so it was. The Prophet, true to his word, did not move
to Mecca after the conquest. He stayed on with his faithful
Helpers who supported him at the critical time, and aided in
propagating his Call. He made their city his abode until he was
recalled by his Lord.
45
Chapter V
THE QUR'AN
Its language - Arabic
Every religious Call has its book or written text defining its
objectives, interpreting its tenets, indicating its progress, and
recording its achievements. The Islamic Call had its revealed
Book "The Qur'an", expressed in the tongue of the people first
addressed. If the Jews had their Torah, and the Christians their
Gospel, it is no wonder that the Arabs had their Qur'an, since
they were a people moved by rhetoric and enchanted by
eloquence. Such a nation could not live on the cultural heritage
of others through translations from Syriac and Hebrew.
However able the translator, translations can never convey the
spirit or the particular stamp of the original which defies
imitation. This may be evidenced by the failure of many who
attempted a translation of the Qur'an which should preserve
the characteristics of the Arabic original, projecting its striking
beauty and elegance which constitute the main secret of its
inimitability. Precise translation when possible conveys only
the idea but fails as regards style and form. From this point of
view, the Arabs of old were scarcely influenced by the Torah
and the Gospel, foreign as these were to the Arab spirit and
expression, but listened on to the Islamic Call, being charmed
by its Book, the Qur'an.
The Qur'an, then, was an important factor in propagating

the Call of Islam and bringing the bulk of the Arabs under its
standard. This is borne out by ample historical evidence
relating both to the life-time of the master-Prophet himself and
to the era following his death.
The incident between the Prophet and Otabah, son of

Rabiah, constitutes a first example of such evidence. When the
latter made clear to the Prophet what Quraish offered in return
for the Prophet's desisting from his calling, the Prophet's reply
came when Otabah ceased talking: "Have you finished O Father
of Al-Waleed ?" "Yes I have", answered Otabah. "Hear me
then"; and the Prophet began reciting the Surah entitled
"Fussilat" until he came to thirteenth verse:
46
"But if they turn away, then say: I warn you of a
thunderbolt like the thunderbolt (which fell of old upon the
tribes of 'Aad and Thamud) Otbah then, putting his hand to the
Prophet's mouth, besought him to forbear. Returning to his
people he was asked how he fared. He answered: "By God, I
never heard such speech before. It is neither poetry, nor
oracular rhyme, nor magic. O ! people of Quraish! Obey me and
make me responsible. Let the man be, he and his mission. By
God, what I have heard from him shall have an issue.
Should the Arabs get him, then somebody else would have
done the work for you. Should, however, the upper hand be his,
then his glory will be your glory". "Oh ! you have been
bewitched by Muhammad", they said. "Please yourselves. I
have spoken", answered Otbah.
Some Quraishisite accused the Prophet, Peace be upon

him of getting his Islamic teachings from a certain Greek slave,
like Shoal who himself was a convert, implying that these
teachings were derived from Judaism and Christianity. The
Prophet hit the mark by an answer very convincing especially
to the Arab, knowing the Qur'an inimitable as they did. He
recited God's words:
"And we know well that they say :Only a man teacheth

him. The tongue of him at whom they falsely hint is foreign,
and this is illuminating Arabic speech" . (Surah: Al Nahl, verse
103).
The primary reason why the Arabs did not take to either
Judaism or Christianity was the fact that neither had a book
which recommended itself to their taste, or touched their inner
religious feelings. That this is so will appear from a comparison
of two texts dealing with the same idea, namely that of
47
amassing wealth without giving to the poor. This point is dealt
with in the Gospel of St. Mathews in the following manner:
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where

moth and rust dot corrupt, and where thieves break through
and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not
break through and steal".
Now, let us consider a Qur'anic verse dealing with the

same point:-
"They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in

the way of Allah, unto them give tidings(O Muhammad) of a
painful doom. On the day when it will (all) be heated in the fire
of hell, and their foreheads and their flanks and their backs will
be branded therewith (and it will be said unto them): Here is
that which ye hoarded for yourselves Now taste of what ye
used to hoard". (Surah: Al Tobata, verses 34 and 35).
I am not comparing the two texts from the stand-point of

sense or idea, but of style and diction when the Arabic
translation of the Gospel text is compared with the Qur'anic
original, my court of appeal being the classical Arabic literary
standard of taste, style and form.
Judged by this standard, the gulf between the two texts,

in construction, If not in sense and effect, is wide. How wide,
how to the ancient Arab appallingly wide, may be judged from
the fact that the Arab legacy of pre Islamic times consists
solely in their poetry and prose.
48
For a further example, compare the text :"and thy desire
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Genesis 3,
16) with the Qur'anic verse which runs:
"Men are in charge of Women, because God hath made the

one of them to excel the other"(Surah Al Nisa, 34, after
Pickthall's Explanatory Translation).
The Arab could not but sense the queerness, the great
queerness, of the Torah of Gospel in translation and so could
not assimilate either. This would be the more so when on style
and diction depended the medium of expression in worship.
But the question does not stop at form and style, but goes
on to character and spirit. The Torah and the Gospel contain
what runs more or less against Arab spirit and ethical code. To
give only one example, the Torah mentions the story of Lot and
what his two daughters did to him when he dwelt in a cave
after the destruction of his people. There it is said that the
elder, then the younger, daughter mixed with her father, one
night each, after making him so drunk as to be unaware of
what he did. Consequently each gave birth to an illegitimate
child who in time became the father of a tribe. (Genesis 19, 30
- 38)
Now such a narrative is utterly repugnant to an Arab,

especially when related of a prophet. A similar criticism applies
to Abraham (Ibrahim) and Sarah when he presented her to the
King of Gerar as his sister and not his wife. This, it is alleged,
preserved her against usurpation, and kept her entirely for
Abraham, who practiced this deceit because his wife Sarah was
exceedingly infatuating, justifying himself still more by
confessing to the King later that he was his sister from his
father only. The Arabs condemn behaviour of this sort, and
consider it a sacrilege for one, not to mention a great prophet,
to marry his half sister. An Arab guards his matrimonial honor
with his life, and does not resort to duplicity or evasive
methods, being very frank and conscious of his personal power
which, to him at least, was akin to that of the heroes of
Romance.
These psychological traits of the Ancient Arabs are
49
sufficiently recognized by the Qur'an, revealed to them in their
own language. Some Bible narratives figure in the Qur'an, it is
true, but these are intended for their moral implication, and are
quite consonant with the spirit, tradition, and psychology of the
Arabs. Some of that the Qur'an narrates throws some light on
the pre historic life of the Arabs, e.g. the story of Aad and of
Thamoud of which no mention is made in the Torah or the
Gospel. The stories point to certain Arab ancestry of old, and
how they fared when they rejected their prophets.
The Old Testament enlarge on the heroism of the Hebrew

prophets, stressing the claim that the Jews are God's only
chosen people. In this matter it borders on fanaticism. This is
not a blemish so far as it was intended to stir the enthusiasm of
the Jews of old against their idolatrous foes. But such a narrow
attitude, how agreeable to the Jews, is necessarily repugnant
to other races, especially when by (other) is meant some such
race as the Arabs who pride themselves on their heroic past
and their holy possessions. The Old Testament, moreover,
abounds with much detail and names of places and of persons,
which for the Arab, scarcely agrees with the nature of a holy
book, but rather with ordinary tribal history.
As a last example may be mentioned the chapter (The

Song of Solomon) or song of songs in the Old Testament.
Remarkable as it is for beauty and rhythm it runs contrary to
Arab spirit, because this sort of love song contains much which
must have struck the Arabs of old as almost obscene. How can
such material be contained in a religious book designed for
worship?
To every people attaches a certain distinctive spirit and

tradition. Such Arab spirit and tradition the Qur'an never
violates unless they violate God's laws and then it weans them
gradually. That is why the Qur'an, the Book of the Islamic Call,
exercised so enormous an influence over Arabs.
Who amongst the Arabs could have listened with
antagonism or reserve to Qur'anic verse:
50
"Allah verily hath shown grace to the believers by sending
unto them a messenger of their own who reciteth unto them
the Scriptures and wisdom, although before (he came to them)
they were in flagrant error". (Surah Al Ìmran, verse 164)
Their past error and ignorance is accounted for by the

absence of the Call which touches their hearts, and the Book
which would inspire wisdom and effect their re-orientation.
Now that it has been revealed to them by God in an Arabic
expressive tongue through the truest and noblest man amongst
them, how can they help responding in the end ?
How can they refuse such Guidance ?
51
2. - Its Eloquence
Another characteristic of the Book, in addition to its being in

Arabic, is its grand eloquence which enormously contributed to
the propagation of Islam and the conversion of many previous
believers. Omar Ibn El Khattab, when suffering from
commotion and conflict within, was soon appeased when his
sister Fatimah gave him the chapter entitled (Taha) to read. He
was subdued by the grandeur, and his heart opened by the
quickening eloquence, of the revealed text. He at once became
a convert to Islam, despite his previous implacable hostility to
Muslims. His conversion added so much to their strength that
they now dared to practise Islam openly after having
conducted it three years in secret.
Omar heard the Meccan Surah and listened to what it

relates of Moses. He saw the vividly depicted picture of Moses
and his miracles when God first called him and charged him
with the divine message :-
"Hath there come unto thee the story of Moses ? When he

saw a fire and said unto his folk : Wait! Lo ! I sense a fire afar
off. Peradventure I may bring you a brand therefrom or may
find guidance at the fire. And when he reached it, he was called
(by name) O Moses! Lo ! I, even I, am thy Lord. So take off thy
shoes, for Lo ! thou art in the holy valley of Tuwa. And I have
chosen thee, so harken unto that which inspired". (Surah:
Taha, verse 10).
The style in the original is inimitable. It contains subtle

expressions and suggestive terms : ( I sense fire ) instead of
( I see a fire ), which falls short of the shades of meaning
52
intended, to be made plain later. The original expression
reflects a refined intuitive faculty in Moses on the eve of
receiving his great mission.
Another subtlety of the style is the metonymy in: ( Take

off thy shoes, for, lo ! thou art in the holy valley of Tuwa ),
pointing to submissiveness in the presence of the Divine, and
to the sanctity and awe to be felt by Moses when listening to
God’s words. As to the harmony and melody of diction and
construction, it can only be felt and appreciated in the original.
Now we come to Moses’ prayer at the critical moment
when he received the divine order:
Go thou to Pharaoh! He bath burst all bounds!
He said : My Lord! Relieve my mind,
And ease my task for me;
And loosen a knot from my tongue,
That they may understand my say
Appoint for me a counsellor from my skin
53
Aaron, my brother
Confirm my strength with him
And let him share my task,
That we may glorify Thee much
And much remember Thee,..
Thou Knowest us best

(Surat Taha, verses 25-35)
How pregnant these verses are will further appear on

examination. As to the music and pathos, even the translation
may give a foretaste. At any rate it may now be imagined how
Omar was so charmed by such I eloquence that he was
transformed from the raging’ brother who struck and wounded
his sister, to the repentant convert asking to be conducted to
the Prophet’s presence that he might profess : "There is no God
but Allah, and of certainty Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger".
In the light of Omar’s experience, we may now further

consider the case of Otbah, son of Rabiah, already referred to,
when he listened to the first part of the Surah entitled
( Fussilalt ) (or " Plain") from the lips of the Prophet himself.
54
The Surah opens with the deeply mysterious term Íã Haa
Meem). In the Qur’an many Surahs (about one fourth of the
total number) start with such letters, single or combined,
mysterious in meaning and melodious in sound when the
letters are read by their names consecutively, as they should
be :e.g. (Õ :Saad ) ; (( Þ Qaaf))
: Alif, Laam, Meem ) . They strike the listener or reader with
awe and reverence. Different interpretations have been given
to these terms by commentators. It may be, however that they
refer to a metaphysical existence, beyond this material
universe, of which man is yet ignorant.
"A revelation from the Beneficent, the Merciful", so runs

the verse in as near a translation as possible. One orientalist4
suggests that the two Arabic words Al-Rahman (the
Beneficent) Al-Raheem (the Merciful) are words of mystery
occurring in the Old Testament. This is a fantastic suggestion,
since in Arabic they are perfect derivatives from the verb
ÑóÍöãó ( rahima ) (to take mercy on), the one to indicate the
active, and the other to indicate the abstract, attribute of Mercy,
in a superlative degree. There is no mystery about the two
words then as far as the Arabic language is concerned, but as
attributes, as exalted names, of God, the Almighty, the One,
they necessarily, like all God’s names, become to man imbued
with mystery. The finite man cannot hope to comprehend the
infinite. But however mysterious in this sense the words may
be, they will always be to man a beacon of tranquillity, hope,
and peace.
Then come the happy tidings which should stir satisfaction

in every Arabian, the tidings relating to the honour conferred
upon him by God in revealing in the Arabic tongue a divine
Book to be a Divine guidance for all who know.
"A book whose verses are made plain, an Arabic Qur’an for
men of knowledge"
Next comes the picture depicting the polytheists who
4
George Foot Moore, (The History of Religions) , p. 391.
55
turned their back to the heavenly message of true monotheism,
admitting equals to God, the One. Here their state is lamented,
their attitude ridiculed and their doom predicted, in a style
breathing warning, and threat in work’s that shooed strike the
obdurate with awe and fear, such as "thunderbolt ", "a frosty
destructive wind" , " torment of disgrace" "humiliating torture",
and "hell fire their abode".
The Surah contains a vivid plan for the Prophet to follow in
dealing with the mischievous, the obstinate, and the
misguided:
"A benevolent act and a mischievous one can never be

equal. For a mischief done to you, return an act of benevolence.
This would transform your enemy into a faithful friend". (a free
translation of verse 34)
It is no wonder, then, that Otbah should have been struck

dumb after having listened to this Surah, nor that, having
returned to his people, he should have told of the wonderful
impression he had of the Qur’anic verses he had heard from
Muhammad the Prophet.
Again, what connoisseur can read the Surah of (Josep)

and fail to feel the striking beauty of portraiture in general, and
nobility of behaviour on the part of Joseph in particular ? Here
both the narrative and depiction are perfect, expressively alive,
and teeming with spirit and action. Take for example the divine
verses running to the effect.
56
Verse 23. - "And she, in whose house he was, asked of him
an evil act. She bolted the doors and said: Come! He said I seek
refuge in God ! Lo ! he is my Lord who hath treated me
honorably. Wrong-doers never prosper".
24.- "She verily desired him, and he would have desired

her if it had not been that he saw the argument of his Lord.
Thus it was, that We might ward off from him evil and
lewdness. Lo ! he was of Our chosen slaves".
25.- "And they raced with one another to the door, and
she tore his shirt from behind, and they met her lord and
master at the door. She said : What shall be his reward, who
wished evil to thy folk, save prison or a painful doom?. And the
verses continue with the psychological study, delineating a
picture beyond the reach of art, whether that of drawing,
portraiture, or poetry. It is meanwhile the picture of an ideal
character challenging and resisting temptation in its most
seductive form; of the noble soul fighting the good fight and
overcoming base desire; of the believing self invoking Faith,
and through it the powers abiding deep in the spirit, thus
shaming the devil, trampling him down, and coming out of the
struggle not only unscathed but nobler than ever. That is ideal
art in the service of Ideal morality".
Now compare the above vivid animated scene, teeming
57
with life and movement as depicted by the Qur’an, with the
corresponding scene in the Old Testament.
"And it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into
the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of
the house there within And she caught him by his garment,
saying, Lie with me and he left his garment in her hand, and
fled and got him out ". (Genesis 39).
Not much of life or of the sublime in this; not even after

you go through the next five verses intervening before
"his lord came home"
To this must be added the contrast in diction, in the superb

diction, which renders both the recital and the hearing of the
Qur’an a perpetual source of joy and comfort which repetition
cannot wear off. All natural aids to rhyme and melody are there
- rhyme and resonance, antithesis and balance, even such aids
to euphony as alliteration, all so subtly and naturally
interwoven that never a redundant word. Of these happy
features the most obvious perhaps are rhyme and assonance,
especially in the endings of most verses.
It cannot be hoped to give adequate illustrations through

a translation, such features being exactly those which a
translation cannot convey. Balance and euphony may be faintly
reflected, majesty and nobility cannot be missed! even in a
translation:
"And if we cause man to taste some mercy from Us

thankless. And if we cause him to taste grace after some
misfortune that had befallen him, he saith: The ills have gone
58
from me! Lo! he is exultant, boastful. Save those who persevere
and do good work. Theirs will be forgiveness and great reward".
(Surah : Hud, verse 9-11)
Translation of shorter verses may happen to illustrate

other features - assonance and rhyme in verse endings for
example:-
EX-1
5) And verily thy Lord will give unto thee so that thou wilt be
content.
6)Did he not find thee an orphan and protect (thee) ?
7)Did he not find thee wandering and direct (thee) ?
8)Did he not find thee destitute and enrich (thee) ?
9)Therefor the orphan oppress not.
10) Therefor the beggar drive pot away.
11) Therefor of the bounty of thy Lord be thy discourse.
59
EX-2
1) O thou enveloped (in thy cloak),
2) Arise and warn !
3) Thy Lord magnify,
4)Thy raiment purify,
5) Pollution shun
6) And show not favour, seeking worldly gain
7) For the sake of thy Lord, be patient
8) For when the trumpet shall sound,
60
9) Surely that day will be a day of anguish,
10) Not of ease, for disbelievers.
(After M. Pickles Explanatory Translation).
Then comes the eloquence of the Qur’an as regards

treatment and exposition. Noticeable in this connection is the
fact that abstruse recondite thought is presented lucid and
plain, free from even a trace of dry philosophy. Such is the
treatment accorded to (the inmates of the cave) (the
companionship of Moses and Khadr), and to (Yagog and
Magog). Such subject matter, ramifying back into the remote
past and made obscure by time, is presented to us by the
Qur’an bright and glowing, consonant with reason and right
emotion.
Neither is there any dry logic in the argumentation

adopted by the Qur’an with the foes of the Islamic Call.
Delicate but sure is the manner of attack, of clarification, and
bringing the argument home. The miracle of the creation of
Jesus Christ without a father, for example, is compared with
the creation of Adam, in refutation of the claim that Jesus is
God’s Son:
(Lo! the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of

Adam He created him of dust, then He said unto him: Be and he
is. From Surah : Al-Imran; verse 59).
61
Again God, exalted be He ! tells in the Qur’an of what
Jesus will answer on Judgement Day, concerning the godship
attributed to him and his mother:
"And when Allah saith : O Jesus, son of Mary! Midst thou

say to people: Take me and my mother for two gods beside
Allah ? He saith : Be glorified ! It was not mine to utter that to
which I had no right. If I used to say it, then Thou Knewset it.
Thou Knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in
Thy Mind. Lo Thou, only Thou, art the Knower of Things Hidden.
I spake unto them only that which Thou commandest me

(saying) Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. I was a witness
of them while I dwelt among them, and when Thou tookests
me Thou wast the Watcher over them. Thou art Witness over
all things". (Surah : Al Maid; verse. 116 and 117). (After M.
Pickthall’s explanatory translation).
Here the historical message of Jesus to his people, is given

in the sensational answer which he shall certainly make on
Resurrection Day in the face of his and his mother’s
worshippers, that they may take warning in time and return to
the truth that he was only a human Prophet, worshipping God,
the One, only.
Other fields for the eloquence of the Qur’an are the great
varieties of knowledge with which it abounds, the high morality
62
it recommends to humanity, and the beautiful wholesome
narratives which abound in it. That is the reason why it
constitutes the Prophet’s great miracle, living and eternal,
which challenged the eloquent Arabs, and still challenges all
who doubt it, to imitate even a simple Surah of it. It is the
voice of God; God’s perfect words revealed to the Prophet,
peace be upon him, for the guidance of humanity. It
contributed greatly to the propagation of the Faith, of the
Islamic Call, among peoples who, though ignorant of Arabic,
were impressed and attracted both by its melody on recital,
and the simple truth of its creed.
That is the Divine Book of the Divine Call destined to

remain intact as long as Time.
"Lo ! We, even we, reveal the Qur’an, and Lo ! We verily

are its Guardian" Surah: Al Hagar, verse. 9).
Amongst the various ways by which God guarded the

Qur’an, and which materially helped the propagation of its Call,
is the continuous recital of one or other of its Surahs
throughout the Muslim world by night and day. It is recited by
the devout at night, especially in the small hours before dawn.
Verses of it, in addition to the opening Surah, are recited by
every Muslim in every one of the five prayers incumbent on all
Muslims day and night, from dawn to dawn. It is recited in
ceremonies and obsequies, in schools and mosques. It is read
or heard by one Muslim or another almost every where anytime
of the day. This keeps it always in the Muslim’s ear, though it
required more than hearing to make a Muslim act up on it, and
still more to make on him live up to it. At any rate, its
continuous recital is a continuous reminder to all.
It is in the nature of every serious call to maintain itself by

all means. It seeks all ways to the hearts of men that it may
take root there. That is why it over takes them at home, at
school, at clubs and at entertain meanest, that it may become
to them a fixed creed.
The role of art in attaining this difficult aim is now

universally admitted. It plays an important part in almost every
63
movement. Judaism, It will be remembered established itself
through art, for example through the psalms, from which may
be quoted.
"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth make a
loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with
the harp: with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets
and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the
King. " (Psalm 98).
So did the Call of Islam, by making of the literary art a most

capable medium and very effective means to establish and
fortify itself, making its tenets reach the utmost recesses of the
human heart.
This it did through the Holy Qur’an, the highest linguistic

achievement in this and in future ages.
64
CHAPTER VI
THE MANNER OF THE CALL
1. - Utilization of National Feeling
The Muhammadan Call made use of every possible right

inducement to its acceptance. It is not every or any inducement
that it used. It must be the right inducement that has in it
nothing wrong, nothing false. It is God's own Call to humanity
through His Messenger Muhammad, and it must therefore have
followed God's own natural laws which govern human nature.
We shall therefore make a study of its manner, in the hope of
discovering something of those laws.
This Call, though religious, ridiculing particularly idol-

worship sacred to the Arabs, yet it did not lose sight of the fact
that those Arabs were chosen by God for first accepting the
new Faith then carrying it to other nations. Further, the Apostle
himself through whom the call was raised was one of them,
and like themselves, a citizen of Arabia.
"There hath come unto thee a messenger, (one) of

yourselves, unto whom aught that ye are overburdened is
grievous, full of concern for you, for the believers full of pity,
merciful" (Surah IX, 128).
Had this Call neglected to hint at the fact that the Arabs
were a distinguished and chosen people worthy of carrying this
mission, and that its propagation needed their hearty
collaboration, one spring of action would have been neglected,
and the desired success would have been much delayed.
The Arabs were not a people rendered corrupt and helpless
65
through the evils of generations, as some suppose, but were a
people full of energy, possessing cardinal virtues particularly
courage, generosity, and the active tendency towards Liberty
and equality.
When still a young man, the Prophet joined an alliance

constituted by certain chiefs of Quraish, called the pact of "Al
Fudool", in which they pledged themselves to support "the
oppressed" until he got his due. Of this alliance the Prophet
says:
"I would not take the choicest of riches in place of an

alliance that I had witnessed at the house of Ibn Gadaan, and
should I be appealed to in its name, I would respond at once".
Had the Arabs been loose and decrepit in character, it

would naturally have been almost impossible to turn them, in
so short a period, into a nation which, in a still shorter period,
were able to strike North, East and West carrying the torches of
liberty, justice and equality wherever they went.
The strong elements in the Arab community lacked only

guidance and leadership to get the upper hand. They were like
coals smoldering under ashes; they did not glow though they
gave heat and warmth. The Apostle blew into them and they
glowed turning other elements into fire. He in time unified and
integrated the elements of force in the Arabs into power to be
directed where it should.
Through Islam he restored to them Faith, faith in God and
faith in themselves, as a Muslim became the best among
nations. So the divine Book tells them:
66
"Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for
mankind. To enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency; and ye
believe in Allah".
They are told further that as long as they maintain on their

part as a community, such a standard of moral excellence, their
distinction over other nations will continue in this world and in
the Hereafter:
"Thus we have appointed you a middle nation that ye may

be witnesses against mankind, and that the Messenger may be
a witness against you". (Surah II, 143 in part).
The appeal to Arab national feeling was mostly incidental.

but not the less powerful for that. Here is another prominent
example: Muslims ill prayer turn their faces five times daily to
the House of God, to the Kaabah:
"Allah hath appointed the Kaabah, the sacred House a

standard for mankind". (Surah 5, verse 97).
The Kaabah was built by Abraham and Ismail by God's

order. It happened to be the first place sanctified by the Arabs
through long-established tradition, from the time of Ismail,
their forefather. They firmly believed that its sacredness, it
holy nature, was the reason for the failure of the foreign
Abraham to gain possession of the holy spot with the
sacrilegious intention of converting it into a church. They
honoured it so much and derived honour therefrom, that on the
occasion of rebuilding it, the Quraish tribes nearly fought
together for the honour of laying ((the black stone )) back in
its proper place. The matter was nicely settled5 by the Prophet
himself when in his thirty fifth year, that is five years before his
Mission.
It is remarkable that Muslims at first were directed to face
5
A cloak was spread, the black stone put on it, a representative of each tribe was selected, the
representatives were asked each to take hold of a suitable part of the cloak and to lift it all together
near to the niche were the stone was to be put. Then Muhammad himself put it in place, not one of
the idolaters.
67
towards Jerusalem, and not the Kaabah, in prayer. This
continued throughout the Meccan period and for a short period
at Madinah. The reason at Mecca was obviously lest the
Meccans would take facing the Kaabah idols as an act of
worship, but it might have served also as a silent protest
against the hostile attitude of the idolaters towards the
Prophet and his companions, forcing the emigration of the
latter to Abyssinia and ultimately the emigration generally
called the flight of the Muhagireen to Madinah.
The practice at Madinah was a natural continuation to that at

Mecca, but it might have also served the purpose of reconciling
for a time the people of the Scripture, as the Christians and
Jews are called, to distinguish them from the idolaters, Facing
towards Jerusalem at Madinah was a hard trial to both the Arab
believers and the Jews of Madinah. The former though wishing
in their hearts to face towards Mecca continued to face towards
Jerusalem in obedience to the Divine order, but the latter failed
in the trial, mistaking it for a sign of superiority of Judaism.
When the Divine order came to face in prayer towards Mecca,
for good, the believers at Madinah, including the Prophet,
rejoiced and probably disbelievers at Mecca also.
God has ordained His House, the Kaabah for all Muslims the
Arabs included as a symbol of unity and security
"And I remember when we made the House (at Mecca) a

resort for mankind and a sanctuary (saying) Take as your place
of worship tile place where Abraham stood (to pray). And We
imposed a duty upon Abraham and Ismail (saying) : Purify My
House for those who go around and those who meditate therein
68
and those who bend down and prostrate themselves (in
worship) !. (Surah II, 125).
So was the pilgrimage to this Holy place ordained one of

the cardinals of Islam - an imposed obligation on those who
can afford to do it. Once in a life time, Pilgrims have to go
seven times round the Kaabah. This "tawaf "is one of the
necessary performance of any pilgrimage, without the
observance of which the whole pilgrimage is invalidated, This
going round the House of God, this " tawaf " , is not a mere
ceremonial devoid of purpose; its signifance is well brought out
by a distinguished Western-Muslim writer Muhammad Asad
(Leopold Weiss) when he says in his " Islam at the Cross roads
" :6 (If we move in a circle around some object, we thereby
establish that object as the central point of our action, The
Kaabah, towards which every Muslim turns his face in prayer,
symbolizes the Oneness of God. The bodily movement of the
pilgrims in the " tawaf " symbolizes the activity of human life ! .
Consequently the tawaf implies that not only our devotional
thoughts, but also our practical life, our actions and endeavors,
must have the idea of God and His Oneness for their centre - in
accordance with the words of the Holy Qur'an.
"I have not created Jinn and Man but that they should
worship Me". (Surah 51, verse 56),
Some of the rites observed in pilgrimage before the

Islamic Call, in pre-Islamic days, were retained by Islam since,
being remnants of the correct rites ordained from the time of
Abraham and Ishmael (Ismail), they were in no sense
contradictory with the cardinals of the Faith or the essentials of
Monotheism. As pointed out above, pilgrimage rites are of
essential significance to all Muslims, but their partial natural
agreement with pre-Islamic practice incidentally served the
purpose of satisfying Arab national feeling, and thus there was
no impassable gulf between the new and the old.
6
P. 16, Islam at the crossroads.
69
It is impossible for any nation to break suddenly loose
from all established traditions and beliefs once for all. Such an
all round radical change, would have made the Islamic Call
impossible of realization. It was Providential, therefore, that
there was some common basis of right and truth between the
new and the old to serve as a meeting ground to settle the
points of difference according to Truth and Right and Reason. It
helps the cause of the new to make the people of the old feel
that the new Call fights only against what is wrong and false,
confirming what is right and true in the standing order of
things.
The foresighted reformer versed in peoples' psychology

and social evolution should make his new bricks from the soil
on which he is trying to raise his super structure, and from its
rocks should cut and chisel his foundation stones. It seems to
be a general social law that the present derives its very
existence wholly or partially from the past, and the future is
built wholly or partially on the present. To go contrary to this is
to contradict historical fact and ignore the divine laws
operating in the sphere of human activity.
It is natural to suppose that the Islamic Call observed

those divine laws to perfection. It was as perfect an application
of them as is possible to humanity. It was God's Call guided by
Him through His Apostle according to His natural laws. It used
the right natural springs of individual and collective human
activity in the right way. The right appeal to national feeling as
far as it could rightly go was one such example. Another was
the right appeal to Hope, justifiable hope raised to a maximum
because based on maximum conformity to natural laws, the
laws of the Author of Nature, human or otherwise, God's
obedience being the most general form of these laws. Brilliant
future here and complete eternal happiness in the Hereafter
were comprised by that Hope. What greater hope can there
be ? What greater guarantee for its realisation than God's own
Promise in His revealed word:
70
"Allah hath promised such of you as believe and do good
works that He will surely make them to succeed (the present
rulers) in the earth even as He caused those who were before
them to succeed (others); and that He will surely establish for
them their religion which He hath approved for them, and will
give them in exchange safety after their fear. They serve Me.
They ascribe nothing as partner unto Me. Those who disbelieve
after that they are the miscreants". (Surah XXIV, ver. 55).
This divine promise still stands for all who fulfill its
conditions. In it lies the real hope for Muslims today Arabs and
all. But at the time of its revelation it bad a special application
to the Arabs, and in fact was to them fulfilled to the letter.
This and similar Divine promises released the latent

potentialities of the believing Arab tribes who were in time
driven forth by the heat of faith and power of conviction,
disestablishing old sovereignties and monarchies, raising the
tremendous cry ("God is Greater (than All else). God is Greater
(than All else), I testify that there is no true God but Allah, and
that Muhammad is surely Allah's Prophet".
71
2- Faith In Revealed Books
The Islamic Call in the core recognises and acknowledges

the fact that it is an extension of the Call of Abraham the father
of the Arabs through his son Ismael; so says the Holy Qur’an:
"The faith of your father Abraham, He hath named you

Muslims of old time and in this (Scripture)" (Surah XXII, 78).
This means that the followers of Abraham and the Muslims

are one in that their respective creeds constitute orthodox
Islam; further, that the prophet Muhammad was divinely
commissioned to restore to its former status the first creed of
Monotheism in its full strength and cogency:
"Lo! those of mankind who have the best claim to

Abraham are those who followed him, and this Prophet and
those who believe (with him) and Allah is the protecting Friend
of the believers" (Surah III, 68)
As regards the core of Abraham’s religion our knowledge

of it is restricted to what is mentioned in the holy Qur’an. Still
we can emphasize the fact borne out by the above, that the two
religions, if not identical in rites and legislation, are at least
near enough when account is taken of time and circumstances.
The Islamic religion acknowledges the revealed books

primarily the Torah and the Gospel. These are stated to have
been divinely revealed to Moses and Jesus respectively for the
guidance of humanity in part. As Jesus was preceded by Moses,
so God sent Muhammad after Jesus to terminate the line of
72
Prophets and Apostles. This point the holy Qur’an elucidates in
the following text:
"Lo ! We did reveal the Torah, where in is guidance and

light, by which the Prophets who surrendered (unto Allah)
73
judged the Jews, and the rabbis and the doctors (judged) by
such of Allah’s Scripture as they were bidden to observe, and
thereunto were they witnesses So fear not mankind, but fear
Me. And barter not My revelations for a little gain. Whoso
judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed : such are
disbelievers.. And We caused Jesus, Son of Mary, to follow in
their footsteps; confirming that which was (revealed) before
him in the Torah and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein
is guidance and light, confirming that which was (revealed)
before it in the Torah - a guidance and an admonition unto
those who ward off (evil) And unto thee have We revealed the
Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was
before it, and a watcher over it" (Surah V, verses 44, 46, 48 - in
part).
Islam then did not come to pull down past religions but to
corroborate and acknowledge them and correct any
interpolations. It admitted the past function and role of
Christianity and Judaism, and their respective contribution to
human welfare. Any criticism passed by Islam on them as they
stand at present is ascribed to interpolations and wrong
interpretations introduced by certain of the clergy.
"O ye who believe! Lo!! many of the (Jewish) rabbis and

the (Christian) monks devour the wealth of mankind wantonly
and debar (men) from the way of Allah ". (Surah IX, 34 - in
part). This point is admitted by H. G. Wells who remarks that
74
"the text of the Gospels, though probably tampered with during
this period, was not destroyed"7.
This right attitude of the Call of Islam was a strong factor

in converting to Islam from Christianity and Judaism many of
the Arab tribes in the Ghassanite and Muntherite States and in
Yemen. They could not refuse the Islamic Call with its Arab
Prophet, and its revealed Arabic Book, believing as it does in all
divine prophets and messengers, and in the Torah and the
Gospel as originally revealed. How could they have refused it
and continued in another religion containing as it were much
that was contrary to their nature and which certain
circumstances made them adopt? They found in the New Faith,
in addition to the right monotheism, a wonderful system
combining all that was essential and general in past religious
legislations with much that was new and consonant with
human nature. As an example of the confirmatory part, may be
mentioned what God Himself states in the Holy Qur’an relating
to retribution in the Torah, which still stands in Islam as Divine
law:
"And We prescribed for them therein : The life for the life
and the eye for the eye, and the nose for the nose, and the ear
for the ear, and the tooth for the tooth and for wounds
retaliation, But whoso forgoeth it (in the way of charity) it shall
be expiation for him". (Surah V, 45 - in part)
The Torah is a heavenly book, and it is impossible that the
7
Outhine of history ; p. 542
75
permanent part of its legislation would not be reinstated by the
final divine book the Qur'an. This fact was overlooked by many
scholars in their study of the Islamic Call, Certain polytheists in
the early phase of the Call accused it of having been taken from
Judaism and Christianity. In this unwarrantable assumption
they were followed by Orientalists and foreign non-Muslim
historians of religion, especially George Foot Moore, of Harvard
University, America, who claims that all the dogmas of
Muhammad are derived from Christianity and Judaism, that the
symbolic ablution is based on Judaic rites, that many terms
used in prayer are derived from the Hebrew, and that Muslim
belief in paradise is derived from corresponding Mosaic belief.8
Had the bias of such researchers been less, their honesty

in pursuit of knowledge been more, they would not have
maintained this erroneous claim, since they know. that Christ
of their belief is only a replica of Buddha in the belief of the
Hindous who also call Buddha the Messiah, believe him to have
been begotten by the Spirit, a god who has taken on a human
body, the Saviour of mankind who gave himself up as a
sacrifice for the redemption of man and delivering humanity
from sin. Nor was there any necessity for such a writer to take
trouble to misrepresent a fact emphasised by the Holy Qur’an
itself, namely that Islam, that is surrender to God, the One,
was the true religion of all past Prophets, that all truly revealed
books come from God and therefore should never disagree in
principle or in fact, any such disagreement being necessarily
due to human interpolation or misinterpretation.
A newly revealed religion should naturally put matters

right concerning previous religions, especially the one
immediately preceding it, confirming the true side, pointing out
and condemning accretions and omissions with suitable
legislation modifications to suit change in conditions. So did
Christianity, concerning Judaism, and so did Islam concerning
both. To correct external additions, and omissions is what is
meant by the Holy Qur’an being a watcher over previous
Scripture. Such could not have been the case had Islam been
8
George Foot Moore; The History of Religions; pp. 398, 477, 478, 488.
76
taken from Judaism and Christianity as Jewish and Christian
writers claim. Islam differs essentially in important respects
from past religions as they now stand. It puts for example an
end to all belief in human divinities, completely denouncing the
doctrine of the Divine in the form of man which is basic in
Christianity, as in Buddhism before it. This in fact is one main
Qur’anic theme. A few quotations will serve to illustrate the
point.
72) "They surely disbelieve who say : Lo ! Allah is the

Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said : O children of
Israel ! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Lo! whoso
ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden
Paradise. His abode is Fire; For evil-doers there will be no
helpers.
73) "They surely disbelieve who say : Lo ! Allah is the

third of three ; when there is no God save the One God. If they
desist not from so saying a painful doom will fall on those of
them who disbelieve".
75) "The Messiah, son of Mary, was none other than a
messenger, Messengers (the like of whom) had passed away
77
before him And his mother was a saintly woman. And they both
used to eat (earthly) food. See how we make the revelations
clear for them, and see how they are turned away ". (Surah V.
after Pickthall’s Explanatory Translation)
The Prophet stressed the fact that he was only human for
fear of Muslims claiming for him what Christians claim for
Christ. This was recognised and appreciated by H. G. Welles
when he wrote : " Warned by the experiences of Christianity
Mohammad was very emphatic in insisting that he himself was
merely a man and so saved his teaching from much corruption
and misrepresentation"9
Another illustration in point is the denial by Islam of the

view maintained by Christianity that man is by nature evil, and
that the body inherits Adam’s sin when he responded to the call
of the devil, leading it is claimed, to the statement of Jesus "
My Kingdom is not of this world ", which led to monastic
retirement.
Careful inquiry can find further essential differences

between Islam and other religions - differences which arise
from its being based on human nature arid so will appeal to
every one of sound taste especially to the Arabs. It is not in
human nature, and less still for an Arab, to respond to such a
command by Jesus: (Ye have heard that it hath been said an
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that
ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right
cheek turn to him the other also ). (St. Matt., 5138, 39) Again,
undoubtedly the judgment in the Gospel relating to open alms-
giving is somewhat harsh where it says (Dont give your alms
before men, to be seen by them, otherwise ye have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven), (St. Matt 6), if this is taken,
as it usually is, to mean that all alms should be given in secret
The Holy Qur’an adopts a milder tone.
9
Outline of History, p. 533
78
"If you publish your alms-giving, it is well, but you hide it
and give it to the poor, it will better for you and will atone for
some of your ill-deeds. Allah Informed of what ye do". (Surah
Al Baqara, ver. 271).
Such consideration of human nature by the Islamic Call

was far- reaching. It disconcerted religions already in the field,
and moved many of their believers to become converts to Islam,
especially when the Divine Words struck their ears
"And he whoso sekeeth as religion other than Islam (the

Surrender to Allah) it will not be accepted from him and he will
be a loser in the Hereafter" . (Surah Al -Imran, ver. 85).
And also the divine announcement, decided and clear:
"He it is who hath sent His Messenger with the Guidance

and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over
all religions, however much the idolaters may averse" (Surah
Al-Tawbah, ver 33).
79
3. Gradation in Reformation
On a previous occasion was discussed the question of how

a call for reform or revolution can gain ground and ultimately
establish itself through judicious application of psychological
principles, pointing out that such a call can in no way eradicate,
once for all, long stanching beliefs and customs, but must
disestablish and supplant them very gradually according to a
well considered plan as occasion and circumstances permit.
This was the course taken by the Islamic Call in the reforms it
intro duced. Gradation, where possible, was the rule especially
in legislation, otherwise it would have been almost impossible
for the masses to obey.
Fasting for example was not divinely ordained for a month

all at once. It was first recommended for one day (Ashora) in
the year, a day used to be kept by the Arabs in pre-Islamic
days and also by the Jews of Madinah. Then came fasting for
the duration of one month "Ramadan", with the licence for
those who could keep it only with great difficulty to break it,
provided that they should feed one poor man each broken day.
Then came fasting without this licence except for the old.
Under certain conditions, such as being ill or on travel, a
Muslim can break the fast provided he should observe an equal
number of days when he returns to normal conditions. Thus a
reasonable institution of fasting was gradually established.
Similarly, drinking wine and other intoxicants became

gradually forbidden. Wine being a common drink in pre-Islamic
days, sudden prohibition of it would have had undue
consequences. It is almost impossible to abstain all at once,
and sudden prohibition may lead to indulging the pernicious
habit in secret, which is sinful, may physically harm those who
honestly observe it, or may even hinder conversion to Islam,
which is the main aim in view.
Hence the reasonableness of gradual prohibition, and this

was the course adopted by Islam. It first declared it more
harmful than useful, and the wiser Muslims foresook it of their
own when they heard God's answer to a question addressed to
the Prophet concerning it and gambling.
80
"They question thee about wines and games of chance.
Say : In both is great Sin and some utility for men ; but the sin
of them is greater than their usefulness". (Surah Al Baqara,
verse 299 in part).
This pronouncement admits of considerable latitude of

interpretation. Some of the Prophet's companions took it to
mean prohibition, and some did not see in it anything so
definite, while the Prophet himself contradicted neither
interpretation. Then came virtual prohibition by Muslims to
pray when drunk, the five prayers being distributed throughout
day and night.
"O ye who believe ! Draw not near unto prayer when ye

are drunken, till ye know that which ye utter". (Surah Al Nisaa,
verse 43 in part).
Then came absolute and complete prohibition in the Divine

words revealed in the second year of the Higrah.
"O ye who believe! Wines and games of chance and idols

and divining arrows are only an infamy of Satan's handwork.
Leave it aside in order that ye may succeed". (Surah Al Ma'ida,
verse 90).
Many of the duties in Islam, such as pilgrimage came to be
81
obligatory only later on in the development of the Islamic Call.
At the beginning, the Call Was centred in establishing
monotheism and eradicating polytheism. The main evil then
prevalent in the Arab community was idol worship, a wrong
which not only indicated degenerate thought but made all
spiritual progress impossible. Against it the Islamic Call
directed all its effort. And it needed it all. Idolatry, it will be
remembered, was for generations the established worship,
instilled in the young, practised by the masses, and sustained
by a heirachy of temple keepers and by all who drew from it
either prestige or material gain. That its exposure and
suppression was the main theme of the Meccan surahs, is
illustrated by one of the earliest, the Surah of "Al-Mozzammil"
or the "Enshrouded One" from which may be quoted.
"And remember the name of thy Lord and devote thyself to

Him with a complete devotion Lord of the East and the West ;
there is no God save Him ; so choose Him, alone for thy
defender". (Surah 73, ver 8, 9).
Most of this chapter and the subsequent chapters advance

arguments to establish monotheism and condemn idol-worship
as an approach to God, whereas in respect of Divine cardinal
obligations in the Meccan surahs, prayers only is emphasized,
alms-giving or Zakat belonging to revelations at Madinah.
The fact that the Revealed Book of the Islamic Call was not
revealed as a whole but in gradual stages over twenty three
years is due, amongst other reasons, to the developmental
character of the Islamic Reform, lest both those who believed
and those called on to believe be bewildered and overwhelmed
by the complexity of the far reaching Reform. Questions used
to be asked, and situations used to arise, and the Prophet dealt
with each inspired by revelation or on his own initiative by
reason under divine correction. Such verdict by word or by
action became an authoritative pronouncement binding on all
Muslims.
82
It is now generally admitted that any idea or call, party or
body, crowding itself or its constitution with detailed articles,
can scarcely secure the response necessary for its success; and
those responsible for it may meet with violent criticism when
matters grow difficult, and circumstances unfavourable, the
hostile critic finding the crowded material subtle means for
breathing his venom and defaming the cause.
It will be remembered that the Socialist movement started

by Marx and Friedrich Engels centred around a ((Manifesto))
issued by both comprising ten articles which presented the
socialistic attitude in a moderate practical manner coupled with
a demand that the German government should put it into effect.
Such practical moderate simple presentation laid the basis for
the later success of the call of socialism.
83
CHAPTER VII.
SLOGANS OF THE CALL
1. - Faith
The Islamic Call was an ideal call because it knew how to

conquer the human heart, how to reach its utmost recesses,
and how to direct it. It made faith its first feature, its first
slogan, firm faith in the basic principles of the Call and its
objectives; deep faith in the Oneness of God and in the
Prophet's Mission; established faith unshakeable by tempest or
cyclone; strong faith unaffected by persecution or torture; faith
of the highest order in its most striking form. That is why the
Muslims of old were given in truth the appellation of the
Faithful.
That is again why the two terms Faith and Islam are
usually synonymous as may be seen from the Divine text
"O ye who believe ! Choose not your fathers nor your

brethren for friends if they take pleasure in disbelief rather
than faith". (Surah Al-Tawbah, verse 23 in part).
Again that is why Paradise is made the final abode of the
faithful acting up to their faith. The Qur'an constantly
addresses true Muslims as those who believe, that is believe in
the Faith, the Arabic verb in fact being derived from the the
very word "Faith" to emphasise that sublime trait that
distinguishes them:
"O ye who believe ! Bow down and prostrate your selves,

and worship your Lord and do good, that ye may prosper"
(Surah Al Hag, verse 77) .
84
God will not accept anything done by a Muslim unless it
proceeds from true belief. Of two mosques, one built in true
faith, and the other in hypocrisy for untoward purposes, the
Prophet was divinely ordered to use the former but not to
stand in the latter, which was subsequently demolished in fact.
"Never stand in it. A place of worship which was founded

upon duty to (Allah) from the first day is more worthy that
thou shouldst stand (to pray) therein wherein are men who
love to purify themselves Allah loveth the purifiers. Is he who
founded his building upon duty to Allah and His good pleasure
better; or he who founded his building on the brink of a
crumbling overhanging precipice so that it toppled with him
into the fire of bell ? Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk. The
building which they built will never cease to be a misgiving in
their hearts, unless their hearts are to be torn to pieces. Allah
is Knower, Wise ( Surah Al-Tawbah, verses 108-110).
The true believer is he who rejoices and feels his faith

growing and increasing when a surah of the Holy Qur'an
revealed:
85
"And when ever a surah is revealed there are some of
them who say : which one of you hath this increased him in
faith? As for those who believe, it hath increased them in faith
and they rejoice (therefor) as for those in whose hearts is
disease, it only addeth wickedness to their wickedness, and
they die while they are disbelievers".
(Surah Al Tawbab, verse 124, l 25).
And the true believers are those whose hearts
submissively and resignedly respond to God's revealed word at
the invocation of His name:
"They only are the (true) Believers whose hearts fear

when Allah is mentioned, and when the revelations of Allah are
recited unto them they increase their faith, and who trust in
their Lord. Who establish worship and spend of what We have
bestowed on them. Those are they who are in truth believers.
For them are grades (of honour) with their Lord, and pardon,
and a beautiful provision. (Surah Al Anfal, verses 2-4).
86
True Muslims because of their faith, are strong and valiant,
however limited in number. Their hearts, full of faith drive
them to martyrdom, to persistence in the pursuit of Truth, to
devotion to principle, and to sacrifice for the Call. By such faith
the victory was achieved by the Muslim few over the
polytheistic many of Quraish in the big battle of "Badr" To this
truth concerning the unimportance of number compared with
faith, God recalled the attention of the Prophet, upon whom be
peace and gladdened his heart, by the address divine:
"Oh! Prophet ! Allah is sufficient for thee and those who

follow thee of the believers. O Prophet Exhort the believers to
fight. If there be of you twenty steadfast they shall overcome
two hundred, and if there be of you a hundred steadfast they
shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, the latter
being ignorant and unwise". (Surah Al Anfal, ver. 64, 65).
No Islamic duty can really be discharged unless

proceeding from faith and good will. This is expressed by the
Prophet, upon whom be Peace in the words.
"Actions are judged by intentions; and for every one what

he intended". Well sound intention is one of the essentials of
Prayer indeed of all religious duties. Otherwise what effect will
the performance of these duties have on the human heart if it
be purely mechanical ? One must be conscious of his religious
duty throughout to do himself good and justice.
Inseparable from belief in God is belief in Fate and Destiny

from Him, whether sweet or bitter, blissful or baneful. This
attitude on the part of the Muslims of old made them fearless in
the face of deadly peril, and made them even seek martyrdom.
Such full faith is indicated by the Holy text:
87
"Those unto whom men said: Lo the people have gathered
against you, therefore fear them, (the threat of danger) but
increased them in faith, and they said: Allah is sufficient for us!
Most excellent is He in whom we trust ! So they returned with
favour from Allah, and no harm touched them. They followed
the good pleasure of Allah, and Allah is of Infinite bounty".
(Surah Al Ìmran, verses 173,174).
And now, with this faith firmly established in the hearts of

the early Muslims and filling their souls, can you give ear to the
empty unwarrantable assumptions made by Western historians
that the reason why the Arabs joined Islam was only "their
hope for the many spoils to be gained in the battles for the new
faith, and their further hope to substitute for their waste rocky
deserts the more fertile and luxurious lands of Persia, Syria,
and Egypt"?10 Or that the "expansion of the Arab army was at
best an emigration movement of energetic hardy people,
impelled by hunger and destitution to leave their unproductive
deserts and overrun more fertile countries occupied by more
fortunate neighbours?" 11
No ! It was by Faith, and Faith alone, that the

Muhammadan Call achieved its unique success - a success
without parallel in the history of calls for reform. It knew how
to exercise full spiritual dominion over man, evoke in him full
emotional response, spur him on to miraculous achievements,
and, in a short time, to expand North and South, extending his
10
The preaching of Islam by T. Arnold, pp. 46, 47.
11
The preaching of Islam by T. Arnold, pp. 46, 47.
88
dominion East and West. It made new generations and
breathed life into man's conscience epoch after epoch.
89
2. - Good Deeds
This is, after faith, the second characteristic, the second
slogan, of the Muhammadan Call.
It is work free from remissness, false imaginativeness, or

day-dreaming; effective work for the welfare of the whole
community and in the interest of the Call; work that drives
reform forward with a sure, powerful hand.
For, nothing is more detrimental to nations than having

life all leisure, to individuals than procrastination and laziness,
to a call or cause than being based on empty theories and
uncontrolled fancy.
The Islamic Call, knowing this fact, made good work a

prominent feature of the true Muslim, thus coupling faith with
its outward expression. Otherwise what avails faith without
fruition into good work? One putting forth no effort towards its
realisation, his belief will be useless, of no avail.
I know of no other call which equals Islam in exhortation

for work and in insisting on it as a characteristic of the true
believer. Islam denies monasticism; in the words of the
Prophet, peace be upon him, there is "No monasticism in
Islam". To devote oneself entirely to worship, to the exclusion
of all other human activities, is foreign to Islam, as is known
from the teaching and life of the Prophet and his companions
especially his second Caliph and commander of the Faithful
Omar. No religion as far as I know has ever honoured labour
and associated it with belief as Islam did. To quote only one of
many verses to the point in the Holy Qur'an.
"And those who believe and do good work., them verily

We shall house in lofty dwellings of the Garden underneath
which rivers flow. These they will secure".
90
The Holy verse goes on to emphasise the noble meaning
by an adage that shall stand for ever ; "How sweet the garden
of the toilers" .(Surah XXIX, 58)
So much importance is attached by the Islamic call to

good work because it is the only true expression of the reality
and value of the creed. Belief may be passive, may not express
itself in outward act. Such a passive believer is not worthy of
the true Faith because true faith demands from one firm belief
in the Call, through active participation in it on the one hand,
and on the other, through enlightening those responsible for
the call and its propagation as to the way he thinks best for
securing it, and the difficulties he has met in doing his part! So
will the call be served and disseminated far and wide.
This positivity God ordered His apostle to make plain to

the believers in the Divine words:
"And Say (unto them) Act ! Allah will behold your actions,
and (so will) His messenger and the believers, and ye will be
brought back to the Knobbier of the invisible and visible, and
He will tell you what ye used to do". (Surah IX, 105).
In the light of this positivity, the Islamic community has

been divided into three categories : the patients, the workers,
and the fighters, and nothing else is indicated by the holy text:
"Recite, then, of the Qur'an that which is easy for you; He

knoweth that there are sick folk among you, and some who
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seek of Allah's bounty, while others (still) fight for the cause of
Allah ! (Surah 73, verse in part).
It is also this positivity which calls upon believers to

actively seek their living thereafter having attended the Friday
congregational prayers letting for the moment work aside:
"And when the prayer is ended, then disperse in the land

and seek of Allah's bounty, and remember Allah much, that ye
may be successful". (Surah 62,10).
Contemporary Calls preaching socialism, fascism and

democracy put at the head of programs working for the good of
the state that the produce of the individual may increase, and
hence the income of both individual and nation. A successful
state mobilizes individual efforts for the exploitation of national
resources, putting to use every tract of land, big or small.
A strong state has little labour disturbances or union

strikes, all being busy developing resources and increasing
production. Only recently have states come to know and fully
appreciate these facts with the advance of science and the
widening horizon of human thought, yet they were known to
the Muslim nation when other parts of the world floundered in
ignorance and enjoyed it.
The Islamic call could and did recruit and enlist the
services of almost every individual and Muslim believer,
integrating all into one powerful whole working with faith for
the welfare of the newly risen nation. There was no room for
bloody disturbances similar to those previously stirred up by
the tribes, and which in fact used up the vitality of the Arab
race, threatening it with ultimate destruction. There was no
room for that killing poverty which was the real cause for tribal
strife. All took to work earnestly and sincerely, and the Arab
mind found its way out of the narrow circuit within which it
used to revolve, to a sphere world-wide, in order to deliver the
92
Islamic Call a permanent message of enlightenment and
guidance to mankind. Only later during periods of weakness
and disunion was heard the factious discordant tune, but there
had been no echo of it at the time of the strength and glow of
the Call.
In its slogans, in its distinctive features, the Islamic Call is

a living ideal for every group, individual or nation. The groups
believe and carry into effect what they believe in; the individual
subscribes to a principle and works for it; the nation holds a
view with unanimity and keeps on calling for it, fighting for it
until it is translated into fact, however great the sacrifice
entailed.
The Apostle of the Islamic Call was an outstanding

example, the practical ideal to the true Believer, persistent in
Faith, unshaken by calamity, unweakened by obstruction and
unyielding under adversity. His history is true testimony of his
entire devotion to his Mission voicing it loud and clear, and
translating it perfectly into action for the good of the Muslim
community.
Muhammad was the perfect practical expression of All the

characteristics of the call divinely raised through him for the
guidance of individuals and of humanity at large, the two most
prominent being Faith and Good Work.
Let us, thin, follow him and take him as our Master and
Leader in every reform we wish to attain.
93
CHAPTER VIII
SAFEGUARDING THE CAll
1- Against Meccan Danger
The light of the Mohammadan Call, it will be remembered

emanated in Mecca where stands the praying place of Abraham
and the sanctuary of all the Arabs then. and where dwelt
whose privilege and honour amongst the Arabs was the
keeping of the Holy House. That privilege gave them great
prestige which largely contributed to their prosperity and
amenities. To the Holy House, then, they owed their riches,
their livelihood and even their existence. They were therefore
alive to any danger real or imaginary, which threatened its
sanctity and would unite to overcome the source of the danger
at all costs. We have already seen the fate that the call of Zeid
son of Nofile, prior to the Muhammadan Call, met at their hands,
and the sort of resistance meted to the Prophet and his
followers in the earlier stages of the conflict.
This accounts for the subsequent long cruel persecution of

the Prophet and his adherents who had to seek refuge
elsewhere. That was the reason for the two emigrations to
Abyssinia and the great emigration to Madinah. The Meccans-
planned the murder of the prophet himself knowing well that
by so doing the whole movement would collapse as did Zeid's
attempt against their idolatry before. They resorted to this
desperate measure, having in vain denounced him to their
tribes first as poet and magician, and then as a mad man, and
having in vain gone even to the length of ostracizing him, and
his near relations who sympathized with him, in a rocky defile
for three years.
Against this prolonged Meccan danger to him and his

Mission as pointed out in a previous occasion, sought the
protection of other tribes as occasion permitted, especially
during the pilgrimage season recommending himself to them as
God's Messenger asking them to accept and defend him. Had
they done, the centre of the Call would have moved to where
the protection was available, with a much better chance of
success than at Mecca.
94
The Aus and Khazrag who swore him allegiance gave him
a way out of the difficulty. Here, then at Yathrib (Madinah), he
would find a wholesome atmosphere permitting popular open
preaching of Islam, capable of developing into a really Islamic
city, and affording a stronghold for himself and his Mission.
But the people of Quraish were aware of the allegiance

sworn at Aqabah and of its disastrous implications to
themselves and their privileged position aiming as it did at
protecting Muhammad and safeguarding his Call. They instantly
embarked on a plot for his murder to avoid his emigration.
Fortunately, through Divine help they were outmanoeuvred,
and he escaped on the very night assigned for the execution of
their monstrous plot.
At Madinah he found a more extensive scope and a more

productive soil, free from the vehement resistance he formerly
experienced. In a very short time he reconciled the Aus and the
Khazrag tribes on the one hand and instituted a brotherhood
between the helpers and the Immigrants on the other. He
integrated them all into one whole, harmonious within, and
showing one front without against all danger especially from
Quraish. He sent out at intervals a series of expeditions, the
first of which commanded by his uncle Hamzah, to intimidate
Quraish, and to detect, if possible, any offensive measure they
might have planned.
Thus matters continued for a time, each side waiting for

the opportunity to settle the dispute forcibly in his favour. This
led to the big pitched battle of Badr. It was admittedly a
decisive battle in the history of Islam, because it strengthened
the Muslims' morale and increased them to collective self-
consciousness or group-consciousness, to use a psychological
term, having given them the upper hand over an enemy of
greater prestige, better equipment, and almost treble their
number.
Still the battle, decisive in this sense, was not decisive in

the sense of having annihilated the martial power of Quraish.
On the contrary it impelled them to rally and put forth their
collected strength that they might take their revenge and
restore their lost prestige. They pledged the rich caravan which
was the cause of Badr, cargo and all, to the meditated struggle
against the Muslims. This resulted in the big pitched battled of
95
Ohod in which the- Muslims, victorious at the beginning were
defeated in the end although it was not a crushing defeat, since
it did not affect the prestige of the Prophet himself, as had
primarily been the purpose of the enemy. Quraish did not stop
there. They did their best to incite other tribes against Islam
and the Muslims. This led to a series of campaigns the greatest
of which was the campaign of Al Ahzab "the Clans" or of Al-
Khandak (the Moat), as it is variously called. More than 10,000
strong attacked Madinah which was saved only through the
prophet causing a moat to be dug in time at the vulnerable part,
himself taking part in the digging.
On this occasion the Prophet's efficient tactics, the

counsel of his near companions and the valour and faith his
soldiers, stood them in good stead and held the enemy off. It
was in one of the skirmishes, when Amre lbn Wud with some
enemy cavalry leapt the moat, that the youthful hero Ali killed
the veteran knight in a famous duel. The situation became very
critical when confidential news came to the Prophet that the
Jewish tribe of Bani Korizah at the other side of Madinah
forsook their pact with the Prophet for another with the enemy
who was arranging with them a concerted attack. A clever ruse
by a Muslim in secret cowed doubt between the enemy and the
Jews at the same time God sent a tempest which caused the
enemy to decamp.
This was for the people of Quraish a crushing defeat. The

state of war continued between the Prophet and his group. On
the one hand, and the tribes of Quraish on the other till the
truce of Hodibeyah was signed when the Prophet with about
fifteen hundred of his men arrived near Mecca (the 6th. year
after Higrah) to pay a visit to the Kaabah. Though he did not
fulfil his visit, which by the terms of the truce had to be
postponed for a year, he was successful in extending the truce
for ten years during which he would be free to disseminate the
Call himself and deal effectively with any enemy that might
arise.
The truce of Hodibeyah, though including some rigorous

terms binding on the Muslims, showed great foresight on the
part of the Prophet as may be seen by the fact that during the
two years following it great numbers joined the Faith - larger
than the total converts in all years. The truce remained in force
96
until its breach by Quraish when, with their connivance, an
allied tribe attacked another in alliance with the Prophet.
He retaliated by leading an expedition of nearly 10,000

braves against Mecca. The enemy could not but peace fully
surrender the sacred city and welcome Muhammad as God's
Messenger.
Thus was Mecca conquered ; the long struggle terminated

the principal danger which had long jeopardized the believers.
More than twenty years had passed since the Islamic Call was
first begun at the hands of a single man in the sacred city of
idolatrous Arabia. The city had rejected its Prophet and drove
him forth after thirteen years of patient preaching. In about
eight years more the rejected Prophet entered the sacred city
victorious but humble, forgave the past enmity of its
inhabitants, purged its idols, and confirmed it as the sacred city
of Islam. A great triumph worthy of the great Mission.
97
2. - Against Jewish Danger
The Jews lived at Yathrib with almost undisputed power and

prestige through their control of economic and financial affairs
and their exploitation of the struggle then raging between the
Aus and Khazrag tribes. Their maxim then, seems to have been
the maxim of the colonial system today "Divide and conquer".
It is no wonder, then, that the Prophet's and his companions
emigration to Madinah terrified them, especially after the
reconciliation he effected between the two principal waning
tribes.
They waited for the opportunity to declare their hostility to

the Prophet, ready to ally themselves even with the devil that
they might crush his power and regain their prestige. He was
probably aware of their secret machination, but he let matters
until they would show their hand, giving much of his attention
to Quraish. Preliminary hostility began on the Jews' part by
trying to weaken the Helpers and Immigrants by sowing
dissention and doubt, and asking questions that would lead to
disputes. Undoubtedly those Jews were a most serious danger
to the Faith and its Call, seeking to disarm and undermine both,
as may be seen from the divine text:
"Thou wilt find the most vehement of mankind in hostility

to those who believe (to be) the Jews and the idolaters".
(Surah V, 82 - in part).
If they could not openly show their hostility or make

Muslims disobey the Prophet, they would try and weaken the
faith of believers, using whatever opportunity might offer. One
such opportunity was the change of the Qiblah, from facing
towards Jerusalem to facing towards Mecca in prayer. They
took that as a proof of hesitancy in belief. Their calumny was
both stated and answered in the holy revelation.
98
"The foolish of the people will say : what bath turned them
from the Qiblah which they formerly observed ? Say Unto Allah
belong the East and the west. He guideth whom he will unto a
straight path" . (Surah II, 142).
They also did their best to insinuate that Islam plagiarized

much from Judaism. Inspite of all, the Prophet bore patiently
with them until they themselves would give the opportunity for
their iniquities to be visited on them. As long as they outwardly
kept the pact that the Prophet made with them when he first
came to Madinah, they could not be touched. It was a
particularized pact; referring to the Jews not generally but
group by group. Therefore the breach, if any, by one group,
would be visited only On that group not on all the Jews. Bani
Kinaka were the first to break the pact. An Arab woman selling
her necklace to a Jew in their market was out raged by him.
This provoked a Muslim who killed the Jew. The Jews avenged
themselves by killing the Muslim instead of submitting the
matter to the Prophet for judgment as the pact specified. The
Prophet be sieged Beni Kinaka, for fifteen nights until they
were forced to surrender unconditionally and to evacuate the
city and move to Wadi El Kira, then to Syria. But for the pact, it
would have been good policy to do this to all the Jews of
Madinah in order to ensure security against attack from within
when the Prophet should go out on a campaign. Such a general
Jewish evacuation would have made of the city a single
cohesive mass working at one hand, moved by One heart, that
would stand firm in tempestuous weather and present one
united front to all enemies from without. But it could not be
done as long as Jewish tribes singly kept their part of the pact.
The example of Beni Kinaka however, did not deter Jews

from their purpose. Ka'ab Son of Al Ashraf commenting on the
99
victory achieved by the Muslims at Badr, made his recorded
remarks " Is this true ? Muhammad really kill these nobles and
leaders of Mecca. If he had really killed these, then the bowl of
earth would be a better abode than its surface". Having
assured the Victory he went directly to Mecca incite the
Meccans to a fresh campaign against the prophet weeping their
dead and stirring their enthusiasm !. He wanted to revenge the
Jew's of Bani-Kinaka stirring the Meccans to revenge according
to the old maxim " divide and conquer". He did it not in prose in
poetry, in bitter hateful poetry which moved them to double
effort in their preparation for the coming battle of Ohod.
It was natural that the Prophet could not leave Kaab and
his mischief unopposed. He consequently sent someone who
killed the dangerous for that he might an outstanding example
for others of his kind. His death was- deeply resented by Bani
Nadeer, his mother's tribe, and certainly terrified the whole
Jewish community.
When the Muslim army returned from Ohod, already

strained and wounded, some further action was necessary in
the interest of security against possible danger from those
determined still to exact vengeance any cost, or to wreck the
whole Islamic movement. When on his way to the battle, the
Prophet noticed their organized hatred which collected a
contingent directed against him, though it was not actually
sent to the battle field probably through a last moment fear of
consequences. Sound strategy at any rate dictates caution and
the elimination of potential danger threatening the rear.
The immediate cause however of the campaign against the

Jews of Bani Nadeer in their strongholds near Madinah was
their attempt against the life of the Prophet when, with some
of his companions, he went to them as his allies to seek some
help. They were besieged in their forts, resisted the siege for
some time while, as the holy Qur'an describes it.
100
"They deemed that their strongholds would protect them
from Allah. But Allah reached them from a place they reckoned
not, and cast terror in their hearts so that they ruined their
houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers" ,
(Surah 59, 2 in part).
The campaign resulted in their ejection from their

settlement near Koba; being permitted to take with them what
they could carry excepting armament. They went partly to
Khaiber and partly to Athriat in Syria where Bani Kinaka were
exiled before.
Some of their leaders, among whom Haiy son of Akhtab

and Sallam son of Abil Hakik, who at first went to Khaiber, sent
soon afterwards to Mecca to enlist the aid of its people against
the Prophet, working on their fears and bidding them beware
of the growing strength of the Muslims. Versed as of old in the
technique of sedition and conspiracy, and driven by their
implacable hatred of the Prophet they, to gain favour in the
eyes of the Meccans-, went even to the length of telling them
that their idol-worship was better than Islam, the religion of
Muhammad and that the Jews for that reason were ready to
ally themselves with them, idol-worshippers as they were in
the hope of defeating Muhammad.
One cannot but agree to the criticism passed on this very

strange dictum of theirs by one of them, Dr. Wilfinson by name,
in his book "The History of Jews in Arabia" , and wonder with
him how the Jews could on that occasion abandon their religion
which emphatically upholds monotheism and abhors and fights
idol worship to the length of preferring the latter to
monotheistic Islam,
Why did they commit that heinous sacrilege ? Simply to

make a dual alliance against a common enemy. Neither the
impulse of survival nor the thirst for revenge could justify the
unforgivable act of preferring idolatry to Islam, a monotheistic
religion like their own And it availed them nothing. It is true
that they caused Quraish to attack Al-Madinah with their allies
of Ghatfan in the campaign of the Clans, and that Haiy Ibn
Akhatab succeeded in making the Jewish tribe of Bani Korizah
join the Clans and break their pact with the Prophet. But their
campaign miserably failed and Bani Korizah were utterly
destroyed. As soon as the Clans decamped in despair the
101
Prophet and his Muslim soldiers by divine order upset a siege
to the strongholds of Bani Korizah. The siege lasted twenty five
days and ended with their unconditional surrender. They were
judged by the head of their special allies the Aus, by Saad Ibn
Moaz, who sentenced their men to death, the rest passing as
spoils to the hands of the Muslim army which would have been
utterly destroyed had the perfidy of Bani Korizah succeeded.
Haiy, the instigator of the perfidy was among the killed.
102
CHAPTER IX
CERTAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE CALL
1 - Liberation From Bondage.
A. From the Bondage of Slavery : (Manumission)
The Islamic Call first dawned in a world of darkness and of

crying class differentiation. It was an era marked by the
dominion of man over man, the utter subordination of the weak
to the strong, of the masses to the nobility, and the flourishing
of slave trade. Then came the Call bearing the torch of liberty,
of human liberty at large, putting an end almost to slavery in
all its forms. Yes, Islam put an end to enslaving and
dehumanizing man, male or female. It prohibited enslaving him
except in holy war, while, before, it was legal in peace and war
alike.
When a legitimate war ceases there is, with respect to
captives, a possible choice between two alternatives either
their liberation for mercy's sake, or their redemption by
ransom or against Muslim captives:
"When you meet in battle those who disbelieve smite the

necks until ye rout them with carnage, then make fast of
bonds: then afterward either grant grace or take ransom till the
war lay down its burdens" (Surah 47,
verse 4).
Such a legislation is admittedly just and humane, with no
feeling of malice or vengeance. Islam did not adopt a passive
103
attitude towards those already in slavery at its advent. It made
liberation of slaves a way to earning God's favour :
"It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East

and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and
the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the
Prophets; and giveth his wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and
to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who
ask and to slaves free" (Surah II, 177).
Further, the total funds assigned for charity are to be
dispensed to eight classes, of which slaves and captives form
one, the object being their liberation:
"The Alms are only for the poor and the needy, and those
who collect them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled,
and to free the necks (of slaves and captives), and to those
heavily in debt, and for the cause of Allah, and for the
wayfarer". (Surah IX, 60, in part).
The liberation of a slave is in Islam a basic part of the

atonement for several sins. It is a basic part of the atonement
for killing a believer by mistake, the supplement being blood
104
money to be paid to his folk unless they are enemies of the
Muslims:
"He who hath killed a believer by mistake must set free a

believing slave" (Surah IV, 92, in part).
It is an alternative atonement for not keeping an earnest

oath:
"Allah will not take you to task for that which is

unintentional in your oaths, but He will take you to task for the
oaths which ye swear in earnest. The expiation thereof is the
feeding of ten of the needy with the average of that wherewith
ye feed your own folk, or the clothing of them, or the liberation
of a slave, and for him who findeth not (the wherewithal to do
so) then a three days' fast". (Surah V. 89, in part).
It is the primary alternative in the atonement for the sin

involved in likening one's wife to one's mother in the matter of
conjugal rights:
105
"And those who put away their wives (by saying they are
as their mothers) and afterward would go back on that which
they have said, have first to free a slave before they touch one
another" . (Surah 58, 3 in part).
So is the case in the atonement for failure to keep the fast

even in one day of Ramadan. Moreover, slave liberation is
recognised as expiatory for sin in general, and is much
recommended by the Prophet especially if the slave be a
Muslim:
"He who frees a Muslim slave will have for every organ of
the emancipated slave, an organ of himself
redeemed by God from hell fire" a great inducement indeed to
manumission.
Islam is unique in teaching that a slave has the same

chance of obtaining God's favour as a free man. In fact he is
promised a double favour if he does his duty towards God and
towards his- master, so much so that such a companion of the
Prophet as Abu Horaira was induced to say "By him who
dispenses death and life, had it not been for the struggle in the
Cause of God, the pilgrimage, and my obligation to my mother,
I would have preferred to die in bondage". Another unique
feature is the emphasis Islam lays on the humane treatment of
slaves in bondage. He who ill treats his slave by even one
stroke can find atonement for it only in setting him free, as is
evidenced by the Prophets' saying:
"He who smacks or beats his slave can atone for it only by
setting him free".
In talking to or of a slave, the Prophet, upon whom be
Peace and the Blessings of God, forbids masters to
use such words as (my bondman, my bondwoman but to
substitute some such words- as "my man, my woman, my boy" .
106
He laid for their further treatment the unique everstanding
regulation.
"Your slaves are your brothers whom God has put under
your hands. He who has his brother under his hand has to feed
him from what he himself eats, and to clothe him from what he
himself wears. Do not demand from them what will tax their
power, and in case you do, help them ! ".
This attitude was not a mere verbal expression to the men

of Islam of old. They were true to every word of it, both as
regards emancipation and treatment of slaves, as may be seen
in books on Islamic biographies. In such an ideal practical
manner, especially in those dark ages, did the Islamic Call
legislate for slaves such a humanitarian code as they could not
dream of or imagine, so much so that they followed the Call in
such a number that the Prophet, upon whom be Peace, was not
averse to call Islamic law "the law of the weak ! They did not
only flock to the Prophet in great numbers, but great was their
share in the early support of the Call and its later rise to power.
They joined the faith voluntarily without any coercion from the
Prophet. He had then no power to coerce, even if coercion were
permissible.
He had only his conviction, his faith, and its strikingly

attractive principles. Those Mawali suffered much at the hands
of the idolaters, yet because of their indomitable spirit and firm
belief, their very weakness was a source of power to the Call,
proving to spiritual grip, attracting many to it, and in the long
in helping to raise its super-structure. On the other hand the
Islamic Call first laid the foundation of, and finally led to, their
delivery from torment and bondage. The Prophet admitted
them to his favour, his company, and his council, occasionally
taking their counsel in war and peace.
A characteristic misunderstanding of the spirit and

implication of the Islamic Call's attitude towards slavery has
subjected it to the unfair deprecatory criticism of its enemies,
107
especially of certain western writers. They forget that slavery
was rife under Western civilisation even towards the end of the
nineteenth century, that the slave trade was so thriving and so
profitable that armed raids, by the connivance of Western
governments, were made on the helpless African tribes, to
carry the Africans by force and sell them as slaves at the
Spanish and American plantations. They forget too that if it is
true that the Northern States fought the Southern American
States to free these slaves, it is as true that the Southern
States fought the Northern to keep them, and the North might
have been defeated instead of defeating the South. The colour
question in America remains as a testimony to the abysmal
depths to which slaves fell, and the treatment they used to
receive at the hands of the civilised West.
One may further urge the subjugation of whole nations for the
material benefit of Western countries, the doings of France in
Tunis, Algiers and Morocco, and the treatment of captives and
defeated nations of the first and second world wars, but this is
needless in the face of the above more specific facts which
should suffice as an adequate answer to those hostile critics.
When we come to the liberty and peculiar rights of woman,
we and them sanctioned by Islamic law. Before Islam, woman
had practically no liberty, and hardly any rights. It is recorded
that she was inherited along with heritable propert, butcould
not herself inherit, She could not participate in the activities of
man. Islam gave her this important right, as evidenced by the
holy verse :
"Unto the men (of a family).. belongeth a share of that

which parents and near kindred leave, and unto the women a
share of that which parents and near kindred leave". - (Surah
IV, verse 7, in part).
Islam recognises woman in her own right, being

addressed by God, exalted be He exactly as man is, in the holy
verse :
108
"And their Lord hath heard their prayers (and He
saith) .... : Lo ! I suffer not the work of any worker, male or
female, to be lost. Ye proceed one from another ". (Surah III,
195, in part)
She is granted full liberty to accept or refuse whom she

will in. marriage, her acceptance being a condition of the
legality of marriage. In courtship she is afforded an opportunity
to see her would-be fiance, and mutual attraction or repulsion
decides the match. The husband has no authority over his
wife's property, nor on her manner of managing it. That is full
liberty.
And lastly, Islam gave the weak and the poor, slaves
included, several opportunities everyday to stand on perfect
equality with nobles and men of distinction, side by side, in
prayers and otherwise. An annual opportunity for the abolition
of all class distinction is afforded in the performance of
pilgrimage where the Muslim is divested from all sewed clothes
which might denote poverty or riches that none may appear
overbearing through wealth, or downhearted through poverty
and tattered dress. A sense of equality prevails among all
pilgrims, not only in appearance, but in fact before God and
man. Such a complete equality is meant to be a timely reminder
of the absolute equality that shall be before God, the Lord of
the Universe, in the future world, where shall rule the great
principle that piety is the only criterion of merit which shall be
apportioned according to faith and good works a principle that
shall turn the scales heavily in favour of the poor and the
down-trodden in this life.
Islamic cardinal duties are thus an emphatic display of the

spirit of equality between men, emphasising freedom from
bondage, and imbuing the Muslim with a sense of individuality
and personal dignity.
109
Liberation from Poverty
Poverty is another sort of bondage challenged by the

Islamic Call, a bondage which humiliates and strains man's
spirit generating submissiveness and subservience. This tragic
fact, in the form of its opposite, is recognized by the first surah
revealed, in the divine words
"Nay, but verily man is insolent (7) Because he seeth

himself wealthy. (8) Verily, unto thy Lord is the return". (Surah
96, verses 6-8).
This foreshadows the inevitable doom of one given to

ostentation and insolence as the result of wealth. Such a man
will believe that through his wealth he can dominate men,
buying them off and making them do his will. But why this
thanklessness, this transgression? Is he to live on for ever ?
And if not, why not curb his passion, and keep his pride in
bounds ? Whenever man is tempted to be over-bearing and
imperious he should remember the Great Day.
"The day when wealth and sons avail not (any man) save
him who bringeth unto Allah a whole heart"
(Surah 26. verses 88, 89).
It should be ever present to man that the span of life in

this world is very limited, and that we shall meet God in the
Hereafter. If we are not righteous here, how can we ever face
Him with soul destitute of sympathy with the poor, with stony
hearts indifferent to the distress of our fellowmen ? What will
become of us when we are called by the Almighty to answer for
every deed of our life?. The divine verse
110
"Lo! Unto thy Lord is the return " carries within it
impressive warning and dreadful threat to those whose
accumulated wealth makes them so ungrateful and arrogant as
to neglect their duty to the poor and extent not a hand to the
helpless.
What is implicit in the above verse is made explicit in

other verses where God, exalted be He, promises abiding
torture to the miserly rich and the grasping trustees who, far
from being generous to the orphan, curtail his rights and
deprive him of his due. So corrupted they become by riches
that they refuse to glorify the Lord, Who gave it them, through
active sympathy with His poor creatures.
Dreadful shall be the doom of such people, and disgraceful

shall be their torment:
"Nay, but ye honour not the orphan and urge not on the
feeding of the people, and ye devour heritages with devouring
greed and love wealth with abounding love, Nay, but when the
earth is ground to atoms, grinding, grinding; and thy Lord shall
come with angels rank on rank; and hell is brought near that
day; on that day man will remember, but how will the
remembrance then avail him ? He will say : Ah, would that I
111
had sent before me (some provision) for my life? None
punished as He will punish on that day ! None bindeth as He
then will bind" (Surah 89) verses 17-26).
Such tragic picture as presented by these verses

represents the general state of the wretched rich who close in
their riches, leaving their fellow brothers to shift for
themselves in distress. Nor did Islam neglect to set in relief the
sort of pain awaiting such people in the Hereafter, that
perchance their hearts might melt, and their souls might open.
Their very treasures shall be their torment, as set out in God's
words
"They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the
way of Allah unto them give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful
doom. On the day when it will (all) be heated in the fire of hell,
and their foreheads and their flanks and their backs will be
branded there with (and it will be said unto them) : Here is that
which
ye hoarded for yourselves. Now taste of what ye used to hoard".
(Surah 1, 34 in part, 35).
Nor did Islam in handling the problem of alms- giving

leave it entirely to the discretion of individual conscience or
caprice. It made it an obligation, a compulsory duty on the able,
to give to the poor annually in determinate proportions. It is a
feature of the true believer to give it, as pointed out by the
verse
"And those in whose wealth there is a known right for the

beggar and the destitute. (Surah 70, verses 24! 25).
112
These are only two verses of many dealing with the poor's
due, the " zakat " , which comes next to the daily prayers in
importance among the five essential duties imposed by Islam.
It is to be forcibly collected if not voluntarily given, so much so
that the first right Caliph, Abu Bakr, held it his duty to fight
those apostate tribes whose apostasy consisted only in denying
the Zakat due to the public treasury to be dispensed among the
eight classes enumerated on a previous occasion, five of whom
are people in want. He went so far as to say " By God, should
they deny me of it even a halter, I shall be ready to fight them
for it ".
Nor are the interests of the poor disregarded on the

occasion of religious festivities. To them is due at least one
third of the sacrifice offered in Bairam, the festival celebrating
the end of pilgrimage days. To the is due all the Zakat to be
distributed on the occasion of the festival celebrating the end
of the fast, so much for every member of every family not in
need, children included, if the fast of the elders is to be
accepted.
Then comes voluntary alms for charity's sake. This is held

to be a sure way to God's favour. And voluntary or compulsory,
for all alms is promised not only God's favour in the Hereafter,
but also His blessings in this life., safeguarding the giver's
interests and multiplying his funds and earthly goods. In God's
words
"Whatever ye give in charity, seeking Allah's countenance,

this will increase manifold", (Surah xxx, verse 39 in part).
There is yet a higher object, a greater benefit of alms-

giving, namely spiritual regeneration. Again in God's words:
113
"Take, of their wealth, alms wherewith thou purifyest
them and makest them grow", (Surah IX, 103 in part). This
legislation of Zakat struck the balance between the poor and
the rich, and helped to make of them brothers for God's sake,
rendering violence between the two unthinkable. Nor did the
Muslim rich of old go to excess in enjoying their riches, then
added to by their share of the spoils of war. They took the
recommended course of moderation, a sense of mysticism
making them rather frugal in food and dress, "with a view" , as
Ibnul Taktaki says, "to comforting the poor, and keeping their
own appetites in check to habituate themselves to the best
moral conditions through self discipline".
By this liberation from poverty, the Islamic Call restored

self-confidence and self-dignity to Muslims, Arabs and all.
There is nothing more detrimental to human behaviour than
poverty and want. With this liberation there was no longer any
room for the natural fear for the future of family and children
should a believer fall in the struggle for the establishment of
the Faith. It helped him, therefore, to go to battle single
hearted when war came.
Again, this liberation helped the whole-hearted co-

operation of groups and classes in the Muslim community.
It made it very difficult for class dissension to creep in. Hence

the failure of Abu Tharr il Ghafari's movement to secure any
mass response. It would have led the poor to hate the rich,
being in certain points akin to present day communism. But it
was doomed to failure, having no chance of even being listened
to, the predominance of the faith and the consequent
observance of its laws leaving no room for any complaint on
the part of the poor.
The Islamic Call condemned any exploitation of the poor,

as may be seen, for example, in the complete prohibition of
114
usury. The usurer, taking a mean advantage of man's need, is
compared to one stricken by the devil, and the devil, or one in
compact with him, cannot be sympathetic or humanitarian. The
whole problem of pre-Islamic usury is fully dealt with in the
following divine verses:
275: "Those who swallow usury cannot rise up save as he

ariseth whom the devil hath prostrated by (his) touch. That is
because they say Trade is just like usury whereas Allah
permitteth trading and forbiddeth usury. He unto whom an
admonition from his Lord cometh, and (he) refraineth (in
obedience thereto) he shall keep (the profits of) that which is
past, and his affair (henceforth) is with Allah. As for him who
returneth (to usury) - Such are rightful owners of the Fire.
They will abide therein.
115
276: "Allah hath blighted usury and made almsgiving
fruitful. Allah loveth not the impious and guilty".
277. "Lo! those who believe and do good works and

establish worship and pay the poor-due, their reward is with
their Lord and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall
they grieve".
278. "O ye who believe ! Observe your duty to Allah, and

give up what remaineth (due to you) from usury if ye are (in
truth) believer!.
279. " And if ye do not, then be warned of war (against

you) from Allah and His messenger. And if you repent, then ye
have your principal (without interest). neither wronging nor
being wronged". Surah ll, 275-279
To help to put an end to usury, a debtor is to be given then

opportunity and time to repay his debt when he is better off.
No coercion or compulsion is here legitimate, since it would
mean his further running into debt to his creditors, and
consequently the better opportunity and market for usury so
runs the holy text:
(And if the debtor is in straitened circumstances, then (let

there be) postponement to (the time of) ease"; (Surah II, 280
in part).
This, in brief, is the trend of the Islamic Call in so far as it

attempted to liberate the faithful from poverty and its dire
implications. A more detailed treatment would carry us beyond
the scope of the present work.
116
The Bondage of Rigidity.
By this is meant rigidity of thought and slavish conformity

to forefathers ways. Such mental stagnation is undoubtedly a
sort of bondage, or one of its worst forms. Many thinkers when
they use the word liberation in. general mean the liberation of
thought and the overthrow of what is false in old systems in
this sense the Muhammadan Call was itself a splendid
revolution of thought, and a far-reaching social evolution.
It was in essence a revolution against the erroneous

beliefs and innovations bequeathed by ancestors against idol
worship, against slavery, against poverty, against ignorance,
and against class distinctions. This sweeping revolution was
reinforced by a mental revolution designed to shake individual
minds out of the tendency of automatically taking the stray
tracks of thought beaten out by their forefathers.
"They indeed found their fathers astray. But they make

haste (to follow) in their foot steps. (Surah :37, verses 69, 70).
Islam preached that God is One a true creed reasonable in

itself, and conclusively proved through contemplating the
physical universe, its perfect design, and the beauty which
pervades it. Such beautiful and imposing super-structure
presupposes an omnipotent Designer exercising over it
absolute unchallenged dominion.
The interaction between body and spirit, between matter

and mind, between the different universes, and between
Heaven and earth, these and the interrelations between these
undoubtedly derive their existence from One Supreme being
operating the entire universe. Such continuity in the chain of
creation, such consummate precision and uniformity of natural
laws which made possible the unfolding of their secrets to the
human intellect day after day, and epoch after epoch,
demonstrate conclusively the oneness of God, The Creator.
117
"If there were therein God beside Allah, then verily both
(the heavens and the earth) had been disordered (Surah XXI,
22, in part).
Such exhortation of mind to contemplate the universe in

order to have an insight into its inner workings is meant not
only to furnish the Muslim with additional proof of the truth of
the Faith, but also that he might grow in strength and keep up
with the natural development of the Call to its logical results. It
is a perfectly logical call. There is nothing in it against Reason.
Islamic prayers and worship put one in communion with God
five times daily. If in between two prayers he gets forgetful of
his duty towards Him, he is soon reminded of it by the next.
That is why so great a stress is laid on prayers in Islam:
"Seek help in patience and prayer ; and truly it is hard

save for the humble minded ; Who know that they will have to
meet their Lord, and that unto Him they are returning". (Surah
II, verses 45, 46).
Similarly Zakat, or the poor-due, stands for an adjustment

between classes so that no class can enrich itself at the
expense of another, and no group can enslave another because
of poverty or ill-health. It removes the main cause of social
strife if adequately maintained thus ensuring social cohesion
and equanimity through mutual sympathy. Next to prayers, to
worship, it receives the greatest emphasis.
118
"And establish worship and pay the poor-due, and (so)
lend unto Allah a goodly loan. Whatsoever good ye send. before
you for your souls, ye will surely find it with Allah, better and
greater in the recompense. And seek forgiveness of Allah. Lo !
Allah is Forgiving, Merciful". (Surah 73, verse 20 in part).
Fasting is a reminder of the bitterness of hunger and want.

It is a training in self-discipline teaching patience and
endurance. It also brings man to communion with God keeping
him off frivolity as a safeguard against his ever becoming
licentious. It is at once abstinence from food and drink, and
from licence in speech.
Pilgrimage develops communal relations between Muslims

all over the world, affording them with an adequate
opportunity for taking yearly counsel amongst themselves for
the welfare of the Muslim Common wealth, every Muslim
community being well represented in pilgrimage. It
regenerates the pilgrim spiritually to visit God's House and
circle round it in "tawaf " as a planet round the sun, to stand on
the Mount along with the vast pilgrim multitude in direct
communion with God, repenting, lamenting, pleading and
asking for divine forgiveness and future guidance. It renews
and strengthens the bonds between the pilgrim and his Master,
his Prophet, to visit the scenes of the Prophet's early struggles,
where the Qur'an was first revealed, and the divine Call was
first declared. This gives an idea why pilgrimage is incumbent
on every able Muslim once in a life time. And believers do it
even on foot if need be.
119
"And proclaim unto mankind the Pilgrimage. They will
come unto thee on foot and on every lean (animal of burden);
they will come from every deep ravine,
That they may witness things that are of benefit to them,

and mention the name of Allah on appointed days over the
beast of cattle that He hath best owed upon them. Then eat
thereof and feed therewith the poor unfortunate.
Then let them make an end of their unkemptness and pay

their vows and go around the ancient House. (Surah XXII,
verses 27-29).
So much for the reasonableness and the logic of the

Islamic Call. Now for a unique feature of Islam which shows
how far it has gone to safeguard the liberation of Islamic
thought from bondage. What do you think of a religion which
admits learned exercise of reason as one of the main sources of
its legislation? This undoubtedly shows it to be alive to the
needs of future developments necessitated by the progressive
evolution of human society with time. See what Omar, the
second right Caliph, says to Shorihe on appointing him judge at
Koofa : ((Seek your verdict in God's Book (the Qur'an). If there,
take it and consult no body. If not there, seek it in the
Prophet's traditions, and judge the case accordingly. If not in
the Prophet's Sunnah, then exercise your own discretion in
judgement).
This exercise of discretion in judging problematic cases

not specifically dealt with in the Qur'an or the Sunnah, and
which of course should follow their lead, is an unfailing source
of vitality in Islamic jurisprudence. It accounts for its vigorous
survival inspite of dire vicissitudes. It rendered it perfectly
elastic, capable of meeting the needs of place and time within
120
the bounds of right and reason, these being broadly indicated
by principles and universals revealed in the Qur'an and applied
by the Prophet under divine guidance. A first principle amongst
these is the recognition of natural laws, governing the outer
world, as divine laws to be sought and followed by man. This is
repeatedly emphasised in the divine Wit, in the Qur'an, and
legislation concerning them was disclaimed by the Prophet
when he said
"You are better informed concerning your worldly affairs".
A second principle is the free exercise of sound reasoning.

It was to encourage his disciples to discuss matters with him
that the Prophet said to them:
"I am only human like you. If I command you concerning

something of your religion, follow and obey but if I express an
opinion of mine, I am only human"
Thus did the Prophet train his companions to the judicious

application of their reasoning faculties to the problem in hand
especially when not specifically dealt with by revelation. Omar
was only following the Prophet's example when he gave Judge
Shorihe the order mentioned above. It was in fact a repetition
of the instructions given by the Prophet to Moaz Ibn Gabal
when sent to Yemen. Like Omar, all the Prophet's companions
did their best to follow the Prophet's example. That is why their
verdict is very often held to be binding on Muslims. The
principle of free but judicious application of reason in the
domain of Islamic jurisdiction was applied, following the lead
of the Prophet and his companions after him, by all leading
jurists of Islam, especially by the earlier two Imams. Abu
Hanifah and Malik and in particular by the later Imam Al-
Shafiei, Malik's disciple, who first turned Islamic jurisprudence
into a science which stands to this day.
121
This use of initiative and judging by analogy in the light of
the Qur'an and tradition came gradually to a standstill in the
era of collapse, and gave way to narrow mindedness. We hope
that free judicious constructive thinking will again be restored
to its former state in handling matters relating to the Faith. In
this will be restored one of its basic essentials.
The above will show how far-reaching was the revolution

in the sphere of thought initiated by the Islamic Call which
made of the Prophet's companions true thinkers, and laid the
foundation of the great schools of jurisprudence that appeared
later. Right and truth became the aim of the early Muslims as a
result both of their faith and of their untrammelled thinking.
They obeyed Right and Truth and enforced them on all.
122
2. - Spirit and Matter Reconciled
The Islamic Call is an adequate answer to the materialists

who deny resurrection and say "And naught destroys us save
time". It maintains that there is a second life for which every
individual and every community should work, where every one
shall be judged according to what he had done in this life, be it
good or be it evil.
"And whoso doeth good an atom's weight shall see it then,

And whoso doeth ill an atom's weight shall see it then" . (Surah
99, verses 7, 8.)
This line of true belief would naturally deter wrong-doers

and mischief makers as far as they would be deterred at all
from their evil way. At any rate, it should deter others from
following in their footsteps. In case one is tempted to do some
private or public evil and he remembers the Last Day in time,
the probability is that he will resist the temptation for fear of
dire punishment or for hope of future bliss. It may be
contended that civil criminal laws are deterrent enough, but
experience shows that people generally try to evade such laws,
either through lack of evidence or through latitude of
interpretation, while hardened criminals who would not fear
any man-made laws, however stringent, will submit without
difficulty to divine laws for fear of hell fire and divine
vengeance. Then there are those who toil for their living in
mines and quarries or in difficult plantations under trying
conditions of heat and cold. Such hard toilers, unless provided
with true consolation and genuine hope, are apt to develop
ungovernable hatred and rage against the privileged rich,
which will lead to social strife if not to open revolt.
For such, Islam is true healer and consoler, emphasizing

to them the great truth that the future in the Hereafter will be
determined by the eternal principle.
123
"Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of God is he
who feareth Him most". (Surah 49, 13 in part).
Paradise is not restricted to this or that class of society,

but embraces all who believe and do good, irrespective of
wealth or poverty, colour or race. The Islamic Call has thus laid
the foundation of peace and friendship between classes in
place of probable strife and anarchy. It gave the spiritual side
of life the predominance over the material side, and effected
social cohesion in the Islamic community, making of its
members brothers in Faith co-operating for the love of God in
good work and piety, not in sin and aggression.
Islam is unique amongst religions and calls in general in its

full appreciation of man's nature the needs of the body being
recognized as well as the needs of the spirit, a fact which has
much to do with its continuous quiet ascendancy with time. The
nature of life in this world disagrees with asceticism and
torment of body. The Prophet Muhammad himself was required
by God not to go to the extent of self-torment in his active zeal
and devotion to the mission as may be seen from the divine
words
"We have not revealed unto thee the Qur'an that thou
shouldst be distressed. But as a reminder unto him who feareth
(God)." (Surah XX, verses 2 and 3).
Islam in fact makes it legitimate to enjoy the good things

of this world with moderation, including reasonable adornment.
In God's words:
124
"O Children of Adam ! Look to your adornment at every
place of worship, and eat and drink but be not prodigal. Lo ! He
loveth not the prodigal". (Surah VII, verse 31) And again
"And seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah

hath given thee and neglect not thy portion of the world ",
(Surah xxviii, ver. 77, in part). And yet again
"Say : Who bath forbidden the adornment of Allah which

he hath brought forth for his bondmen, and the good things of
His providing? Say: Such, on the Day of Resurrection, will be
only for those who believed during the life of the world".
(Surah VII, vers 32 in part).
The Prophet, upon whom be Peace, expresses the same

truth clearly when he says :"The best of you is he who does not
forego this world for the next, Or forego the next world for this.
The best of you is he who takes from this and from that".
This sound standpoint which takes both sides of man into

due consideration is unlike the Christian standpoint, for
instance, which misconceives the nature of the physical body,
taking it to be purely evil as the result of Adam's fall, and
consequently has to be purged through torment and cruel
suppression. Christianity thus considers man to be evil by
125
nature. But not so Islam. Islam pronounces human nature to be
free from evil at birth. being capable of both evil and good
according to environment and education. In the words of God,
exalted be He:
"And (by) a soul and Him who perfected it and inspired it

(with conscience of) what is wrong for it and (what is) right for
it. He is indeed successful who causes it to grow. And he is
indeed a failure who stenteth it ». (Surah 91, verses 7-10).
Also the Prophet, upon whom be Peace, says ;"Every child

is born with sound nature but his parents make of him a Jew, a
Christian or a magian". The soul or "self" is thus born free from
evil, the evil coming to it from outside, by accretion from
environment or by bad education. If both environment and
education are right, the child will retain his natural soundness
and be a righteous man or woman, and will continue so unless
he chooses to change his course. God, exalted be He, says:
"Did We not assign unto him (man) two eyes and a tongue
and two lips, and guide him concerning the two highways? "
(Surah 90, verses 8-10).12
Recent psychological researches accord well with this

Islamic view. The future life of the child is largely determined
by his upbringing and environment influences, and not by
hereditary factors. Certain modern schools of psychology,
12
The two highways are the ways of good and evil.
126
notably that of Adler, the leading individual psychologist,
confirm this view. Valentine, the author of the Difficult Child,
states that a child is admittedly deeply affected by his
environment in respect of traits of character. As to the view of
Christianity with respect to torment of body, certain Christian
savants condemn it, maintaining that pain in the end will
conquer, mastering us instead of our mastering it. As pointed
out by Aldous Huxley in his book " Means and Ends ". some see
in sickness insurmountable obstruction in the way of devotion
to God and hence to be counted a sin.
When Islam allowed private property and permitted free

activity of work or trade, it did not overlook the right of the
poor to a share of the world's good things, as previously
pointed out. The early Muslims attained great wealth, but were
not given to luxury or excess in disregard of God or the life
hereafter. They could not overlook such utterances of the
Prophet as:
"Develop a certain amount of austerity, for plenty is not

permanent".
"We never eat unless we are hungry and when eating we

avoid excess"
It was this deep spiritual attitude that made Omar Ibn

Abdel Aziz reject the complaint of his Commissioner in Egypt
that the tribute is getting smaller because the number of
converts to Islam is getting bigger. His written answer to the
Commissioner is quite remarkable in its trenchant rebuke and
because it strikes the key note of the Islamic attitude "Exempt
from tribute those who join the faith shamed be your opinion
God sent Muhammad, Peace and the blessings of God be upon
him, as a Guide and not as a tax collector. Would to God that no
tribute be due, but Omar (meaning him self) is too unfortunate
to have all people converted to Islam in his days ".
127
3. Struggle for the Faith
A new call and a new cause necessitate struggle by tongue

and pen , and by sword and arm. Such is the nature of things
and the logic of events. Once the Islamic Call was raised by
Muhammad the Apostle, upon whom be Peace, it met with
organized resistance from polytheist Quraish who embarked on
a protracted struggle in defence of their worship. Their long
cold war against the Apostle and his followers ended in a plan
for his murder which decided, with God's permission, his
emigration to a safer place where he could freely preach his
mission and find staunch adherents capable of defending him.
At Mecca, Muslims were not in a position to wage war

against the polytheists, since they were only a very limited
number, living without means for defence or offence, amongst
a stubborn enemy keeping a watchful eye on their movements.
Moreover, the Islamic Call had first to pass, as every call

should, through the phase of peaceful preaching, depending on
logic and persuasion according the divine orders:
"Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and

exhortation, and reason with them in the better way. Lo! thy
Lord is best aware of him who strayed from His way, and He is
best aware of those who go aright ". (Surah VI, verse 125).
Then came the phase of armed resistance when the
Prophet was in a better position in Yathrib, and when fighting
against polytheists was divinely permitted
128
"Sanction is given unto those who are fought, having been
wronged; and Allah is indeed Able to give them victory. Those
who have been driven from their homes unjustly only because
they say : Our Lord is Allah ! (Surah XXII, verses 39, 40 in part).
This is the very word truth for the utterance of which the
Muslims were subjected to merciless war which drove them out
of property and home, and which they were permitted to resist
by active fighting. At first the battle was between the Muslims
and their active enemies, Quraish and their allies. It was
fortunate that their passive enemies, the Jews, had not then
showed their hand and for a time kept their pact with the
Prophet, otherwise he would have had to fight on two fronts.
As the war developed, the laws of war were gradually laid

down by revelation as occasion arose, as appears from many
verses of the holy Qur'an, of which the following may be
quoted:
"Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against

you ; but begin not hostilities. Lo ! Allah loveth not aggressors.
And slay them wherever you find them, and drive them out of
the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse
than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place
of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack
you then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers. But if
129
they desist, then Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. And fight them
until persecution is no more and religion is for Allah. But if they
desist, then let there be no hostility except against the wrong
doers". (Surah II, verses 190-193).
With the progress of war in this field, the Jews, of great

power then in their several strongholds, began to break their
pacts and be actively hostile, and were dealt with accordingly.
The Prophet fought those other than the idolaters in obedience
to the divine order.
"Fight against such of those who have been given the

Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid
not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and
follow not the religion of truth until they pay the tribute readily,
being brought low". (Surah IX, verse 29).
Certain remanents of the defeated Jews sided with

Quraish and other antagonistic tribes. Against them and all
such, the Prophet and all the believers had to wage war in
obedience to the divine order
130
"And wage war on all of the idolaters as they are waging
war on all of you. And know that Allah is with those who keep
their duty (unto Him) ". (Surah IX, 36, in part). In explanation
of this order the Prophet says:
"I have been divinely ordered to fight the idolaters until

they declare that there is no God except Allah. Once they
declare it their property and blood are guaranteed except by
law, the question of sincerity to be judged by Allah".
The Islamic Call was addressed to the entire bulk of

mankind in accordance with the divine texts:
"Say (O Muhammad) O mankind! Lo! I am the messenger of

Allah to you all", (Surah VII, 158 in part).
"Glorified is He who hath revealed unto His slave the

criterion (of right and wrong), that he may be a warner to all
peoples". (Surah 25 verse 1).
In addition to the above may be mentioned two decisive

quotations from God's Book; the first
"He it is who hath sent His messenger with the guidance

and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over
131
all religions, however. much the idolaters be averse" (Surah IX,
verse 32) ; and the second
"And We have not sent thee (O Muhammad) save as a

bringer of good tidings and a warner unto all man kind; but
most of mankind know not". (Surah 34, verse 28).
This being the position, fighting in the way of Allah had to
be, and still is, a duty on every Muslim, male or female, if not
for guaranteeing the freedom of preaching God's religion, it
would be to defend it against all aggression. This explains the
far-reaching divine exhortation to Muslim states and peoples:
"And make ready for them all thou canst of (armed) force
and of horses tethered, that thereby ye dismay the enemy of
Allah and your enemy and others beside them whom ye know
not. Allah knoweth them, Whatsoever ye spend in the way of
Allah it will be repaid to you in full, and ye will not be wronged".
(Surah VII, verse 60).
Had we Muslims considered the far-reaching implication of

this and similar verses which emphasize the importance of
readiness, union and alertness lest we should be surprised by
the enemy when no lamentation will avail, then we would have
been able to repel the attack when it came, meeting the
challenge wholeheartedly without the successive defeats we
suffered, The enemy's sinister policy of ((divide and conquer))
would then have failed, leaving us unsuppressed and our power
unsapped, the opposite of what we are now.
132
But Islam as it calls for strength and preparedness calls
for peace and friendly relations with those who do not oppress
Muslim's, though they be disbelievers, as is evident from God's
words:
"Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against

you on account of religion and drove you not out from your
homes, that you should show them kindness and deal justly
with them. Lo ! Allah loveth the just dealers ! (Surah 60, verse
8).
The classes forbidden the friendship of Muslims, obvious

from this verse by implication, are for emphasis explicitly
mentioned in verse (9) of the same surah. This is obviously fair
and just. Wonderfully fair and benevolent, however, is the
order to give disbelievers at war peace if they ask for it:
"And if they incline to peace, incline thou also to it , and

trust in Allah. Lo! He is the Hearer, the Knower and if they
would deceive thee, then lo Allah is sufficient for thee". ( Surah
VIII, 61, 62 in part).
The implication of the last verse emphasizes the peaceful

trend of Islam still more, because it means that mere fear of
the enemy's deceit should not prevent Muslims giving him the
133
peace asked for, because Allah is sufficient to disappoint and
repel him If he really means deceit, and also because the pact
of peace can always be thrown back to the enemy if Muslims
should have sufficient reason to fear his perfidy, as is clear
from the verse
"And if thou fearest treachery from any folk, then throw

back to them (their treaty) fairly. Lo ! Allah loveth not the
treacherous" . (Surah VIII, verse 58).
All this is Islamic war legislation, and it leaves no ground
for the allegation that Islam is aggressive.
It is not aggressive, but does not hesitate to repel aggression

when attacked, as is clear from the injunction previously
pointed out in this discussion, namely:
"Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against

you, but begin not hostilities, Lo ! Allah loveth not aggressors".
(Surah II verse 190). Islam then, being a universal religion
which regulates life in all its human phases, of necessity
recognizes and regulates the war phase of life, severely
limiting its legitimacy, and conducting it on humane lines.
Judaism also recognizes war but makes it almost purely
aggressive for the benefit of one sectary nation on lines far
from humane, as is evident from Old Testament wars which, to
Jews undoubtedly served as a religious sanction of the Jewish
atrocities which characterised the Jewish Palestinian
aggression. Christianity apparently does not recognise war,
since it recommends turning the left cheek to him who strikes
the right. But present day Christian world is far from acting on
this recommendation, being steeped in war and atrocities to
the eye, conniving even at the unparalleled atrocities of the
Jews in Palestine, perhaps also through Old Testament
influence, the Old Testament being recognised holy by
Christianity and Judaism alike.
134
In the matter of war, then, Islam strikes a natural middle
course between the intensely aggressive and atrocious Jewish
course, and the intensely meek and purely pacifist course of
true Christianity. For war to be legitimate in Islam, it must not
be aggressive, must be in the way of God not for self
aggrandisement, and must be conducted on the Islamic lines
ordained by God in the Qur'an and through the Prophet, and
put into application by the right Caliphs, especially in the wars
of Abu Bakr and Omar. On these limitations, war becomes a
necessary beneficial divine institution, realising maximum good
with minimum harm to humanity at large.
As the right Caliph Abu Bakr says in his inaugural speech:
"No people can ever renounce the struggle for the cause of God
without suffering ignominy and humiliation dispensed to them
by God in return".
To the frequently raised question : "How did the

predominance and dissemination of Islam come about?", we
leave the answer to such a distinguished writer as H. G. Wells
who says:
(Islam prevailed because everywhere it found politically

apathetic peoples, robbed, oppressed,bullied, uneducated, and
unorganised, and it found selfish and unsound governments
out of touch with any people at all. It was the broadest,
freshest, and cleanest political idea that had yet come into
actual activity in the world, and if offered better terms than any
other to the mass of mankind. The capitalistic and slaveholding
system of the Roman Empire, and the literature and culture and
social tradition of Europe, had altogether decayed and broken
down before Islam arose. 13 This may afford a further
convincing answer to those who still argue that Islam was
established by the sword.
13
Outline of History by H.G.Welles, page 13.
135
4. - Establishing a Unified Muslim Nation
It is fair to maintain that this was a major objective of the

Muhammadan Mission. Its constitution and activity aim at
creating a strong integrated nation of comprehensive unity.
Islam was aware of the factious spirit dividing and subdividing
the Arabs into prejudiced tribes and branches of tribe!. This
narrow prejudice took a new ominous direction at the
beginning of the Mission of the Prophet, peace be upon him,
when the disbelieving tribes of Quraish, in order to suppress
the Prophet's Call, allied themselves against Bani Hashim and
Banil Mottalib, the nearer relatives of the Prophet who
defended him, though mostly disbelievers, for kin ship's sake.
In that unholy alliance the other Quraish tribes severed all
connection with the latter, refusing mutual dealings of any sort,
in marriage or in trade. This social boycott remained in force
for three years, during which the Prophet and his folk were
confined in a defile of Mecca where they suffered severe
privation which they were only able to bear through faith in
God and the justice of their cause. God's relief came in time,
and the boycott was abandoned through the awakening of
certain Quraish leaders of the nobler sort to the enormity of
their action, and their finding that the moth had eaten up every
unholy word of the unholy scroll as the Prophet had foretold.
This strong tribal primitive attachment was sublimated by
the Islamic Call on the conversion of the tribes. being diverted
to the cause of God, the cause of Islam itself, the tribal bond
serving within the brotherhood of Islam much the same
function as the family bond served within the tribe. It had to be
so, giving another prominent illustration of Islam's recognition
and right application of natural instincts, otherwise it would
have meant the suppression now condemned by psychology.
Even a limited knowledge of the Muhammadan Call will

suffice to show that it was addressed to all mankind as may be
seen from the several Quranic texts quoted in this work, and
from the messages dispatched by the Prophet to contemporary
rulers and kings, notably those of the East Roman Empire,
Persia and Abyssinia. This universal character of Islam, is again
borne out by abstract reason, as the Mission is religious, and
God is for all. The Prophet whom God sends after Christ must
be sent to all humanity, especially if he be the last and
concluding Prophet, since his Mission has to be the final word
136
on religion. The Prophet declared the generality of his Mission
explicitly when he said
"I have been sent to the Red and the Black". Judaism was
restricted to Israel. As pointed out on a previous occasion, it
admitted racial distinction, Moses himself, upon whom be
peace, was not the last of prophets as the Torah admits. As
regards Christianity, it was a kind of individualistic religion
regulating the relation between man and God, and man and
man, as far as individual conduct is concerned. Christianity did
not concern itself with social systems, whether local and
special as in Judaism, or universally general as in Islam. This
generality is the main difference between Islam and other
creeds. Islam is for this world and for the next world, for the
individual and for the state, for governor and governed. It is
the religion of human nature, recognizing natural laws in
general, and those concerned with the nature of man in
particular. It is the only religion that claims the unique
distinction of identifying itself completely with the Nature of
Man, as is evident from the divine verse:
"So set thy purpose (O Muhammad) for religion as a man

by nature upright - the nature (framed) of Allah, in which he
has created man. There is no altering the laws of Allah's
creation. That is the right religion, but most men know not ".
(Surah xxx, verse 30).
That is why Islam is the final religion, the healer of social

ills. It healed the Arabs first from their faction spirit which
disintegrated them into quarrelling integrating these very
tribes and sub-tribes into a great united nation of this amazing
social miracle God the Almighty reminds the Arabs in the divine
words .
137
"And remember Allah's favour unto you : how ye were
enemies and He made friendship between your hearts that ye
became as brothers by His grace; and (how) ye were upon the
brink of an abyss of fire, and He did save you from it. Thus
Allah maketh clear His revelations unto you, that haply ye may
be guided". (Surah III, verse 103, in part).
It healed them from the greater social ill of racial, not

merely tribal, prejudice, which made the Arab of pre-Islamic
days look with contempt on non-Arabs, especially the blacks.
Not even in anger would the Prophet allow an Arab to reproach
a black with his origin, as Abu Tharr el Ghafari did to Bilal,
mentioning his black mother. Bilal complained to the Prophet,
and the Prophet sharply rebuked Abu Tharr :
"Did you reproach him with his mother? You savour of the
Days of Ignorance". Islam admitted no criterion of merit save
that of Piety, to the entire exclusion of colour or race. The
Prophet declared in more than one public speech:
"An Arab has no merit over a non-Arab, unless he be of

greater piety". Not only is racial distinction utterly discarded,
but mankind are divinely reminded that peoples and races are
meant to supplement one another in a general brotherhood in
God:
138
" O mankind! Lo! We have created you of male and female,
and have made you peoples and tribes that ye may know one
another. Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of Allah
he who feareth Him most". (Surah 49, verse 13 in part).
The Islamic Call made of Muslims one united nation in the

life-time of the Prophet, upon whom be Peace, who, as God's
Prophet and Apostle, was the head of the Islamic State
established at Madinah to guide humanity in state matters, just
as he guided humanity with his personal life in individual
matters. He was Judge, Statesman, and General, in a state in
which all males were ready at a short notice to act as soldiers,
and which had the Holy Quran for constitution, with the
Prophet himself as interpreter, surrounded by a galaxy of able
faithful disciples and companions from amongst whom he
chose his civil counsellors, delegates, rulers, and army
commanders a model Islamic Republic in fact.
On the Prophet's death, his elected Caliph and successor

as head of the state followed in his footsteps, preserved the
unity of the Islamic community by sending his victorious
armies against apostate tribes till they were reclaimed to the
Faith. Further operations extending North and East were
necessary to ! the faith against hostile border empires, and to
guarantee the free dissemination and preaching of Islam. The
Islamic wars, then, were declared in defence of the creed. Nor
were the Muslim armies fighting to coerce non-Arab peoples
into Islam, coercion curiously enough being legitimate only in
the case of Arab idolaters. On the contrary, they were fighting
coercion and tyranny in the neighbouring states to establish
private and public liberty of conscience. As a final proof of this
may be mentioned first the solemn Divine declaration.
"No compulsion in religion. Right is now manifestly distinct

from Wrong". (Surah II, verse 256! in part); and secondly, the
tolerance characteristic of Islam in the treatment of Christians
and Jews and even of magians in subjugated area.
139
Complete equality lies at the bases of union in the Muslim
community. Worship and other Islamic duties are equally
imposed on Muslims: males or females, without exception or
distinction. The females have here certain privileges due to
their constitution, that is all. This applies to fasting, prayers,
alms-giving and pilgrimage, the cardinal duties of Islam. Each
of the first three has its characteristic manifestation of unity
and equality within each Muslim community, and, being
common to all, within the commonwealth of Islam, as was
discussed in some detail on a previous occasion. But it is the
fourth cardinal duty, the wonderful institution of pilgrimage,
which displays in one great annual demonstration the unity and
equality.
Muslims throughout the Muslim world, irrespective of

colour, place, status or race. This again was dealt with before
in enough detail. It is sufficient to recall here the wonderful
effect pilgrimage has in regenerating and fortifying the faithful
pilgrim in faith and spirit, performing it as he does in pure
obedience to God, regardless of expense, fatigue or danger,
which enables him to be himself a regenerating nudes, if only
for a time, amongst those who come in contact with him on his
return home.
But it is the meeting of many thousands, hundreds of

thousands perhaps, of pilgrims from all directions of the
compass under the same conditions in the holy places every
year that is particularly significant in denoting and emphasizing
the brotherhood in the world of Islam beyond the possibility of
disruption or dissension.
If such mass performance does not testify and contribute

to unity, what else can do? At any rate the institution is there,
living and practised, affording Muslim leaders an annual
opportunity to meet and discuss how to make present day
Muslims worthy of Islam, and how to knit them into one union
as of old.
And now what are the essential features of a united
nation? First comes language. The Qur'an did establish the
predominance of Arabic in former days, and make it the
medium of expression in almost every country converted to
Islam. The Qur'an is still there and shall continue to be there
through God's own promise, but unfortunately Arabic has
ceased to be common language in the world of Islam. Why not
140
make of the Qur'an the means of reviving Arabic as the tongue
of every Muslim, to allow mutual intercourse of Muslims
wherever they meet ? It is wonderful that in countries like
Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, where Arabic is no
more the popular language, there is still great zeal for the faith,
more so even than in most Arabic-speaking countries. With
Arabic as the common language once more, both Arabic and
non-Arabic parts of the Muslim world will surely benefit one
another and confirm each other still more in the faith by mutual
exchange of zeal and learning, thus putting an end to the
insidious foreign influences affecting Muslims in their home.
Again, is not religion still the major integrating force,
especially when race and place are not there as common bonds
between all ? In building a vast united whole, Islam has
disregarded race altogether, putting in its place a far better
and nobler bond, that of the Islamic creed, God's own bond on
Earth. The Islamic Call preaches world wide brotherhood. The
unity of mankind in ideology and mode of living according to
God's laws is the aim of Islam. And it is the only system that
can do it naturally and well. It recognises all heavenly religions
as a first principle, Books, Prophets and all, known or unknown.
It abolishes such barriers to unity as colour, place or race. It
recognizes beforehand all proven truth, all natural laws, but
condemns their abuse as has been done by Western civilization.
It lays down the great principle that man is born free,
announcing him subject only to God, his Creator. That is the
first meaning of Islam - surrender to God the One, only. If the
ideal of making one Nation of mankind is to be stably realized,
it can be done only along these Islamic principles. It can be
realized only within Islam.
A word now for Muslims, in conclusion. The unprecedented

progress in Science, leading to the release of undreamt of
natural forces and limitless atomic energy which have been
barbarously abused by this twentieth century, a giant in
science and a pigmy in morals, as evidenced by wiping out
whole towns, population and all by air bombardment, atomic
and otherwise - this and the fear of the hydrogen atomic bomb
lest it would in the end annihilate man, civilization and all, have
led to the proposal of a cosmopolitan government, and the
abolishment of all national and racial barriers which stand in
the way of world-wide unity. But is it possible to put into effect
such proposal while the spiritual degeneration which led to the
141
failure of the less formidable League of Nations and the United
Nations Organization still prevails?
At any rate that is the trend of humanity under the

pressure of events. The entire world seeks general unity. In
one form or other as the only means of self-preservation. But
the necessary spiritual guidance which Western civilization
lacks, the Muslim world has. Why not then take it and be united
ourselves when the world seeks peace and safety in union but
cannot get it? Why does not the Islamic World awaken to itself
and the tremendous opportunity it has of uniting on Islamic
lines, and thus teach the world once more how to unite?
Muslims are bound to do so in self-preservation, if not as a
religious duty imposed by Islam. If they should realize Islamic
brotherhood by uniting and working for the distant-future, they
would regain the international prestige they have lost, recover
their usurped rights, and liberate whatever Muslim land or
people now in subjection.
But when will this Islamic Call be responded to by Muslims
again? When shall we again witness the Islamic unity which
dawned on the world early in the seventh Century and is still
the wonder of history?
Let us hope that it will be witnessed by contemporary

generations, through the Muslims awakening to their Islamic
duty. By doing it Muslims will turn into reality again one of the
major objectives of the great divine religion to which they have
the honour and fortune to belong. We hope that Islam through
a general genuine Muslim revival shall again come into its own.
142

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The Islamic Call

BY: Mohamed Moustafa Ata

THE ART OF PREACHING A CAUSE. 4

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET. 20

THE MANNER OF THE CALL

SLOGANS OF THE CALL

SAFEGUARDING THE CAll

CERTAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE CALL 103

THE ART OF PREACHING A CAUSE

Preaching a cause or a reform is an art with its own

Consider, for example, how factious differences between

Again, a caller for reform must be a man of insight,

"And my brother Haroun is more eloquent than me in

And we get the Divine answer:

"We will strengthen thine arm with thy brother and We

An able caller for reform then should be psychologically

Moreover, an able caller for reform should also be

The caller for reform must also be tolerant and patient,

This means that reform must be preceded by a long

But first and foremost, the caller for reform must be a

And now we are in a position to raise the question could

It was consequently an ideal achievement, as may be

Heathenism prevailed amongst the Arabs despite the

"Lo ! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name

"and should they be questioned who created heaven and

"Should they be questioned who created them, their

In another direct expression

Idolatry, as has been stated, was the predominant religion

Those jews or those converts to Judaism lived for

This mingling with the Jews broadened the religious

They heard much about the Prophet Moses and his

It may be that some Arabs used to discuss with the Jews

Christianity was second to heathenism amongst the

These Northern and Southern tribes which adopted

Another group which contributed to the spread of

Nor should we forget in this connexion the influence of Arab

"They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto

Prominent in this connexion, too, is the steadfast denial

"He begotteth not nor was begotten". (Verse 3, Surah Al

"They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of

The treatment which these and similar subjects received

It may be that some inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula

The monks who lived in those monasteries - while

Perhaps some of their Arab hearers were not consciously

Yet Christianity, like Judaism, did not triumph in Arabia

Monotheists, according to books of tradition, air those

The Call raised by Abraham had largely influenced the Arab

" Lo ! Abraham was a nation obedient to Allah, by nature

"And who forsaketh the religion of Abraham save him who

Historical literature frequently mentions four of those

The first Waraka, was relative of Khadiga, wife of the

Unable to withstand the atmosphere, and not being in

There is even some tradition that Quraish in the days of

But finally who of Quraish was most active in driving Zaid

Tradition mentions that it was Omar Ibn Al Khattab the very

Whatever may be said, of that possibility, Zaid's call was not

MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET

A call may be there, strong and sound in principle, but

It may be important in this connection to point out that

Had he lacked the necessary intellect, wisdom and