In this chapter we read of the horrific torture of Bilal and I continue reading from Muhammad
His Life Based on the earliest sources by Martin Lings, chapter 26, three questions
at every assembly of Quraish there was at least some discussion or what seemed to them
their greatest problem and they now decided to send to Yathrib to consult the Jewish rabbis
ask them about muhammad they said to their two envoys describe him to them and tell them what he
says for they are a people of the first scripture and they have knowledge of the prophets which we
have not the rabbi sent back the answer question him about three things wherein we will instruct
you if he tell you of them then is he a prophet sent by god but if he tell you not then is the man
a forger of falsehood ask him of some young men who left their folk in the days of old
how it was with them for theirs is a tale of wonder and ask him tidings of a far traveller
who reached the ends of the earth in the east and in the west and ask them of the spirit what it is
if he tell you of these things then follow him for he is a prophet when the envoys returned to mecca
with their news the leaders of quraish sent to the prophet and asked him the three questions he said
tomorrow i will tell you but he did not say if god will and when they came for the answers he had to
put them off and so it went on day by day until 15 nights had passed and still he had received
no revelation of any kind neither had gabriel cam come to him since they had questioned him
the people of mecca taunted him and he was distressed by what they said and greatly
saddened they had not received the help he had hoped for then gabriel brought him a revelation
reproaching him for his distress on account of what the people said and telling him the answers
to their three questions the long wait he had had to endure was explained in the words from
the crown and say not of anything verily i shall do that tomorrow except thou sayest if god will
but the delay of this revelation although painful to the prophet and his followers
was in reality an added strength his worst enemies refused to draw conclusions from it
but for those many of quresh who were in two minds it was a powerful corroboration of his claim
that the revelation came to him from heaven and that he had no part in it and no control
over it was it conceivable that if muhammad had invented the earlier revelations he could have
delayed so long before inventing this latest one especially when so much appeared to be at stake
the believers drew strength also as always from the revelation itself
when creche asked for the story of the youths who left their folk in the days of old a story
which no one in mecca had ever heard they did not know that it would have a bearing on the present
situation to their own discredit and to the credit of the believers it is often called the story of
the sleepers of ephesus for it was there in the middle of the third century a.d that some young
men had remained faithful to the worship of the one god when their people had fallen away
into idolatry and were persecuting them for not following them to escape from this persecution
they took refuge in a cave where they were miraculously put to sleep for over 300 years
in addition to what the jews already knew the quranic narrative told of details that no human
eye had seen such as how the sleepers looked as they slept their unwitnessed sleep in their cave
throughout the centuries and how their faithful dog lay with his front paws stretched over the
threshold as to the second question the great traveller is named dul carneg he of the two
horns the revelation mentions his journey to the far west and to the far east and then
are answering more than was asked it tells of a mysterious third journey to a place between two
mountains where the people begged him to make a barrier that would protect them from gog and magog
and other jinn who were devastating their land and god gave him power to confine the evil spirits
within a space from which they will not emerge until a divinely appointed day when according to
the prophet they will work terrible destruction over the face of the earth their breaking forth
would take place before the final hour but it would be one of the signs that the end was near
in answer to the third question the revelation affirmed the spirit's transcendence over the mind
of man which is incapable of grasping it quote from the quran they will question thee concerning
the spirit say the spirit proceedeth from the command of my lord and you have not been given
knowledge save only a little the jews had been very eager to hear what answers muhammad had given
to their questions and with regard to this last sentence about knowledge they asked him at their
first opportunity if it referred to his people or to them to both of you said the prophet whereupon
they protested that they had been given knowledge of all things for they had read the torah in which
was an exposition of everything as the quran itself affirmed the prophet answered that all is
but little in respect of god's own knowledge yet have ye therein enough for your needs if you would
but practice it it was then that there came the revelation about the words of god which express
merely a part of his knowledge quote if all the trees in the earth were pens and if the sea ecked
out by seven seas more were inc the words of god could not be written out unto their end
the leaders of quraish had not bound themselves to take the advice of the rabbis nor did the rabbis
themselves recognize the prophet despite his having answered their questions beyond all their
expectations but the answers served to convert others and the more his followers increased
the more his opponents felt that their community and their way of life was in danger and the more
resolutely they organized their persecution of all those converts who could be ill-treated with
impunity each clan dealt with its own muslims they would imprison them and torment them with beating
and hunger and thirst and they would stretch them out on the sun-baked earth of mecca when the heat
was at its height to make them renounce their religion the chief of juma umaya had an african
slave named bilal who was a firm believer umayya would take him out at noon into an open space
and would have him pinned to the ground with a large rock on his chest swearing that he would
stay like that until he died or until he renounced muhammad and worshipped alat and al-uzzar
while he endured this bilal would say one one and it happened that the aged waraka came past when
he was suffering this torment and repeating one one it is indeed one one o bilal said waraka then
turning to umayya he said i swear by god that if you kill him thus i will make his grave a shrine
not every man of quraish lived amongst his own clan and abu bakr had acquired a house amongst the
dwellings of the bani juma this meant that they had more opportunities of seeing the prophet than
most other clans for use to visit abu bakr every afternoon and it is said that part of a prophet's
message is always written on his face the face of abu bakr was also something of a book and
his presence in that quarter of mecca previously welcomed as an asset by the whole clan was now a
source of anxiety to its leaders it was through him that bilal had entered islam and when he saw
how they were torturing him he said to umayya has thou no fear of god to treat this poor man thus
it is thou who has corrupted him retorted umayyah so save him from what thou seest
i will said abu bakr i have a black youth who is tougher and sturdier than he a man of thy
religion him will i give thee for bilal agreed and abu bakr toot took bilal and set him free
he had already set free six others the first one being amir bin fuhrer a man of great spiritual
strength who had been one of the earliest converts amir was a shepherd and after he was freed
he took charge of abu bakr's flocks another of those whom he set free was a slave girl
belonging to umar she had entered islam and umar was beating her to make her renounce it
when abu bakr happened to pass by and asked him if he would sell her to him
umar agreed whereupon abu bakr bought her and set her free among the most
relentless of the persecutors was abu jahl if a convert had a powerful family to defend him
abuja would merely insult him and promised to ruin his reputation and to make him a laughing stock
if he were a merchant he would threaten to stop his trade by organizing a general boycott of his
goods so that he would be ruined if he were weak and unprotected and of his own clan he would have
him tortured and he had powerful allies in many other clans whom he could persuade to do the same
with their own weak and unprotected converts it was through him that his clansmen tortured three
of their poorer confederates yasir and samaya and their son amar they refused to renounce islam
and sumair died under the sufferings they had inflicted on her but some of the victims of the
moxem and of other clans could not endure what they were made to suffer and their persecutors
reduce them to a state when they could agree to anything it was said to them are not allah and
your gods as well as allah they would say yes and if a beetle crawled past them and they were asked
is not this beetle your god as well as allah they would say yes
simply in order to escape from the pain that they could not endure
these recantations were on the lips not in the heart but those who had made them could
no longer practice islam except in the greatest privacy and some of them had no privacy at all
there was however an example for them in the recently revealed story of the young men who had
left their people and taken refuge in god rather than submit to worshiping other gods
and when the prophet saw that although he escaped persecution himself
many of his followers did not he said to them if you went to the country of the abyssinians
you would find there a king under whom none suffereth wrong it is a land of sincerity in
religion until such time as god shall make for you a means of relief from what you now are suffering
so some of his companions set off for abyssinia and this was the first emigration in islam
and there ends the very sad story in some ways uh chapter 26 the next chapter interestingly is
entitled abyssinia so i'm looking forward to reading that with you till next time