Soon the angel appeared to him a second time, and gave him an assurance that he was not possessed by demons but called of God to spread the revelations of heaven. Mohammed now believed and announced that Allah, the lord of heaven and earth, had chosen him as his ambassador to inform men of his holy will; he now believed and taught that the Lord spake by him, and that his utterances were inspirations and revelations from the only and most high God, and being written down separately and eventually put together in the sacred book Koran,c they were so regarded by the faithful and accepted with reverence. Thus began Mohammed’s prophetic career in the year 610 or 612 of our era. Like the seers of old, like the prophets in Israel, he took the enthusiasm which dwelt in him as a “charge from the Lord,” and the words which issued from his mouth as the outpourings of the divine spirit.
Convinced of the truth of his prophetic mission, Mohammed now entered on his office of teacher. But with all his devotion to the holy cause he went to work with great caution. He first turned to his kinsmen that he might be recognised by them as the messenger of God. His wife Khadija, his daughters, his cousin Ali, the ten-year-old son of Abu Talib, his friend Abu Bekr, a well-to-do merchant of upright character and clear discernment, and his former slave Zaid to whom he had given his liberty were his first converts. In like manner he avoided anything which might have irritated his compatriots.
“He sought to bring his teaching into harmony with their prejudices and to lead them gradually to a better knowledge. He did not venture to attack the sanctity of the Kaaba, joined in the ceremonies of the pilgrim festival, and sanctioned the adoration of the Black Stone.”
Thus three years went by, during which the number of Mohammed’s adherents did not exceed forty, for the most part young men, foreigners or slaves. It was not till the fourth year that in accordance with another vision he attempted to appear publicly in the character of a prophet. He first addressed himself to the men of his own race, the Koreish; and in the name of the one God who had sent him as his apostle, threatened them with the fire of hell if they did not renounce their unbelief.
“One day ye shall die and rise again; then must ye give account of your deeds and shall be rewarded for your virtue in paradise and punished for your vices in hell.”
But far from winning a hearing he reaped mockery and scorn. Already in the first assembly his uncle Abu Lahab had lifted a stone against him; and although the rest of his kinsmen protected him from ill-treatment, the hatred and opposition of the Koreish increased with each new oration. The more clearly they perceived that Mohammed’s claims as a prophet might endanger their priestly position and their lucrative privileges as guardians of the holy temple, the more fiercely did their anger burn, and the more vehement became their threats and abuse. His chief opponents were the Koreish of the line of the Abd Shams, under the leadership of Abu Sufyan and Abu Hakam, called by Mohammed, Abu Jahl (the father of folly), two bitter enemies of the new prophet. It was only to the protection of his nearest relatives that Mohammed owed his rescue from the violence of his enemies and persecutors. On the other hand the position of his adherents of humble rank, who had no such powerful protectors to stand by them, especially of the slaves and freedmen, grew daily more insecure; so that in order that they might escape torture and scourging the prophet allowed some of his followers to deny him outwardly “if only the heart remained steadfast in the faith,” and on his advice a number of believing men and women, amongst them his daughter Rokayyah and her husband Othman, took ship for Abyssinia, where the king, a Nestorian Christian, assured them a refuge. In vain did the Koreish through Amru and another ambassador, offer the prince rich gifts for the delivery of the refugees; the Abyssinian kept his hands pure of any injury to those who had sought his protection. He may have perceived that the persecuted stood nearer to the true faith than the idol worshippers of the Kaaba.
MOHAMMED AN OUTLAW
[612-620 A.D.]
The invective and ill-treatment which Mohammed had to suffer increased the number of his followers, whilst indignation at the abuse and insults to which he was daily exposed without any fault of his own led certain brave men of chivalrous disposition to take his part. Amongst them were Mohammed’s uncle Hamza, “the lion of God,” and Jahl’s nephew Omar. Having been sent by his relatives to kill the prophet for a great reward, on the way to the latter’s dwelling Omar was suddenly and miraculously converted by hearing his sister Fatima read a passage of the Koran, and from being a persecutor he became an earnest believer. Omar, then twenty-six years old, was a man of gigantic stature, of fabulous strength, and great courage. His wild aspect terrified the boldest, and his staff struck more fear into the beholder than would have been inspired by another man’s sword.
But the more devotees “Islam” i.e., “submission” (to the will of God) acquired, the more eagerly did its enemies seek to stifle the work in the blood of its author. New persecutions increased the number of the emigrants; only Mohammed and his most faithful worshippers were protected by Abu Talib from the rage of the sons of Shams and Naufal. He hid them in a strong castle without the city, in the depths of an impassable ravine, and when their powerful enemies laid a ban on all the followers of the prophet and the whole race of Hashim and solemnly declared in a roll which was hung up in the interior of the Kaaba that until he was given up they would treat his protectors as enemies, the faithful uncle betook himself to the rocky fortress with many of his kinsmen. For three years they lived in the barren desert, cut off from all communication with the city, whither they could venture only in the sacred months, and often they were in want of the most necessary means of existence. Finally the ban, which had excited the greatest discontent in Mecca, and of which even the sons of Shams were beginning to grow weary, was removed. The parchment roll disappeared from the Kaaba, according to the legend, by a miracle. Mohammed now returned to Mecca (circa 620); but soon the death of his paternal friend and protector, Abu Talib, who was followed to the grave a few days later by his faithful wife Khadija, exposed him to fresh dangers. Abu Talib died in the religion of his fathers; he had always honoured his nephew as an upright and god-fearing man, but he had never believed in his prophetic mission. Mohammed sincerely mourned them both.
[620-622 A.D.]
“Never was there a better wife than Khadija,” he said once to the youthful and beautiful Aisha; “she believed in me when men despised me; she relieved my wants when I was poor and despised by the world.” Nevertheless he soon consoled himself for her loss by his marriage to Sauda and his betrothal to Aisha, the seven-year old daughter of Abu Bekr.
While the prophet was leading a melancholy existence under scorn and ignominy, sometimes in Mecca, sometimes in the society of a few friends in Taif, a place lying in a fruitful region on the borders of the hill country, hiding himself with difficulty from the snares and persecutions of his enemies, his soul felt itself comforted and exalted by new visions. He saw in the spirit how he was borne on a winged horse to the temple at Jerusalem and thence to the seventh heaven to the presence of God, where the patriarchs, the earlier prophets, and the hosts of angels yielded him precedence, and the Lord himself proclaimed him as the crown and aim of creation. He needed this self-confidence, this firm belief in his high message, to keep him from wavering and succumbing to the storms and dangers which gathered over his head.