MIGRATION TO TA'IF AND THE BITTER EXPERIENCE
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When some people of "Banu Haneefah" came to visit Makkah, the
Quraysh hired one of them to assassinate the Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace). The Prophet
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) became aware of this intrigue in time
and he migrated to Taif during the night. Taif was a thriving city in the south of Makkah. It
took two days on camel and a single day on mule to reach it from Makkah. As Taif
is situated 1,800 meters above sea-level there is plenty of water and rainfall there. In
those days majority of the rich had their parks and gardens in Taif. Even today, one feels entering a new world on reaching Taif.
The inhabitants of Taif were very rich and their actual profession was
"Ribbah" -- usury. They charged 100% interest on their loans and some of them
had an army of slaves that they employed for cultivation. They used to eat wheat-bread. Arabs major food is milk. A Bedouin
can instantly tell the age of a dromedary by just sipping her milk. He could also tell
which shrubs or plants it had been fed upon. The type of grass that grows at one place may
not be found at another. The Bedouins were very well informed about various species of
plants and herbs. The people of Taif were quite well off. They could
devote some of their time to gain knowledge and skills and such other pursuits. A famous
physician of northern part of Arabia lived in Taif. His name was Harith
bin Qaldah. A famous historian Ibn-e-Khalqan states that this physician received knowledge
from Persians. Those days Persian system of medicine was quite reputed and many renowned
physicians lived in Iran during that period. The un-matched astrologer Umro-Bin-Umayyah, also lived in Taif.
In Arabic, Taif means a wall or a boundary and it was the only city in
Arabia at that time that had a walled boundary around it. This wall was built by some
Persian builders. It is said that a citizen of Taif performed a great
service for the Persian king and in return he requested the king to send some masons to
build fortification around the city of "Waaj". Waaj
was the old name of Taif. Inside this city was a rocky hillock on which was placed "Laat"
(one of the three famous idols of Arabia). That hillock and the area around it was
considered sacred. Whosoever entered it, might he be a murderer or an adulterer, was taken
under protection or refuge of the idol. After entering Taif, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) reached the house of one
of his relatives, Abdiyah Layl. Abdiyah who knew about the Prophets (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) expulsion
from his tribe, refused to meet him. He even ordered his servants to pelt stones at him.
When the servants hurled stones at the Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) he escaped from there and sought refuge in an
orchard. After hearing about the Prophets
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) arrival, people of Taif
started looking for him in the streets of the city. He thus stayed in the orchard so they
would not find him. Two brothers who were natives of Makkah, owned that orchard. They did
not want to extend shelter to the Prophet (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace). On seeing him bleed, They became compassionate and
ordered their slave to offer a bunch of grapes to the Prophet
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The slave (a Christian), plucked a
bunch of grapes and offered it to the Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace). The Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, "In the name of Allah, Most
Merciful, Most beneficial" and started eating. The slave was surprised. He asked the
Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)
in astonishment, "O aggrieved person; Are you a Christian?" The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) answered
negatively. The slave said that the same words were said by the Christians before eating.
He then asked him, why had he uttered those words. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace) replied that he was Allahs Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and that
Allah is but One. The people had pelted him with stones for declaring his message. The
Christian (whose name was Uds) said that he also worshipped one God. He and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) developed
an amiable relationship. He told the Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) that the orchard was owned by two brothers,
"Atbah" and "Sheebah", who were the sons of Rabiyah. Both brothers
belonged to the tribe of Quraysh. He added that though his masters had ordered him to
present grapes to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace), yet they could not provide him refuge. The only way he could
help the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)
was to lead him out of Taif through safe routes. Uds kept his word and the Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) started his journey back to Makkah. When
the streets of Taif were left far behind, the Prophets (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) body was
aching. He was thirsty and hungry. The Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) prayed, "O Allah, unto thee I complain of
my weakness, of my helplessness and of my lowliness before men. O Most Merciful of the
Merciful, Thou art Lord of the weak". The Prophet (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace) reached a place called "lap of oases". It was night
and the world was sunk in silence. Here the Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) began reciting Holy Quranic verses with
great ardour. The verses were so effective that a group of "Jinns" residing near
that place accepted faith. The Holy Quran indicates this in its 46th
Surah - Al-Ahqaf verse 29; 29. |
By Jinns is meant those people who seem invisible at day or night. In
Arabia, it could often happen that two groups of people stayed at one place yet remained
out of sight from each other though only at a distance of a few meters. This could occur
due to the darkness of the night or the dust in the air or because of sloping sand dunes
which could distract the view. Such people could only be aware of each others
presence by the sounds of barking dogs, by the jingle of camel bells or by the light of
each others fires. That night, the Prophet (may Allah bless
him and grant him peace) was travelling alone and he was not within sight of a
party of people, yet they were motivated enough by his words and message to embrace Islam. In Arabic "Jinn" literally means something invisible, and
that is why the fetus in a mothers womb is called "Jinn" or
"Genin" which is the root of the term "Genetics". Jinn is also used in
another context: of dread or fear of the unknown. The Arabs used this word as an antonym
of amity or affection (Uns). Thus "Uns" or amity means recognition of each other, while
"Jinn" is for avoidance. Those living in cities are familiar to each other and
are thus related by "Uns", whereas those living in deserts are known as
"Jinns". It is important to mention here that the above explanations are not
against the Holy Quranic verses that tell us that "Jinn" is a creation, created
from fire or "Naar". These Jinns are a separate creation of Allah that the Holy
Quran refers to in terms that could be understood by the Bedouin. Todays
advanced knowledge also confirms that several of the things on this earth have evolved
from fire and this earth itself is a fire-ball that took its present shape in four hundred
and fifty thousand million years. After sometime the Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) reached Makkah. Ten years ago, he had been
living a peaceful life in that city. He had clean clothes, ample food and drinking water.
In a period of ten years of Prophethood, he had become a person injured, hungry and
aggrieved. Here a question arises why did the Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace) return to Makkah when he knew the Quraysh
would not accept his message? The answer is that it was impossible to survive without a
tribe, unless one was taken in or accorded protection by another tribe. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) migrated to
Taif by the Decree of Allah, to assess the possibility of migrating with
Muslims there. When he went there he found that Taif could not offer
shelter to the Muslims hence he returned to Makkah to find another way out for the
Muslims. Since he vitally needed tribal support, he sent a person to Akhnas bin
Shareeq - the chieftain of the tribe Zahra and asked to be taken under protection of the
tribe. Akhnas replied that though he wished to be helpful, he was handicapped by his bond
with the Quraysh according to which he could not extend help to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The Prophet (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace) sent the next message to "Suhail bin Umro", who
belonged to the Quraysh tribe he also refused. The Prophet
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was still staying in the wilderness
outside Makkah. It was the month of Rajab, and various tribes had come for pilgrimage.
Whenever the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him
peace) contacted various chieftains, he told them to listen to his Message
carefully. He ensured them that they would subdue super powers of the world before them if
they only acted upon Allahs Message. None of them paid any heed to the Message. Some
of them even took him to be insane. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and
grant him peace) received negative responses from fifteen tribes, still he
decided to contact the sixteenth, which had come there with its five members. The
Chieftain of this tribe did not jeer at the Prophet (may
Allah bless him and grant him peace), but listened carefully to him and when
the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)
recited the Holy Quranic verses, his condition changed. He called other tribesmen who also
listened carefully. Like their chieftain they were immediately impressed and promised to
convert others to Islam. Some days later the chieftain of the "Noafel" tribe (one of
the ten Qurayshites tribes) offered the protection of his tribe to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and thus
the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)
was able to enter Makkah again. He (may Allah bless him and grant him
peace) married a divorcee named "Sawdah" who had returned from
Abyssinia. Sawdah was a Muslim. She had migrated to Abyssinia. Her husband and his friend
Ubaidullah bin Habash had revoked Islam for Christianity. Sawdah soon sensed that if she
stayed longer, she would be pressed by her husband to convert to Christianity too. She
therefore sought divorce and returned to Makkah. Here she entered in matrimony with the
Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).
She was neither young nor pretty. The Prophet (may Allah
bless him and grant him peace) married her only to provide guardianship to the
children of KhadijahR.A. Sometime after this marriage,
Abu BakrR.A requested the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) to marry his daughter
"AishahR.A". The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said that
she was too young, as she was just fifteen. Abu BakrR.A
requested that the relation be accepted. The marriage might take place later. |