He Replied,
"Gardens 'neath Which The Streams Flow,"-That Is To Say, Paradise.
Then, in spite of the advice of Al-Abbas, Mohammed's uncle, who was
loud in his denunciations, they bade
The Preacher stretch out his hand,
and upon it swore the oath known as the "Great Fealty of the Steep."
After comforting them with an Ayat, or Koranic verse, which promised
heaven, the Apostle divided his followers into twelve bodies; and
placing a chief at the head of each,[FN#23] dismissed them to their
homes. He rejected the offer made by one of the party-namely, to slay
all the idolaters present at the pilgrimage-saying that Allah had
favoured him with no such order. For the same reason he refused their
invitation to visit Al-Madinah, which was the principal object of their
mission; and he then took an affectionate leave of them.
[p.354]Two months and a half after the events above detailed, Mohammed
received the inspired tidings that Al-Madinah of the Hijaz was his
predestined asylum. In anticipation of the order, for as yet the time
had not been revealed, he sent forward his friends, among whom were
Omar, Talhah, and Hamzah, retaining with him Abu Bakr[FN#24] and Ali.
The particulars of the Flight, that eventful accident to Al-Islam, are
too well known to require mention here; besides which they belong
rather to the category of general than of Madinite history.
Mohammed was escorted into Al-Madinah by one Buraydat al-Aslami and
eighty men of the same tribe, who had been offered by the Kuraysh a
hundred camels for the capture of the fugitives. But Buraydat, after
listening to their terms, accidentally entered into conversation with
Mohammed; and no sooner did he hear the name of his interlocutor, than
he professed the faith of Al-Islam. He then prepared for the Apostle a
standard by attaching his turband to a spear, and anxiously inquired
what house was to be honoured by the presence of Allah's chosen
servant. "Whichever," replied Mohammed, "this she-camel[FN#25] is
ordered to show me." At the last
[p.355]halting-place, he accidentally met some of his disciples
returning from a trading voyage to Syria; they dressed him and his
companion Abu Bakr in white clothing which, it is said, caused the
people of Kuba to pay a mistaken reverence to the latter. The Moslems
of Al-Madinah were in the habit of repairing every morning to the
heights near the city, looking out for the Apostle; and, when the sun
waxed hot, they returned home. One day, about noon, a Jew, who
discovered the retinue from afar, suddenly warned the nearest party of
Ansar, or Auxiliaries of Al-Madinah, that the fugitive was come. They
snatched up their arms and hurried from their houses to meet him.
Mohammed's she-camel advanced to the centre of the then flourishing
town of Kuba. There she suddenly knelt upon a place which is now
consecrated ground; at that time it was an open space, belonging, they
say, to Abu Ayyub the Ansari, who had a house there near the abodes of
the Benu Amr bin Auf. This event happened on the first day of the week,
the twelfth of the month Rabia al-Awwal[FN#26] (June 28, A.D. 622), in
the first year of the Flight: for which reason Monday, which also
witnessed the birth, the mission, and the death of the Prophet, is an
auspicious day to Al-Islam.
After halting two days in the house of Kulsum bin Hadmah at Kuba, and
there laying the foundation of the
[p.356]first Mosque upon the lines where his she-camel trod, the
Apostle was joined by Ali, who had remained at Meccah, for the purpose
of returning certain trusts and deposits committed to Mohammed's
charge. He waited three days longer; on Friday morning (the 16th Rabia
al-Awwal, A.H. 1,=2nd July, A.D. 622), about sunrise he mounted
Al-Kaswa, and, accompanied by a throng of armed Ansar on foot and on
horseback, he took the way to the city. At the hour of public
prayer,[FN#27] he halted in the Wady or valley near Kuba, upon the spot
where the Masjid al-Jum'ah now stands, performed his devotions, and
preached an eloquent sermon. He then remounted. Numbers pressed forward
to offer him hospitality; he blessed them, and bade them stand out of
the way, declaring that Al-Kaswa would halt of her own accord at the
predestined spot. He then advanced to where the Apostle's pulpit now
stands. There the she-camel knelt, and the rider exclaimed, as one
inspired, "This is our place, if Almighty Allah please!"
Descending from Al-Kaswa, he recited, "O Lord, cause me to alight a
good Alighting, and Thou art the Best of those who cause to alight!"
Presently the camel rose unaided, advanced a few steps, and then,
according to some, returning, sat down upon her former seat; according
to others, she knelt at the door of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, whose abode in
those days was the nearest to the halting-place. The descendant of the
Jewish High Priest in the time of the Tobbas, with the Apostle's
permission, took the baggage off the camel, and carried it into his
house. Then ensued great rejoicings. The Abyssinians came and played
with their spears. The
[p.357]maidens of the Benu Najjar tribe sang and beat their
kettle-drums. And all the wives of the Ansar celebrated with shrill
cries of joy the auspicious event; whilst the males, young and old,
freemen and slaves, shouted with effusion, "Allah's Messenger is come!
Allah's Messenger is here!"
Mohammed caused Abu Ayyub and his wife to remove into the upper story,
contenting himself with the humbler lower rooms. This was done for the
greater convenience of receiving visitors without troubling the family;
but the master of the house was thereby rendered uncomfortable in mind.
His various remarks about the Apostle's diet and domestic habits,
especially his avoiding leeks, onions, and garlic,[FN#28] are gravely
chronicled by Moslem authors.
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