45- THE PROPHET’S VISION FULFILLED
In the seventh year after the Hijra, in February 629 to be exact, the Prophetsa was due to go to Mecca for the circuit of the Ka‘ba. This had been agreed to by the Meccan leaders. When the time came for the Prophetsa to depart, he collected two thousand followers and set out in the direction of Mecca. When he reached Marrazzuhran, a halting place near Mecca, he ordered his followers to shed their armours. These were collected in one place. In strict conformity with the terms of the agreement signed at Hudaibiya, the Prophetsa and his followers entered the Sacred Enclosure, wearing only sheathed swords; Returning to Mecca after seven years’ externment, it was no ordinary thing for two thousand persons to enter Mecca. They remembered the tortures to which they had been subjected during their days at Mecca. At the same time, they saw how gracious God had been to them in letting them come back and make a circuit of the Ka‘ba in peace. Their anger was only equal to their joy. The people of Mecca had come out of their houses and perched themselves on the hill-tops to see the Muslims. The Muslims were full of zeal and enthusiasm and pride. They wanted to tell the Meccans that the promises which God had made to them had all come true. ‘Abdullah bin Rawahara started singing songs of war, but the Prophetsa stopped him saying, “No war songs. Only say, There is none to be worshipped except the One God. It is God Who helped the Prophetsa and raised the believers from degradation to dignity and Who drove off the enemy” (Halbiyya, Vol. 3, p. 73).
After circuiting the Ka‘ba and running between the hills of Safa and Marwa, the Prophetsa and his Companions stopped in Mecca for three days. ‘Abbasra had a widowed sister-in-law, Maimunara, and he proposed that the Prophetsa should marry her. The Prophetsa agreed. On the fourth day the Meccans demanded the withdrawal of the Muslims. The Prophetsa ordered the withdrawal and asked his followers to start back for Medina. So religiously did he carry out the agreement and so careful was he to respect Meccan sentiments that he left his newly-wed wife behind in Mecca. He arranged that she should join him with the part of the caravan carrying the personal effects of the pilgrims. The Prophetsa mounted his camel and was soon out of the limits of the sacred precincts. For the night the Prophetsa camped at a place called Sarif, and there in his tent Maimunara joined him.
We might have omitted this insignificant detail from a short account of the Life of the Prophetsa, but the incident has one important interest, and it is this. The Prophetsa has been attacked by European writers because he had several wives. They think a plurality of wives is evidence of personal laxity and love of pleasure. This impression of the Prophet’ssa marriages, however, is belied by the devotion and self-consuming love which the Prophet’ssa wives had for him. Their devotion and love proved that the Prophet’ssa married life was pure, unselfish and spiritual. It was so singular in this respect that no man can be said to have treated his one wife so well as the Prophetsa treated his many. If the Prophet’ssa married life had been motivated by pleasure, it would most certainly have resulted in making his wives indifferent and even antagonistic to him. But the facts are quite otherwise. All the Prophet’ssa wives were devoted to him, and their devotion was due to his unselfish and high-minded example. To his unselfish example they reacted by unsparing devotion. This is proved by many incidents recorded in history. One relates to Maimunara herself. She met the Prophetsa for the first time in a tent in the desert. If their marital relations had been coarse, if the Prophetsa had preferred some wives to others because of their physical charms, Maimunara would not have cherished her first meeting with the Prophetsa as a great memory. If her marriage with the Prophetsa had been associated with unpleasant or indifferent memories, she would have forgotten everything about it. Maimunara lived long after the Prophet’ssa death. She died full of years but could not forget what her marriage with the Prophetsa had meant for her. On the eve of her death at eighty, when the delights of the flesh are forgotten, when things only of lasting value and virtue move the heart, she asked to be buried at one day’s journey from Mecca, at the very spot where the Prophetsa had camped on his return to Medina, and where after his marriage she had first met him. The world knows of many stories of love both real and imaginary, but not of many which are more moving than this.
Soon after this historic circuit of the Ka‘ba, two renowned generals of the enemy joined Islam. They proved renowned generals of Islam. One was Khalid bin Walidra whose genius and courage shook the Roman Empire to its foundations and under whose generalship country after country was added by Muslims to their Empire. The other was ‘Amr bin al-‘Asra, the conqueror of Egypt.
(Source: LIFE OF MUHAMMAD (pbuh))
BY HADRAT MIRZA BASHIRUDDIN MAHMUD AHMAD
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